The law specifically eliminates a medical diagnosis as necessary for intervention. That's not to say that the school can IGNORE what a doctor puts in writing. The IEP team must consider it but they don't have to accept it. That is the law. There are other responsibilities that the school must meet:
1. They must do their own educational evaluations.
2. They must evaluate in EVERY area of suspected disability
3. They must "consider" anything the parents want to present, including but not limited to physician's reports.
4. The must show how a child's disability effects his education. It's possible for a child to have a disabilty that DOESN'T affect his education (please note that "education" means far more than academics). If the disabilty does not effect the education, a child's school CANNOT classify him.
A medical diagnosis is not an educational evaluation and vice versa. If your doctor has suggested that your child needs OT or any other intervention, put in writing that you want these areas evaluated by the special ed team. An OT will do a test and then write up an evaluation report with recommendations for interventions, if necessary.
To find out what your child's rights are and how to negotiate effectively with the school, get a 2nd edition copy of From Emotions to Advocacy at www.wrightslaw.com Make SURE it's the second edition. It's the only one that is aligned with the new wrinkles in the law.
Meg,I hung up the phone this afternoon flabbergasted at what I had been told by my 4 year old son's pre-school disabled case manager, a psychologist. I called her to inform her that my son received a diagnosis of PDD from his neurologist and that he wanted him to receive occupational therapy in conjunction with the speech therapy he is currently getting. "We haven't completed our evaluation, yet she replied." I told her that I thought a doctor's opinion counted for something in the way of services he needs. She replied "No, doctors order things all the time...we don't have to provide him the service just because the doctor thinks he needs it." I hardly knew how to respond. I am new to this system, why on earth wouldn't you give services to a 4 year old that can influence the entire course of his schooling??? There is a critical period when you can positively affect the skill level he has, it's crazy to me to wait!
He missed the cut-off by 4 days for being eligible to stay in this program next year (he's 5 Sept 5th) and so I need to seek out a private preschool that offers speech and occupational therapy- but this "case manager"
Meg A couple things first off where do you live? You should have a special services division of your county that can help advocate for you. Also if your child was ever in a birth to three program call your FRC even though your child is no longer in the program alot of times they will pay legal fees and will help in resolving situations like this. Also schools are required by law under the No Child Left Behind statue that they must provide evaluation and placement in the program in a timely manner. I would definetly talk to the school board and let them know that this is not acceptable they need to solve this issue or else you will contact a lawyer. Typically if a child qualifies for speech or occupational therapy recommended by a doctor then they should also qualify with the school as well. The school district we are in actually took all of the evals we had done on my oldest and read through them and then made it so that some of the goals that we use in speech and OT are the same as the private pay goals. Thank-you Amie! I am just beginning to navigate through this maze and trying to determine exactly what the schools are responsible for and what is appropriate for me to demand from them. My head is still spinning with the news of my son's diagnosis, this is really overwhelming for me right now. I really appreciate your guidence. I live in Morris County, NJ. You do not have to allow them to change the classification. In NY, AUTISM has separate services that are guaranteed to kids in that classification. Other states, the label of autism is not as critical. But one area in which it's important no matter where you live is discipline. A student cannot be officially disciplined for an act that is an outgrowth (manifestation) of his disability. Since autism is different from other disabilities in the area of behavior, this is important. Especially as the child ages. By Middle School, many students on the spectrum get suspended for behavior that is part of the disability. If a spec. ed. child is suspended for more than 10 days in any given year, a Manifestation Determination hearing has to be called. It's an IEP Meeting that determines whether or not a behavior is a manifestation of the child's disability. Obviously, this means the disability of record needs to be as accurate as possible. A doctor's diagnosis is far from worthless in school. I daresay that if the district were so crazy as to allow you to take them to a hearing over changing the classification, they'd lose in front of any Hearing Officer with a brain. Is a person with a teaching certificate more able to say whether a child has autism or not or is a physician who specializes in autism? However, it's important that the child's autism ALSO effect his education. That means academics, development and behavior (this covers just about everything and anything that happens in school). Make sure you can make a case that your child's disability affects his educational progress in some fashion. Otherwise, he can't qualify for spec. ed. at all. No wonder my son's Dr. does not want to get too involved in his IEP process. My son has a medical dx of autism and we had him classified for autism on his IEP during an lengthy and uncomfortable IEP meeting. I get the feeling from them that after his next review they are going to change his classification to the generic DD that they love to tell me everyone else has. I thought with the DR. dx they would not be able to do this.Now I'm worried. They say need drives services but he has gotten more since having him reclassified, so it has to make some difference. If a parent takes the school district to a hearing, the parent has the Burden of Proof. That means YOU will have to PROVE that your child is not getting a Free Appropriate Public Education. Not that easy to do. Also, a Hearing Officer has to follow educational law and educational law was written SPECIFICALLY to make sure medical advise did not trump educational opinion. In fact, doctors are MEDICAL people, not EDUCATIONAL people. While your doctor might be 100% right, he is no more an expert in speech or OT than we moms are. A Hearing Officer might take a doctor's opinion about a dx over a teacher's opinion, but not a doctor's opinion of how much speech to give over a speech evaluator's. What you need to look at is how much PROGRESS the child has made since this time last year. Lack of progress = lack of FAPE and requires more and more intense intervention. To top this all off, if a hearing officer thinks that the parents have brought the hearing "Frivolously," (and that is LIKELY if it's over a couple of extra sessions of speech), the PARENTS can be forced to pay the DISTRICT's lawyer. The new Burden of Proof rule and Parent Pay rule is thanks to our new Supreme Court. Those were not the rules until the past year or two but it's what we're living with now.
For school provided services schools are the ones who decide what is
appropriate. The school can choose to ignore outside evaluations, but
parents can chose to take the school to a due process hearing. And even
if the school/IEP team looks at the referral, they can still choose not
to act on it. Unforutnatley, schools do have the final say on what
services are provided in school, and the only way to argue this if the
school will not compromise is to take the school to a Due Process
Hearing.
Jess
We have this situation going on right now for one of my kids. He is in my 6-1-1 and getting speech 5 x a week, OT 3 x a week, PT 2 x a week and now the doctor has "ordered" he receive even more speech. We can "consider" what the doctor says, but don't have to implement it.Zayzer,
Not necessicarily. The school should take all evauluations into consideration, that is right IDEA provides, but they do not necessarily have to take action based off of them. Unfortunately, schools do not have to provide children with a BEST education, only an APPROPRIATE one. :(
Jess
But what if more speech is appropriate for the child? Would not a Dr. 's opponion count? The school can not be the only entity deciding what is appropriate.If a childs Dev. Ped. orders say that a child needs more speech and a school choses to ignore that can't the parent go to mediation with the Dr.'s reccomendation? If a child needs more speech to receive FAPE the get it right?
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