My son will be three tomorrow and has his IEP tomorrow to transition out of the EI system to a preschool setting. My older son is leaving the preschool tomorrow to start kindergarten in the fall. So, I am very familiar with the way they work, but getting physical therapy is nearly impossible in the school. My younger son only started walking in October and definately needs a boost. The evaluation was in May and the PT who evaluated him told me personaly that he would qualify. The evaluation report doesn't recommend PT though (surprise, surprise). Basically you can't walk to get PT in this school.
I know I can request an independant eval, but don't want him to not receive the other services OT and Speech while we await evaluation. Are there parts on the IEP that I can agree with and not agree with so that he doesn't have a delay in starting the preschool this fall with at least some services? Basically I need to know what boxes to check on the IEP. I don't want to sign off on him not getting PT, he can barely walk and needs PT! Makes me mad! Thanks so much in advance.
Kelly
Agree to everything and ask for an independent evaluation for the speech issue. Once your independent evaluation comes back, schedule another IEP meeting to discuss incorporating those recommendations into the IEP. I find it's a bad idea to table an IEP meeting and postpone coming to an agreement on the IEP if there are other options. We must remember that a parent can ask for as many IEP meetings per year as necessary. Of course, we don't want to harass the district, but this is different. When you get all the evaluation results, your child's program can be adjusted to take those present levels of performance into consideration.What if the independant eval doesn't allow or recommend PT?? Can I get as many evals as needed? The has an average of a 65% delay for gross motor. Thanks
You can get one evaluation at public expense per year if the school evaluated for that thing. For example, if they come back with a speech recommendation based on their speech evaluation and you disagree with it, you can ask them to pay for one independent speech evaluation. If those evals both recommend less speech than you are happy with, you can get an independent speech evaluation at YOUR expense. BUt, frankly, I wouldn't bother. If two reputable speech therapists recommend against more speech, your child doesn't NEED more speech. If you STILL feel as though he does, you can get speech for him outside of school on your own nickel or thru insurance. This holds true for ALL areas. Schools are only required to give a child what is necessary. for that child to progress. Nothing more. BUt nothing less, either. When you child is retested at the end of the year, if he hasn't made adequate progress, the school is required to give more therapy or different therapy. Special education MUST produce results. That's what the law says. It's supposed to be a "results-oriented process." [QUOTE=Kalebton]
What if the independant eval doesn't allow or recommend PT?? Can I get as many evals as needed? The has an average of a 65% delay for gross motor. Thanks
[/QUOTE]I know when my son started preschool they started him with OT and Speech...a few months later our neuro recommended PT also...she wrote a RX basically for PT...I took it to the school and they did the evaluation a few months after school had started.
Well unfortunately we didn't qualify through the school because they said it needed to hinder his ability at school, which I guess they felt it wasn't.
I know it doesn't sound promising about getting it, but I just wanted to let you know that they shouldn't put his other services on hold just because you ask for a PT eval too. So I am thinking, at least in our case, that he should still receive the other therapies, even if you ask for another PT eval.
Good luck!!
My son aged out of EI and into the school district this past May - right as school was ending.
Although I agreed with the speech evaluation (for the most part) that was done by the school, I did not agree with the OT/PT portions. The IEP that was put in place from our ARDs ultimately had the speech portion worked out, and a minimum of OT services (including gross motor) pending the independent evaluation being completed for OT and PT. The IEP remarks indicated that the goals established for OT/PT are temporary until the independent evals were received, and an ARD will be convened at that time to modify those goals as necessary.
By using that approach, it allowed us to have an IEP with goals in place so that therapies could move forward, but also gave the leeway needed to come back and readdress assessment after the independent evaluations were done.