Guest guest Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 Hi everyone, Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. Today, I need some advice, please. New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 Could you tell me more about this virtual academy? cjsc91128@... wrote: > Hi everyone, > > Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. > Today, I need some advice, please. > New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son > has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At > an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT > is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been > denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as > it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and > I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in > Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per > week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid > for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? > Any guidance would be most appreciated. > > Thanks, > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 I have found it to be common for schools (in Arizona as well as Texas) to dismiss the need for OT. Their position seems to be that as long as the student is able to succesfully access the playground equipment and hold a pencil to write, he or she can function in a school setting. My two sons both need OT for various sensory dysfunctions and receive only OT consultation through school. We receive OT privately for sensory integration and development of fine motor and gross motor skills. Maggie Question for an advocate? Hi everyone, Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. Today, I need some advice, please. New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks, ________________________________________________________________________________\ ____ Cheap talk? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates. http://voice.yahoo.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 Welcome to Texas! The all or nothing throws up red flags for me. ARD meetings and the IEPs that are written are supposed to be a team process with you as a full member of the team. What did the OT report say? OT can be needed for educational things like handwriting and sensory issues. Although services are supposed to be based on the evaluation and needs, the most I usually hear of families getting is 30 minutes of Speech once or twice a week and OT once a month. You've got a couple of options to combat the ARD meeting with. Did you agree with the evaluations? If not, you can ask for an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) at the school's expense. They won't like it, but it's a less aggressive step than a TEA (Texas Education Agency) complaint, which is also an option. May I ask what part of the state you're in? Might know an advocate in your area. You don't have to be real specific or name the school district, just what larger town are you close to. Also, did they go over what is commonly called the " Autism Supplement " ? It's uploaded in the files section of this group under 89.1055. The supplement has the following 7 items that have to be considered at every ARD of a child with autism. (e) For students with autism/pervasive developmental disorders, information about the following shall be considered and, when needed, addressed in the IEP: (1) extended educational programming; (2) daily schedules reflecting minimal unstructured time; (3) in-home training or viable alternatives; (4) prioritized behavioral objectives; (5) prevocational and vocational needs of students 12 years of age or older; (6) parent training; and (7) suitable staff- to-students ratio. Keep in mind, this is not a guarantee of services, they just have to be " considered " . Tonya Question for an advocate? Hi everyone, Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. Today, I need some advice, please. New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 I think it would be a real good idea for you to go through an advocate for help. Maybe FOCUS (they are familiar with IEP/ARD / autism spectrum disorders). This sound a lot like what we went through with a private school and the Klein School District. I think you will be very glad you did. Jacquelyn Tomlinson E-mail Address(es): jtomlinson@... Question for an advocate? Hi everyone, Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. Today, I need some advice, please. New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 OK, one more thing which rang a bell. As far as requesting an IEE, remember the following: Most of the dr's on the " approved " list of drs you can use are drs that THEY recommend. We ran into this problem also. The wrightslaw book From Emotion to Advocacy explains this further. Basically it has been described to me as somewhat like a dr on an HMO. They are the gatekeepers to keep costs down. Hope this makes sense to you. If not e-mail me offline and I'll try to expand further on this. Just watch out cause if the school district recommends these dr.s, they are obviously on the school districts " side. " Question for an advocate? Hi everyone, Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. Today, I need some advice, please. New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 , You can check out the Texas virtual Academy here: www.txva.org It was the ultimate deciding factor in moving here because this is a little about what happened to us in Georgia. http://mainstreetnews.com/2005/August/C0817E.html But, despite what the editor says in his " opinion page " , it wasn't my first reaction. I waited 3 days with no word from the school or police before I took the action that I did with the mandatory attendance laws looming. Maggie, We've had to turn in writing assignments to the school and they clearly show his difficulty. Even the OT eval states that he has difficulty with the grasp on the pencil, as well as complaining that the pencil " screams " at him when he writes on the paper, like fingernails on a chalkboard I suppose? What I don't understand, I guess, is...if he can't sit still, how can he focus or complete a task or assignment that will take longer than 10 or 15 min? Self-stimulating behaviors are pretty bad. Private therapies are an option, however, it is difficult to work and go to college, and homeschool him and employers frown on missing time two to three times per week for therapies, I have recent experience with this. And no, no meds. He took Adderall XR and Risperdal for 4 yrs and the verbal stimming became very bad, almost Tourette like. Docs wanted to experiment, but I just stopped them all. He'll be 9 in August, still wears a size 6 pants but if there's no elastic in the waist they're too big. I became very concerned about his physical health. Tonya, Yes, I did agree with the evaluation. Though I do not know how to interpret the scores, we've only had one OT eval before and services never started. In fact, I believe that one of my son's original dx of ADHD combined type was wrong and that SID is the actual problem. It nailed 90% of the issues that my son has. OT also stated a possible auditory processing issue. We're in Houston, Spring Branch to be exact. But the virtual academy is a type of home-schooling with state guidance and K-12 curriculum. They provided all course material, books, art supplies, music instrument, science project materials. He has both online and traditional " paper and pencil " assignments. Some assessments are online, most on paper. TAKS was to be given at the University of Phoenix on Tuesday. We went. My son ran twice inside of 30min and we were unable to complete TAKS. Will have to try to make up in April. And yes, from the looks of the list regarding the supplement, they did cover these items. Sherri, FOCUS? I've tried to