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I.E.P. and P.D.D.NOSI am having this problem with my sons school , and I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and if so how did you go about solving it. I have a 7 year old boy who was diagnosed with P.D.D. NOS , autism spectrum disorder , he was receiving services being pulled out for resource and since this last evaluation at the hospital , and they changed his diagnosis to this , the school is telling me that it is not part of a disability that is allowable and that they are going to evaluate him to see if he can continue his services. How can they pick and choose what disability they want to allow ? Autism, autism spectrum disorder and P.D.D.NOS are all under autism What am I suppose to do to make sure that my sons services are not canceled ? Are there not some laws that will protect him ? This is his second time in first grade and he is still only in the 50% range . In most aspects he falls very short , but the teachers said that he was making progress ? How is he suppose to move to second grade , with out resource , he will be just pushed through , without an accountability to the school or the district ? Please check out, wrightslaw.com. If you cannot get an IEP, you can get a 504 plan for your child. Also you might want to re-post this in the educational forum, more people seem to read there.THere are two things that have to occur before any child qualifies for an IEP. 1. The child must fit the legal educational definition of one of thirteen legal EDUCATIONAL disabilities (some states have more). Autism has a specific educational definition. Ask your state dept. of ed. to send it to you. 2. The child's disability must have an "adverse effect" on his "education." This does not mean the child has to be failing anything and it does not just include academics or grades. It includes functional skills and behavior. If the child meets both of these, he gets an IEP. If he just meets #1, he gets a 504. For more on this, definitely go to www.wrightslaw.com For Eligibility, you may need to hire an Advocate. Especially in New York State, schools HATE to classify kids under Autism because they are then on the hook for lots of things that other kids with IEPs are not guaranteed to get. "Schools HATE to classify kids under Autism because they are then on the hook for lots of things that other kids with IEPs are not guaranteed to get." Why is this? Curious, because we are dealing with this issue right now. 1st told, our son had no "issue" other than behavior. Came back to them with full diagnosis by private sources. 2nd told that we could have services with IEP:Primary Disability listed as Specific Learning Disablity. Secondary listed as: Autism/Aspergers Syndrome. Have been struggling for the last two years trying to get the Education Placement corrected. Any idea's on what additional services we could get for him with a "label change"? (hoping for a teachers aide in the general education class room) Well , I feel your pain. I would suggest first , if you have a full diagnosis for autism , then that should be your child's disability, not the other. Second , have the school perform there own evaluation. They can not refute there own people . What state do you live in ? If still not happy , then start calling the county that your school is in, and talk with the disability department there , and let them know that if you have to you will get an attorney . That usually gets them hopping. Let me know if this helps you any. After , I know what state you are in, I will look to see what your laws are. There is plenty of information out there , if you can just figure out how to access it.I did all these things that I have suggested, my sons school is not only doing there own evaluation, but they are doing an in home evaluation ( at my demand ) I also told them that if I had to get legal representation that I would. Do not let them push you around. they think that we will not be willing to fight for our kids , and they are so wrong. Hope this helps, Lori Thanks for the info. Lori. How did the in-home eval. go? We are from PA. We also have very limited resources, just not enough limited resouces to qualify for legal aid. Have had an advoate come to our meetings in the past, then retired the idea when a "bill" i.e. adamat request for donation for contiuation of services comes in the mail. Sorry for the confusion: all evaluations have been completed by both the school and our outside source to our sastifcation at this point. They have kept the educational placement under IEP:Primary Disability listed as Specific Learning Disablity Secondary listed as: Autism/Aspergers Syndrome. We've made verbal requests for the change. This time I've added a parental attachment and sent it certificed to the Special Education Department outlining our requests. Not clear on why they have been refusing to change it to the most approperate.
Take care and thanks again for the response. The in home evaluation has not been done as of yet. We just got the authorization this week . They have 30 days to get it done. Let me see what I can find out about the laws a rules in PA. , I am not a lawyer , I am just a parent who is living this battle and have learned tons about what our rights are as parents . I will get back with you as soon as I have a chance to take a look around.Have you talked to the autism center yet or had an advocate come form the autism center ? That may be something that you can do right now, they usually respond very quickly. Lori I am a kindergarten teacher in AL. I am having issues getting my son's diagnosis put into his IEP also. (My child is not attending school in the system where I teach.) I want to give you some suggestions both as a teacher and a mother. I will give you my story after the suggestions. I suggest that you put all requests in writing (don't request orally - you have no proof of anything that way), put a date on them and keep a copy for yourself. Always keep documentation of names, dates, times, etc in case you should need it later. I have learned along the way (as a parent) to keep everything (tests, test results, diagnosis papers, copies of anything I sign and return to school, requests I make to the school, IEP copies, etc) in a 3 ring binder so that I can find anything I need for any meetings. Your child's school should have a certain amount of time to reply to your requests. (You should be able to find out a time line from your state department of education website under the special education section) I would like to also suggest that you educate yourself as much as possible. Many parents are not educated about what their child needs, therefore I hate to say that many schools/systems get by with doing as little as they can. The more you know the more you can question and ask for during an IEP meeting. Children with special needs have many rights!!!!
Above all else, fight for your child until that diagnosis is put in his IEP. Don't give up. Your child has the right to get the help he needs. My Son: My son was diagnosed as developmental delay a 2 and received help at home through Child Find. When Child Find could no longer help him due to age I had him tested through the school system. They served him under developmental delay until they tested him out at 7 years old. I fought with them at this time. My son was kicked out of special ed because they told me that he no longer qualified. I had to collect all of my past information (the reason I now keep a binder) and pay an outside source that specials in autism $1000 to test my son. This is when I was given the diagnosis of PDD-NOS. At this point I had to contact the state advocate group at the University of AL to get my child back into special ed. He lost a whole year with no special support because of this. Now he has been placed in under a math learning disability. They refuse to put in the correct diagnosis. I fear it is because they don't want to put out the money for my child to get the therapy he needs. I have contacted my state department of education to get assistance. I called them and told them everything that I told you above. They gave me some ideas to try. They obviously contacted the school system and the school because during the next IEP meeting they asked me what I wanted them to do. At this point my son was given a little more help. I also have been given more assistance with problems that arise. I am still fighting with with the school to get the diagnosis put in the IEP. I am currently working with a psychiatrist who specializes in autism. She will be going with us to the next IEP meeting. I am also going to contact my state department again. I have learned to become a warrior for my child. I hope that I have helped you in some way. |
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