relocating to California | Autism PDD
Keri,
As one who has never sought the services of a developmental pediatrician, and also lives in Los Angeles County, I have been extremely happy and thankful for the services we have received over the past six years. I know of several other posters on this site from California who would say the same. I cannot speak from a biomedical standpoint, since it is not an area I have ever explored, and if that is what you are looking for, then the above member may very well be right, but if it is school district services you are asking about, which is the impression I got from your post, then I think you will find that California is near the top of the list, though it may fall just a bit below New York, which from what I understand is the best. What we do have to offer, which no other state has is Regional Center, which provides a myriad of services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Generally you will find that what the school district doesn't provide, Regional Center does. The real biggie here is that they pay 100% for social skills therapy (with a Regional Center vendor, of course
Also, I have been very happy with Los Angeles Unified School District, though it was a bumpy road for the first few years following our diagnosis. Like most SD's, they will attempt to take advantage of what you don't know if makes dollars and cents to them. Once I went through the mediation process, though, I have found the going a lot easier. Not only am I much more familiar with my rights, but they recognize that I am not someone they can take advantage of, and the relationship has been much more mutally rewarding
Hi, Keri. Not to put a dark spot on some exciting plans, but if you're counting on California being as progressive as the northeast in autism programs, you might be surprised, especially based on the big talk schools tend to standard-issue out to parents about how focused they are on each child's individual goals, yadda, yadda (I'm pretty sure they all get it from the same script).
I'm in about as progressive an area of CA as can be--in Los Angeles County--and believe it or not, I have yet to run into a single professional, including STs, OTs, special education teachers, school principals, pediatricians, our neurologist (I sh*t you not) AND EVEN Blue Cross/Blue Shield of California, who have even HEARD OF a developmental pediatrician. ETA: No, wait. That's not right. I remember that our neurologist had heard of this but didn't personally know any recommendations, and our former OT knew about them because she read about them in a book (might have been "Daniel Isn't Talking," I don't really remember now).
Maybe my experience was unique but I tell you I grilled every professional I could drum up for four solid months of several-times-a-week phone calls to attempt to unearth a single developmental ped and apparently nobody has...heard of one. Sigh.
I don't know about New York, but New Jersey is typically rated among the top states for autism awareness in education and in accesibility of programs. Are you sure you guys want to move?
Property taxes will be a little lower here. On your significantly higher-cost-for-the-same-size house. So it's six in one, half a dozen in the other. Let's not also forget that sneaky little tiny 8.75% sales tax.
I'm not saying don't move to CA. I noticed you want your husband to work shorter hours and frankly, no matter where one decided to live, including the moon, that would be HUGE for a special-needs family. I know because my husband now is gone from the house 12 hours a day (here in CA)...because of that tiny little 3-hour-daily commute so that he could get a job that would pay parallel to the northeast, but be in a house that was *less* than 0K for two average or three small bedrooms...I'm sure you're getting the picture here...
It's not all roses.
The weather is nice. Not having seasons sucks, sucks huge. The people are really nice and cashiers pack your bags for you and ask if they can help you out to the car with them, even if all you bought was a light bulb and a carton of tampons. People tend to be very polite. Bear in mind that I'm not in the city. I don't know how polite other areas might be.
Whatever you decide, good luck, and again, not trying to dissuade you; just letting you know that *some* (not all!) of what you're seeking here won't be as easy to find as you might think. Of course you *can* get services, etc. I have found that, by comparison to family members and one friend I know in NJ, it has been exponentially harder to do so here in CA than the time they're having over there. Also, depending upon the school district you're in (we're in the Bonita school district even though we don't live in that district because of a special program), the school might describe to you various programs and various models (ABA, TEACHH or what-have-you) but once you're standing there in front of them with your child fiddling with his Pull-Up and you nervous and your husband with big hopeful eyes, they might say "Oh, this won't serve your child's needs" and it will take you 12 months, 100 phone calls, a lot of tears and a lawyer to figure out why...much less pursue it more actively).
You'll get the basic services, of course, as quickly as you would get them anywhere else. You may find like I did that no matter what your child's cognitive level, speech development, amount of/degree of/amount of time spent on stims, seizures/no seizures, missing arm, three arms, no head, was originally a Martian, etc. they will invariably tell you (at least around here) that you're going to "start out" with "standard" ST of 70 total minutes a week, "standard" OT of the same and "the most FANTASTIC class, it's PERFECT for your son" which will invariably be the cookie-cutter-issue SDC class. My son's SDC class included children with "severe" autism, "mild" autism, no autism (one child diagnosed with apraxia of speech and no additional diagnosis), a child who did not have autism and was born with a chromosomal uniqueness but hey, he wasn't speaking as well as an NT child so throw him in there too, because a delay is a delay, right? It leaves you kinda wondering if a child were born with no tongue, would he also be shuffled to this "fabulous and perfect!" (and, by amazing coincident, cheapest at the local level and cheapest at the public school level) class because he wasn't speaking very well...