get through to Advocacy, Inc. to no avail, haven't heard of FOCUS. I'll look into it, thank you. Their proposals were, 180min of speech per month(45min ea Tues.), one day per week in a small class setting at a Southwest Elementary (charter, I believe)for an hr for social interaction and an hr at a library with a teacher/sm grp once a week also for social interaction. An OT that worked at Southwest Elementary was supposed to observe him once per month regarding handwriting issues and upon that recommendation the OT may be reconsidered at another ARD. Now why would they want a further recommendation for OT when they just paid $750 for an excellent one? I don't understand. They also offered to pay for a behavior modification counselor to come to our home once per month. *I don't have a problem with any of these proposals except for the omission of OT. Now, according to the diagnostician, if I disagree about the omission of OT, I don't get anything at all for him. And in addition I need to remove him from the program? " Take what we give you or you get nothing and get your child out of our school " ......do they do this in Texas? Have I received a great deal in what they propose and I'm being unreasonable? I had received an email a week prior from the director asking me, where in our Ga. IEP did it show how many sessions per week of OT he would receive and that we could " jump start " services based on that. Then the diag totally blind-sided me today with this. Almost an entire school year has passed and my son has received no services to date. None. I finally got a copy of the November ARD in the mail today and it states that he will receive Speech for 60min/wk.......never happened. I think more than anything I am extremely hurt by this attitude. My heart is so heavy at the callousness. Even though I've experienced it before, it still hurts. No matter how many times I think there are no more tears, they still seem to come and I very much need to expend that energy in a more productive manner Thank you all very much for listening and for being here, I appreciate it. --------------------------------- Never Miss an Email Stay connected with Yahoo! Mail on your mobile. Get started! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 >>We've had to turn in writing assignments to the school and they clearly show his difficulty. Even the OT eval states that he has difficulty with the grasp on the pencil, as well as complaining that the pencil " screams " at him when he writes on the paper, like fingernails on a chalkboard I suppose? Why not let him write in pen or marker? We had a very caring first grade teacher who told me she didn't care what they wrote in as long as they were doing the work. You could also try letting him type his written assignments on the computer. >>We're in Houston, Spring Branch to be exact. Contact your local ASA Chapter and FEAT Northwest Houston Chapter of the ASA P.O. Box 1363 Cypress TX 77410 Phone: , Guppy, President Email: tx-northwesthouston@... http://www.feathouston.org FEAT-Houston, Inc. Families for Early Autism Treatment 1120 Medical Plaza Dr., Suite 100 The Woodlands Texas 773 Note, the Telephone line is checked at least once a week but the quickest way to contact FEAT is through one of the email links above. Phone: Either of these organizations should have a suggestion on a local advocate. If they don't try: Barbara Sewell HoustonFFCMH@... (free) Or Barbara Kluchin www.allaboutachievement.com (charges a fee, but I think the first consultation is free) You could also try the state PTI www.partnerstx.org . Some of the regional coordinators are better than others. I don't know the one in your region, but Houston ASA or FEAT could guide you there. Tonya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 I can vouch for FOCUS, we use them at our ARD meetings with KISD and love them!! Question for an advocate? Hi everyone, Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. Today, I need some advice, please. New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? Any guidance would be most appreciated. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 Did you get what you wnated for your child? Are you in Katy ISD? Donna > > I can vouch for FOCUS, we use them at our ARD meetings with KISD and love them!! > Question for an advocate? > > Hi everyone, > > Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I get. > Today, I need some advice, please. > New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. My son > has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual academy. At > an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician that OT > is a medical need, not an educational need and services have been > denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's entirety as > it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at all and > I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal in > Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 times per > week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they paid > for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational therapist? > Any guidance would be most appreciated. > > Thanks, > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 Oops, slip of the fingers " wanted " . Did FOCUS help you get what you wanted to benefit your child? I am also in need of an advocate. My son attends Katy ISD. This is my 4th ARD this school year. Donna > > > > I can vouch for FOCUS, we use them at our ARD meetings with KISD > and love them!! > > Question for an advocate? > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I > get. > > Today, I need some advice, please. > > New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. > My son > > has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual > academy. At > > an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician > that OT > > is a medical need, not an educational need and services have > been > > denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's > entirety as > > it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at > all and > > I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal > in > > Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 > times per > > week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they > paid > > for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational > therapist? > > Any guidance would be most appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 We are still in " discussions " with KISD and actually had to get a lawyer in addition to using an advocate, hopefully you can resolve your situation without having to fight that hard! I would first start out with an advocate and that person will help assess your situation and help you figure out if a lawyer is needed. Good luck, Question for an advocate? > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > Never posted to the group, but I read to learn every chance I > get. > > Today, I need some advice, please. > > New to public school in Texas so I am not sure what to do here. > My son > > has autism spectrum disorders, and is enrolled in a virtual > academy. At > > an ARD this morning, it has been decided by the diagnostician > that OT > > is a medical need, not an educational need and services have > been > > denied. I was informed that either I accept the IEP in it's > entirety as > > it was presented to me today or my son receives no services at > all and > > I would also need to remove him from the program. Is this legal > in > > Texas? If an IEP that we had when we got here says speech 3 > times per > > week and ot once a week, can they just dismiss even though they > paid > > for a very good eval from a well known respected occupational > therapist? > > Any guidance would be most appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.