How long was it between when you called EI and your child actually started receiving services???
I called on June 21st and after canceling twice on me they FINALLY came out to eval Matthew on July 16th. We are STILL waiting for them to finish writing up the referral and give it to the service coordinator (who has had to cancel on me twice as well because she didn't have the paperwork done). Once the service coordinator calls its going to be a 1-2 week wait before we see her and that is JUST to get set up on service wait lists which I am told are 2-3 months long.
SOOOOO Its been 6 weeks and we are still waiting to get put on waitlist!! UGGGGGG!! He's going to turn 3 before he ever gets any help and then they'll bump him out of the program!! UGGGGG!!
Does it take this long everywhere or are we just "lucky"????
I felt the same way. They have regulations as to how long they have to complete each step. My experience was that they would schedule within that time frame and usually cancelled a few times before actually making it out. We started the process in October and services were put into place in January. Everyone cancelled during the process at some point. We were always here waiting and would get a call 15 to 1 hour prior to the appointment that they would not be making it out.
I wish you luck. I'm sure there is a way to complain. Not sure if that would help you or not. We didn't get a lot of services that he qualified for because our service coordinator didn't put us on the right waiting list and didn't even know of some of the other services he qualified for.
I do not remember HOW long, anymore ... just that it made me redefine LONG! BOY I wanted those services ones they qualified her.
But yes it is all regulated.
We weren't referred to EI (birth to 3 program) until about a month before Mason's 3rd birthday.
We obviously never received any services through EI but they help me get everything going for school and it was actually about 2 weeks after he turned 3 that he started school and his therapies.
My son started the evaluation process in late May, and he started recieving services in July. His birthday is at the end of June, and he just turned three. However, the SD said he qualified for "wrap around" services, and so he's gotten speech therapy three times so far. No EC educator has come to visit yet, and I don't think that will happen before the two week break this month before school starts again.
He'll also have a break in services during that time. In fact, tomorrow's speech therapy session will be it until around the 22nd of this month.
I think it really depends. Your child may "age out" of EI services, but he MAY still qualify for wrap around services. I would ask about it!
What type therapies did they say he qualified for? My son received services for over a year (very little, by the way) and they were a complete waste of time. They never realized he was on the Autism Spectrum. I found that out by myself. We totally wasted more than a year working with them. His speech actually regressed over the year they worked with him.
Now, I know that some states have fabulous, intensive EI services, but my state apparently isn't one of them.
But back to your question (sorry for getting off-track!), it took about 2 months before they actually started services.