I think you're getting the general idea here. You can get *services*, you just might have to kill yourself trying to go crazy with, I don't know, two full hours of ST a week or something totally crazy and extraneous like that. I know my frustration is showing in these posts...but if I could do it over again I would not have moved...so I can't help but put up the warnings here for another special-needs family...though again, CA is a big state and I don't know what part you're planning on moving to. Here's a place where you can get lots of specifics on relocation and first-hand experiences: city data forums. I don't know if we're allowed to post URLs here but if you Google that you'll find it right away.
So in summary, services *can* be had, you just have to fight like a dog to get them. PM me if you want specifics. Not trying to talk down CA. Depending upon where you live in the state (it's a huge state!) it can be very beautiful here and there are lots of things to do. (I live in the San Gabriel Valley, in the suburbs. Next to San Dimas...home of Bill and Ted! A severely underrated movie.) Watch out for the smog index, though. (Okay, I'll stop.)
MyDear, I'm sorry you haven't had a good experience with California services. This has not been the case for me. Perhaps because my son was diagnosed when he was school-aged? Many of the services you mentioned are those that we have never asked for, simply because my son was too old, and had already progressed beyond that need at the time of his diagnosis. As far as Regional Center goes, it is worthwhile to note that not all RC's are the same as far as their willingness to take on a client, and quality of service coordinators. I'm with North Los Angeles County Regional Center, and they are fabulous. I've never had to fight for anything with them, and I've got a high-functioning Aspie. My sister, on the other hand, lives in the South Bay, and my developmentally delayed, epileptic nephew has been declined as a client! Go figure. It should be the other way around, but here we are
As far as school services for the OP's son, his existing IEP would have to be implemented until he is up for his annual IEP. At that point, it is conceivable that the new team may not agree with the services provided in his previous IEP. The only defense for this is to thoroghly research all the school districts in the area you are considering moving to, and to even go beyond that and research and visit the schools as well. It all starts with the school. Believe me, I know from experience. I made a point of staying in the the Los Angeles Unified School District when we were looking to buy a new house, because all my research told me to stay away from small school districts with shallow pockets. They will fight you tooth and nail to not spend money on your child. LAUSD will throw money at you if you know what you are entitled to and don't let them get away with pulling any crap, which they will try to do! You can't walk around with your head up your you-know-what. You've got to keep an eye on them, and jump in with a "Hey, you can't do that"! Every time I have done that, they have folded like a house of cards.
California is not a utopia for autism services. No state is. But I have found from personal experience, and the consensus of this board, that it is better than most. Again, I am sorry that you have had such a rough time. Move to the north San Fernando Valley! Every parent I talk to here is very happy.
Never mind. To the OP: good luck with whatever your decision is! Wishing you happiness wherever you wind up. You have been given some anecdotal information here and the rest is really up to you as far as research. You can PM me any time. Good luck!And yes, indeed, the poster *is* basing a move or not moving *directly on what services are offered for her PDD-NOS* son. That was *the entire point of her post*. She even added that she has already turned down to California locations due to the *inferiority* of services there. Yes, sweetheart, that was the point of the post. And I answered her honestly.
Does tsoya have an "autistic"/PDD-NOS child? That could be why she's fighting so hard...if she only had an "extremely high-functioning Aspie", then she'd never have had to address these additional services in the first place; so that could be the root of her angst, not the state she lives in.
Let's get down to brass tacks. Here's what the OP wants to replicate in the state of California (this section is copied and pasted from her OP):
My son is in a self contained 12 - 1- 1 and is mainstreamed 2 periods a day with his full day one on one aide. In addition he gets speech 2X weekly, OT 2X weekly and consults with the school pyschologist to work on behavioral issues.
If you're confidently telling her that this is what she can expect from LA County, then that's fine. The question in that case is answered and she can proceed with the move.
[Edited out due to to Administrative reasons and at the poster's request]
Please note that this post was made at the same time that the thread was locked by another mod. Neither party had any way of knowing that one was posting while the other was locking.
We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to see no more flaming.
Just wanted to make sure the OP knew what I meant. The majority of any biomedical approaches we've taken (short-lived, all of them except GF/CF) obviously haven't come from any state specifically. They've come from the internet or the store.
