Edit: Eval results are in. I’ll write a post about it shortly, but the bottom line is, they say he doesn’t qualify. People have been kind enough to give me helpful thoughts in the comments. If you have something to add, please do!
Buki ages out of the early intervention program in about six months, so in February the school system evaluated him to start the process for his transition into the school system if he still needs services. Tomorrow we discuss the results with them.
I am so nervous. We’ve waited a whole month to get these results, and as I said before, I was kind of expecting that they would say everything is fine and he doesn’t qualify for services. But our therapist says she thinks he still needs services.
So we’ve never been to this kind of meeting before. I don’t know what to expect at all. Will they tell us if he has autism or not? Will we be overwhelmed with what they say? I vascilate between hoping they give us some concrete information to being offended that they think they can pidgeon-hole my son just by meeting with him for two hours.
But mostly I’m just nervous. Last summer, when Buki turned two, I obsessively read everything I could on the Internet about autism. I cried for days, thinking I caused it or did something wrong to make it happen. But I couldn’t fully process my feelings because we’re in limbo not knowing for sure what is going on with him.
Tomorrow we’ll learn something. I’m not sure what it will be, but I hope it will be helpful.
Who at the SD did the evaluation? What were their specific results, other than that he doesn’t qualify? Did they give him a diagnosis? Are they offering you anything?
Ok. They had a psychologist, speech therapist, and OT at the eval, I believe. Specifically, they found that his cognition, communication and gross motor skills were average or low average. His fine motor and adaptive skills were below normal, 1.8 standard deviation below the norm. To qualify, he needs to be 2 standard deviations below the norm. No diagnosis. They didn’t even consider that autism could be a possibility. To strangers he appears completely normal and he has HUNDREDS of words at his disposal – I don’t even know how many. He also knows his colors, numbers, letters, and shapes, so he looks smart. But at home he walks around quoting the movie Elf and Yogi’s First Christmas. Yes, obsessed with Christmas. :) Anyway, he does a lot of echolalia. He won’t (can’t?) answer simple questions – it’s like I’m not even there talking to him. He doesn’t react to pain. He has very limited play skills. He’s constantly jumping on things or slamming into things. I have no idea how their tests didn’t catch something.
Oh, and the testing writeup keeps mentioning, “he began refusing to answer questions” “He refused to participate” “He refused to imitate words” “He began refusing to complete tasks” My question is, if he wouldn’t do the things on the test, how did they evaluate? And maybe his refusal was because he couldn’t do the tasks. It just seems like they missed the obvious.
At this point, we really don’t have any idea if he’s got autism, SPD, ADHD, or just going through a phase that he will eventually grow out of. But until we know, I really want him to get all the help he needs. And it’s frustrating me that they don’t think he needs it. Our Early Intervention coordinator and the speech therapist both mentioned something to us about mediation and dispute resolution, so I’m wondering if they’re hinting that we should fight their eval. Either way, the mama bear in me is starting to emerge (and I’m a quiet, shy person around people I don’t know.) and I’m ready to take action.
Anyway, sorry such a long comment. I could have made a whole new post out of this!! Thanks for listening.
The school district is always going to say that a child doesn’t qualify for services because they’re financially responsible for providing them and if the kid is borderline enough they will ALWAYS say that he doesn’t need an IEP.
That doesn’t mean they’re right, though. You need to have him evaluated by a developmental pediatrician; an actual MD and not a school psychologist. Yes, you should fight. I’m not sure what the actual process should be since there was never any question with our diagnosis, but you can reject their findings and ask for a third party eval that they will pay for.
Have you read wrightslaw.com or .org? It’s the bible of SPED law and can probably give you some advice on the law and what to do next.
YES!!! Wrightslaw.org. Awesome website. Def go to a conference if there is one near you, too. The most important thing is to know the law. The school will always try to get away with doing the least amount of things possible. If they continue to do so, get an advocate. We have one to help us with the school, too. Read up on state laws and federal laws. Really, we are the ones who have to do all the legwork and we are the ones that care about our kids. No matter how nice the people at school act, keep in mind our children are just #’s to them…they don’t care like we do. It’s our responsibility to know our kid’s rights and fight for them. Good luck!!! We have been there.
We are in the midst of the same process for my son. He had his Motor testing 2 weeks ago, then speech and psychologist next week. Get the results 2 weeks later. So far, I’ve been pretty unimpressed with those doing the evals- I was told “well, if he touches, it counts as an attempt.” He has sensory issues, but apparently the school doesn’t consider or address sensory issues, unless it interferes with his learning. Yeahhhhh, anyone who knows my son knows he can’t sit still or stay focused on anything for more than a few seconds. He’s a fidgeter. Put something in front of him, he’s going to touch it. He is an EXTREME sensory seeker. I’m starting to dread this whole process and fear the potential outcome of their evaluation. I’ll have to look into that link someone mentioned above. My son DOES have a developmental pediatrician diagnosis, yet the schools won’t accept his evaluation, they insist on doing their own eval using “their” criteria. UGH! I’m so not looking forward to this battle.
Just know you’re not alone in the wondering, waiting, and fighting.
Jillsmo and Jen are right. Get an independent evaluation from a developmental pediatrician. You also might start looking for an advocate in your area – some will do it for free or very low cost.
We didn’t get an autism diagnosis from the regional center even though it was pretty clear, but once we got our report from the dr. we got what we needed. Fortunately (depending on how you look at it) we qualified easily for SD services.
Don’t give up. You might have an easier time getting a 504 plan rather than an IEP at first. Only certain classifications of disability are eligible for an IEP, and students who do not meet those classifications but still require some assistance to be able to participate fully in school would be candidates for a 504 plan.
I’m not an expert on that, but an advocate would be. Good luck.