Collins meeting is in a week and I want to be completly prepared when I get there. Just in case they deny him the ASD diagnosis I want to be prepared to ask for an independant evaluation.
How do you normally go about doing this? By letter? Does anyone have any sample letters I can get an idea from?
When they do an independant evaluation do they choose or can you choose, how long does it normally take to get it going? What kind of dr.s does the school district normally have you see?
And for goodness sakes cant we just see the dr that already diagnosed him lol
Sorry for all the questions my mind is just going a hundred miles an hour. Any help would be great thanks
You should be able to get a full written draft of their assessment prior to the meeting, which ideally would mean that there would be no big surprises for you walking into the meeting. If you don't have a draft, request that you have one to review prior to the meeting and if need be, change the meeting date to allow for this. Then if the draft of the assessment sounds like it does not support educational needs in ASD, (ie. you can't find data from their testing and observations to plug into the criteria) then tell them you don't think enough testing and observation was done and their assessment is not yet complete.
If you get all the way to a meeting and they don't support an educational "diagnosis" you can tell them right then you disagree request an independent evaluation, or you can buy yourself time to process and put it all in writing by telling them that you need time to review the report outside of the meeting and you will get back to them.
ORmom,
How did this meeting go? Did I miss an update? What were the results of the evaluation?
I recently found out about Special Education Advocates. We are brand new to the diagnosis and the school system. I plan on using one to get my daughters IEP changed mid-year. I have heard from people in my ASD support group that the few hundred dollars they charge is well worth it, they not only advocate for/with you in the meetings, but they know what is available out there and what the laws are. Good luck!
Annette
Fully agree with Karolysgirl. ALL of the information about how to do this is in From Emotions to Advocacy and also at www.wrightslaw.com Go there and search Independent Educational Evaluation. Letter. Evaluations. Etc.