As far as hot as hell in the summer, ;) it's hot as hell today ;) ;) and it's November first. Well...it's 80 degrees, anyway. And, yep! That's what air conditioning--very expensive air conditioning--is for. Eight months of the year. Except at night when it drops down significantly and then the *heat* has to be turned on, ironically. ;) Please let's not forget that the OP is from the northeast "normal" November weather being at least in the 70s might be a little weirder to her (and to me) than it is to you. As I said, it IS nice weather. I won't debate that. It's weird, however, to have it hot all year long, or not all year...it gets into the 60s for about two months a year. But again...I can relate to the OP because there are huge differences between New York and southern CA.
Again...that's not to say this is a drawback. Obviously it's a huge plus to many people, since southern California sees a lot of relocators annually. Although interestingly--it sees it both ways...in and out.
*However*, none of that is as relevant, I'd say, than the OP's interest in services. I brought it up as I can relate to relocating but I wanted to focus on our experiences with the school system. NOT with Dr. Strange-O the Chelating Man or with putting our son in an oxygen chamber at Area 51 or something. Just wanted to clarify that one (let's throw in a few more cute little winkey-smileys here) since you basically swept my every experience away in my above post with one sentence intimating that I'm a kook who relies on biomed. (Room for even more winkies here? Let's hope so.)
As to the intimation that California is right up there with New York/New Jersey as far as services for autism go, I'm not even gonna touch that one. It seems good to you because in your (our) area, it is presented that this is not only normal but above average as far as services go. But to the OP, if you want to find out rankings for special education services by state (or by county), Google is your friend...as I said...I don't even want to touch that one because it's going to seriously hurt feelings.
Oh...the Regional Center...yep...that's where we started out on our long road of being denied every possible therapy beyond the norm.
The Regional Center handles the special services a state is *already required* to provide if your child shows a certain degree of delays in given areas. *Anything beyond the absolute norm* that *most progressive states provide* is expensive and you will be dissuaded. For example, our kindly but absentminded (due to a stroke) service coordinator at the Regional Center is the one who finally got tired of my phone calls about ABA (and tired of remembering that she still forgot to even submit the paperwork for the IEP we had about it...months and months and months prior) that she at last stated to me that by asking for "additional" services (such as ABA), I was "basically telling C that (I) don't accept him" and that "that in fact can be what holds a child up from developing". After that phone call I dropped ABA. One year later this same woman called me to ask me *why I hadn't followed up further on ABA* and that it was *such a shame and pity because now they considered C "too old" and "beyond" ABA, so...oh well. I finally had my service coordinator changed. Which took, I don't know, three months because of course they lost the paperwork.
But yeah. You've got the regional center...to "help" you with what you'd obtain in any other state anyway...or sometimes not help...depends upon your service coordinator...depends upon how much it costs (this our school psych finally enlightened us on)...depends upon...I don't know...whether the moon is in the seventh house or something.
Sigh..............
Yes. We do get services. Very standard, very bland and very non-individualized services (unless the fight and the lawyer) and if *that's* all the OP needs...then come on down! There's a house for sale on my block. They brought it down from 0K to 0 K and that's a huge jump down, you know, so now's the time. Three bedrooms, probably, I don't know, a good 1700-1800 square feet. Safe neighborhood and hey. It's sunny here!!!!!!!!!!! The commute to LA, which is the only place you'll find jobs that equal NYC salary-wise (or come close...look that one up too), is no more than an hour and a half but that's on a bad day. Everybody around here does it...come on, suck it up!
Again, that's just where *I* am. For all I know the OP is planning on moving to San Jose.
There's another thread on here about services in California that covers a broader area and might give a better idea or at least a jumping-off point. I was just giving my experiences...and keep in mind that perhaps it's not fair because I'm comparing services here to services in the best area of the country...so I'm sure CA must be superior to many other states; but *if it came to a decision between NY and CA BASED ON services* it would absolutely, positively be a no-brainer...and that's really what the OP is asking. Sorry, but between these two particular areas, there is no comparison. Just these two...again, I'm sure CA must rank above certain other areas of the country. Just not the area that the OP is already in, and services are her *main* concern.
Ugh. Tell you what, I'll trade. You try it out here; I'll move into your place and finally be back to normalcy.
Oh...and here is a list of Regional Centers. There isn't just one. They're just what they say they are...regional. I'm sure every one must be different. Maybe we just got the bad apple. But anyway... http://www.dds.ca.gov/rc/rclist.cfm I personally would not rely on a blanket few paragraphs about how regional centers work. I'd call first.
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