I have been waiting to get a call to set up the independant evaluation for Collin. (see my post eval results for background)
Well she calls and starts to drill me on why I need it so I go thru and tell her what I dont agree with. She argued every point I had and drove me insane. JUST GIVE ME THE INDEPENDANT EVAL UGH
Then she says well collin is improving shouldnt we all just be happy Ack that was balsy of her. Yes I am happy he is improving but its not because of your stupid school he is on medication idiots ugh. And I didnt put him on medication because he was just hunky dorey either.
They are annoyed with me because I kept him out of school the last three days because I just am not up to dealing witht them. And whatddya know Collin has better behavior when he doesnt go to school. When I told them that they ignored me. The days he goes to school his behavior is so much worse. Of course not at school they claim he is an angel.
So instead of just setting up the independant eval they are making me write a letter with everything we dont agree with. Its going to be a book when im done. Oh and get this then they said well even if he gets a diagnosis from an indepent evaluator we will consider it but he still may not qualify
WHAT???
So basically they can do what ever they want then im so frustrated I just want to hide in a hole and give up.[QUOTE=Gabesmom]
Strange coincidence, since I wrote this reply on Saturday. You and I just met yesterday. I thought your story sounded familiar when we were talking, and I definitely recognize little Collin. It's really weird because I haven't been to this forum for a while- I frequent a different one. Anyway, it was nice meeting you.
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Deep breaths, focus, and clarity. You will get your child what he needs!
Blessings!
Strange coincidence, since I wrote this reply on Saturday. You and I just met yesterday. I thought your story sounded familiar when we were talking, and I definitely recognize little Collin. It's really weird because I haven't been to this forum for a while- I frequent a different one. Anyway, it was nice meeting you.
MommaNiki
Oh I hate that when they do that. One our last meeting they took the teachers word more heavily then mine as well. On any of the tests we did he was magically just fine on her end and of course on mine he had some problems, which um he does. lol.
Oh and what drives me more crazy then anything else is they had the teacher to the ABC, autism behavior checklist. And she scored him way off from autism. THEY NEVER EVEN HAD ME DO THIS ON MY END
I'm from Oregon too. Do you mind saying which ESD you are receiving services through? My son received a medical diagnosis of autism from the CDRC at OHSU in Portland, and I wasn't really thrilled with the services the ESD was offering. I decided not to send him to the special needs preschool and have kept him home instead. He's made a good deal of progress this year, but we're looking at private therapy options now. There are a lot of parents around here who are less than happy with the services offered in this state, and I'm afraid it's an uphill battle with the school districts. Ironically, the criteria for autism is much broader with the ESDs than it is medically, so any child with a medical dx should automatically carry an ASD label for educational purposes, but there's always more hurdles to jump through. I sympathize with your situation, and you are by no means alone in your frustration.
I am in the Tigard/Tualatin School district, the ESD is Washington CountyOh boy we see this a lot I guess. I feel your pain girl I am gonig through the same thing. When my son hit the schools they did things as sneaky as they could. When I didn't agree to the testing they never informed me that I had a right to an independent evaluation. That was wrong for one.. made me so mad when I found out and than I asked for one and they said no. I was like hey you just can't say no.. well there is a nice way for you to sneak it in to them. I did it like this. I called a review meeting. I had everything in the minutes and checked before I signed it. I made it about his progress wich he was making academically and suggested that my son have an independent evaluation. They asked why and I said the last test that they did on my son was the GARS test and it wasn't made for his age group. It asked about his job and his sex life and stuff like that ...HELLO HE IS FIVE... that is not an acurate representation of my child and they took a teacher who had my son for two hours and weighed her information as heavy as mine and I didn't understand that either. They of course scored him on the nonautistic side of the graph and I lightly scored him at the moderate and more severe for speech and communication. I never did get my test but I did have the GARS stricken from his permanent record and it will never enter the files or be use as a desicion making tool. Now I go to bat with them again. I almost four years later I have to go back and have my son restested all over so I am beating my head against a wall but not giving up and made sure for this test they will not get any of the results... UNTIL I AM READY! They schools try to play dumb... but if you are in their face enough with the law in hand you can't lose the bummer is sometimes you just have to play out a really long hand and do things differently than you SHOULD have to do it. It is sad really but we are tough and we need to keep on fighting!You actually don't have to give a single reason. You DO have to put it in writing, though. I would simply state that you want an outside evaluation at public expense for (BLANK -- put in the sort of eval you want, but ask for ALL the IEE's you want because IDEA 2004 limits them to one request per year) and then send it to the Director of Special Education and one more person. You can also BRING the request into the office, have them date it and give you a copy of the received, dated letter. Once the letter is in their hands they have TWO choices:
1. Say yes.
2. Take you to an expedited hearing to deny you the IEE.
You'll notice that neither of these choices is "no." For more info on IEE's, search it at www.wrightslaw.com
Once the request is put into writing they have to evaluate...I think that you should go over her head...make a complaint b/c she shouldn't be discouraging you to seek better/more treatment. If he is making progress maybe doing more of something would help that come along faster? I'm in the same boat on that one...I have a pre-IEP meeting on the 12th to tell them what I expect assessment wise...she tried to get me to do the IEP the same day, but I said...how do I discuss these assessments if they haven't even taken place yet? So...they're going to have the pre-IEP/test meeting to discuss what I want done...I want more OT and PT and I want him eval for speech now that he's not tongue tied - he is showing progress, but I can't help to think that just pushing a little more he would do that much better...so off to the races we go...she is also researching ABA in our district. They have autistic clusters - couldn't handle all of Payne's challenges, but if they do ABA there why can't they teach or have someone come over a few days a wk to help at his school? Don't even get me started on it- the ESE director just kept telling me she's new...and you know what I said? That's nice, but I am asking you these questions and you should be finding the answers and then you will know for the next parent who asks b/c I know I'm not the only parent w/ a PDD-NOS dx kid at your school. They require the most time and people for OT/PT/speech for a reason. HELLO!?! Payne is on meds - I let them know what they are and when they change...they know when his dr appts are so that I can get sheets to take to his dr for their input...I have the final say so. No one has ever told me that I HAVE to put my child on meds, but I did it and he seems happier and "more passable" - he's not a zombie...he's doing great!As frustrating as all of this is, I think it is a good thing that you put all of your reasons in writing. You can start by using all of the data from their assessment that fits the educational criteria for ASD in Oregon, and then the fact that they don't want to use this label or see an educational need even though these things are stated in their assessment. Then list all the other things that you see (or even better that are documented in other reports, etc) that they did NOT find as a part of their assessment.
Sorry you have to fight so hard, what a PITA.