Kate Re: Some questions about school services

[Guest guest]

Wow Kate, this is helpful! What exactly is a service coordinator? We are in

Chicago, and I know there are several city-wide coordinators: special services,

autism services, home services, homeschool services, etc. Are we talking about

this level? Or would each school have a person that does this?

Even though we moved within the city, I really do feel lost. The school that

did the evals was really helpful and walked me through everything we needed. The

guidance counselor there even gave me her home phone # in case we needed help in

the transition.

We have been homeschooling, so I don't really have the feel of who I should be

talking to at the school level. The guidance counselor at the eval school just

pointed me in the right direction on everything. At the new school, I don't get

the idea like they really know what to do with us, beyond providing us with the

option of bringing him in once a week, or on an as-needed basis. The guidance

counselor did not really give an answer to my inquiry about the testing. She

just said, " Well, once we have him in our clutches we can figure out what to

do. " Right. I don't think they get the picture of what we are doing. I'm not

interested in piddling around, but for all they know, we could have done nothing

with him in the past 10 months, and testing would be a waste from their

perspective.

We did meet with the speech pathologist last week, and she met my son, and she

did give us two helpful ideas (which we have not been able to implement yet).

Some things she was very helpful and pleasant about, but some things met with

resistance. Maybe it is because my questions betray that I don't really know

how the " system " works, and I'm out in left field, since we have been

homeschooling and not had regular dealings with them.

When we met, she started doing certain things to assess him, but a little way

in, she was doing things below his level, not incompetently, just feeling him

out, and I'm just like, " Since we only have an hour, why don't I tell you

exactly what we've been doing, and what he can and can't do? " I work with him

everyday. I spent all summer reading and researching how to work with his

issues (thanks to the fact that I have access to CARLI, consortium of research

libraries in IL). I just don't have a baseline (I've been using my 3yo as a

baseline for my 5yo, since my 6yo is light years ahead), assessment tools, and a

few odd things that I don't know what to do about. I know my words sound

frustrated, I just don't know who the right people to communicate these things

to are, and in such a way that makes sense to them.

I don't know who the IFSP team would be at the new school. I had called back in

August to try and make sure all the ducks were in order, but when the guidance

counselor never returned my calls, I figured I was wasting my time. So when I

called again in Jan, they located his file and assessments, and the pathologist

said after meeting, " I can tell he's made a lot of progress. " I already knew

that!

I thought about asking her if, on that particular resource we could do a

collateral exchange, and I can photocopy what I need on my own dime, and skip

the paperwork. It is a linguisystems book (those are expensive!) I have the

first one in the sequence, and she has the second one. I lend her the first one,

while I borrow the second one for a week. We will cross that bridge a little

later.

I know I'm rambling Kate, but I am so thankful just for the comments you've

made.

>

>

> From: <ladle24@...>

> Subject: ( ) Some questions about school services

>

> Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 9:18 PM

>

>

> Hi,

>

> I have some questions about school services which I don't know if anyone on

here has any experiences with. I just dread spending hours on the phone being

transferred to various people who don't know the answer.

>

> We homeschool our 5yo aspie, b/c there wasn't really an ideal classroom fit

with the school for him. His reading, math and general knowledge are several

grades ahead, but everything else is backwards...we are pretty sure he is

hyperlexic.

>

> As homeschoolers, he is eligible for speech through proportionate share, and

has an IFSP (which may still be blank, due to transferring between school after

the eval but before the IFSP was complete...I need to get a copy of it).

>

> 1. I know that IEP meetings can be convened as necessary, but what about in

the case of an IFSP?

>

> 2. I know that re-evals are every 3 years, but that parents or teachers can

request a re-eval (in writing?) sooner than that.  I have been working almost

exclusively and intensively with him on speech and language development (since I

see that as the key to solving most other areas of challenge with him), more

than the school could ever put into him.  He has made amazing progress (compared

to himself) this year.  We are considering moving overseas, and, at the end of

the school year, I want to find out if this intensive work has helped bring him

more mainline, to close the gap between him and average, so to speak, so I can

have an idea of what to expect if we move overseas and away from support

services. When he was evaluated a year ago, his WPPSI verbal score, and the

speech language scores were in the borderline range, closely correlated.  I

would like them to retest him in these areas, but when I asked the guidance

counselor about it, she gave a

> less-than-enthused response. " You mean you want a full re-eval? "   I did not

ask for a full reeval, but those two tests.  I don't need to hear from the

nurse, the social worker, or the autism specialist, just the speech pathologist

and the psychologist.  If I request those, do they have to do them? For now,

they just seem to be trying to shove me off.  My guess is, that I know these

cost money, and that if we are homeschooling, the school is not getting any

money for our son, so they don't want to do these.

>

> 3. It seems like the speech pathologists buy a lot of their stuff with their

own money? Is that true?  I know that school districts, if they have homeschool

families who want to use their curriculum, have to provide the curriculum.  But

what about when it comes to special services?  If the speech pathologist has a

book (of reproducible activities) that I would like to use with my son, doesn't

she/shouldn't she let me photocopy them (on my own dime no less!) so that I

don't have to buy the book AND photocopy them myself?  She made it sound like it

had to be in the IFSP, which brings me back to question #1.  Can we just change

it when necessary?

>

> 4.  Even though we could bring him to see the speech pathologist for 1 hour

per week, we don't do that.  It is not an effective use of our time, and she is

not intimately aware of my son's issues like I am.  That said, I would like a

few simple helpful things: a milestone check sheet or something in the

speech/language realm so that I can know how far off track my son is, and to

help me to choose where to focus my energies with him, since I spend several

hours per week working on these things with him (after having done my own

research).  The speech pathologist also gave some helpful recommendations of

activities to do with him, and I asked her if there were any books she could

recommend for me to use to accomplish those activities.  I just have this

sinking feeling that she won't take the time to find those recommendations for

me.  I don't think I am asking for too much!!!  I could bring him in for an hour

every week, but I don't.  We have

> visited with her ONCE this whole school year. I just want a list and a few

recommendations so I can take care of this myself, but I also don't want to rub

things the wrong way and be a disagreeable parent. If a month goes by, and she

has nothing for me, am I back to question #1, trying to get this added to the

IFSP?

>

>

> Thanks so much!

>

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