I am going through a similar situation with my sons school and the advice that Tzoya and Wray have offered has been invaluable. Good luck and keep us posted.I suggested in an earlier post today that anyone who needs to learn to advocate for their child get a copy of From Emotions to Advocacy at www.wrightslaw.com It's and worth much more than that.Thank you for your helpful advice. Your suggestions of getting additional help added to her IEP is sound advice.
Can anyone answer why the school wants to fight us every step of the way? I can think of the financial reasons...but can someone explain the reasons why the school is denying services. I'm not an expert but can someone explain the reasons why services can be denied other than we feel she isn't educationally disabled?
Skipshu
I absolutely agree with tzoya and am reading the book now!
This is what I would also do. Get one of the specialists that your child has seen in the past 6 months to one year to send an official typed letter on their letterhead stating that your child has _____________(ie. Autism) and she requires_____________. Have the physician state that he agrees with you that the school should officially change the diagnosis to ______________ and that in spite of appearances, this child requires extensive aggressive supports from the school to allow a FAPE. A FAPE, Free and Appropriate Public Education, is required BY LAW.
Even if a doctor won't commit to a diagnosis, then you commit to one. Get the "From Emotions to Advocacy" book and write your own letter including the above info and the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and request an IEP meeting ASAP. If possible, have a child advocate attend with you. Don't forget to let the school know ahead of time, preferably in writing. Many areas will have a child advocate or a team that reviews IEPs that will work for free. There are also Parent Support Organizations which are basically groups of parents helping parents.
Hope I helped some. Good luck!
YOu are utterly right that a medical diagnosis does not guarantee services. A classification under the disability definitions of IDEA does guarantee an IEP, though (classification is only possible if there is an educational need), and getting classified under Autism (this includes the medical dx's of Autism, PDD-NOS and Asperger Syndrome) is far easier when you can present the IEP COmmittee with a diagnosis (although a medical diagnosis is not legally necessary -- only being able to qualify under the IDEA definition is). No particular service or therapy is guaranteed. Only educationally necessary ones. Notice, I said "educationally." That is NOT the same as academic. Many higher functioning kids do adequately academically, but no one with autism in any form does adequately in social skills or communication (even with no speech delay). That is the DEFINITION of an autism spectrum disorder. The schools are REQUIRED to address social development (they do with NT kids all the time....school is where ALL of us are socialized) and other developmental issues. And don't let them tell you that something is "medical." If you look "medical services" up in IDEA, you'll find that they are defined as services only a DOCTOR can deliver. If a nurse or a trained aide or a therapist or a teacher can deliver a service, it is NOT medical according to IDEA.
I fully agree about the pp's comments on teaching staff. But the teaching staff is at an IEP meeting to offer information. Your child's teacher does not unilaterally decide what is on the IEP. The fully IEP Committe does, so administrators (who keep a close eye on $$$$) have a great deal of input. But so do you. In fact, IDEA 2004 has strengthened the concept that the parent has a great deal of say in her child's schooling. Administrators are not the boogy man. But they are there to make sure your child gets an APPROPRIATE education, not the best education possible. That is their LEGAL mandate.
Simply because you have a medical diagnosis, that does not mean that those services "must" be given to you.Instead of focusing on her getting help because she has a medical DX of autism ( I assume she does, but it wasn't clear if she actually had the DX from the doc or whoever or if they thought she could be) focus on her needs.
I also assume that if she has an IEP because of an LD label, that the new school is providing services based on the label of LD. I could have read this wrong, but I am understanding you to say she does receive sp ed services for being LD.
I would recommend you and wife start a running list of needs that you want to see added into her IEP as goals. If they are needs due to her Autistic like behaviors, that's ok. If they are needs because she is LD, that's ok too. It shouldn't matter what her label is at school, her needs drive the IEP and the services. If you ask for a service because of needs that you are brining up, the team has to at least discuss it in an IEP meeting. I would say do this and see if you get some services added in that will be intervention for her Autism and deficits in that area, as well as the one's in LD. Don't focus too much on having that Autism label if you can still get the services.
I am in no means saying that having the right lable at school is not necessacary. Sometimes it is so the school teachers and other people that work with her understands she does have a medical DX of Autism. Make sure you have the sp ed teacher document on her profile page of the IEP that she has a medical dx of Autism. Also, make them list in writing on that profile page of the IEP why she doesn't meet the educational criteria for Autism. And as bad as I hate to say, sometimes, the state defs of disabilities from IDEA only look at the school setting and how a child functions in that setting. If your state interpretations of the definitions for the disabilities under IDEA then they really don't care what is happening out side of school. Sometimes the school's only concerned with issues that arise at school and keep your child from having access to the general cirriculum. Other than that, schools sometimes don't care what happens in other settings.
That being said, if you make a list of concerns and needs that you want addressed in your child's IEP and call an IEP meeting and still feel as if important things are not going to be adressed, an advocate or lawyer would probably be more than happy to go back to another IEP with you.
Go to your state dept of edu website and find your state regulations of IDEA. In that document it will tell you exactly what the educational definition of Autism is in yoru state. You need to read it and be familiar with you yourself instead of depending on the school system to weed it out. You weed it out for them!!
"education" does not just mean academics. It means social skills, physical skills, life skills. ALL kids learn much more than academics in school. Definitely learn more about the law. She should AT LEAST have a 504, but I'd strongly suggest getting advocacy advice so that she can get ALL her needs met.Our daughter was diagnosed four years ago (she is now 11 yrs old) with NLD and/or Aspergers. Over the last year, she has also been diagnosed with OCD. We currently live in the state of Indiana and are having challenges with the school system in Indiana. Our daughter has had numerous outside clinicians give diagnosis like: it feels like Aspergers, she certainly protrays PPD NOS characteristics, or my favorite, she certainly meets the criteria for the Autism spectrum. Every clinician we send her to (that we pay for) agrees she has an life long disabilities. However, she is on the high functioning side of the spectrum and that is where a majority of our challenge is currently. Our daughter transferred school systems and we have an IEP for an LD diagnosis.LD is likely the wrong primary disability- ASDs are Developmental Disabilities, and if she has both, the school needs to identify that through educational assessment and then determine which one presents the greater educational need (and Tzoya is right, this does NOT mean academics necessarily).
Request a full educational assessment for ASD and insist that an autism specialist participate in the observations, social skills rating inventories, ADOS and GARS (GADS is ok- I like GARS better). Make sure they do informal nonverbal language rating scales and observe for SOCIAL situations, not just time on task. Language tests should include the Test of Problem Solving and some testing for pragmatic language.