Re: Battling the School District - Help

[Guest guest]

Patti, It is my understanding you should give the school a copy of

the Dr. recommendations at least 48 hours ahead of your meeting for them to

accept that for discussion. Also you should request any information they have

such as past IEP meeting notes etc. They have up to 48 hours before the meeting

to get you copies. Also the I in IEP stands for individual so if they say the

model is or if the policy is only 3 times a week for a child with apraxia ask

to see the policy and let them know you will wait for them to make a copy for

you. I always tape our meetings (I give 48 hour notice for this) and I don't

turn the tape off until I am in my car because lots of things are said as you

are walking out the door. I was able to get an additional half hour at our

last meeting (which was 3 1/2 hours long)! I stressed the fact that sometimes

reading and math becomes a problem and if we invested time now maybe we wouldn't

need additional services in the future. I also brought in apraxia treatment

recommendations from the apraxia web sites.

Also if you strongly feel that your child should have additional time

don't throw in the towel. Stress that your child should have A free and

appropriate Educaiton (FAPE)! If they

do refuse request a letter of Prior Written Notice (PWN). You are an EQUAL

member of this team and even if there

are 14 people from the school it is you and the school. And lets face it who

knows your child better then you. I would also never go to an IEP meeting

alone bring a spouse or a friend, a family member have them wear there best

business attire if they have it. 4 ears are better then just 2! And stay calm

the

best advice that anyone has ever given me was treat it as a business meeting

which when it is your child is very hard to do. Best of luck and if I can

help any more please feel free to email off list. -Clare

[Guest guest]

here in the great state of PA, your apraxic child would have only gotton 1/2

hour of group therapy, which consisted of 6 kids, being read a story by an

asperger's syndrome person who calls herself a speech therapist. THAT, in

Pennsylvania, is considered " speech therapy. " My doc also reco'd for 3 to 4

one hour sessions a week......we're going to mediation.

~karyn

Patti wrote:

I'm having my 3 1/2 year old son's IEP meeting in 2 weeks. It's the

annual meeting because his IEP is up for review. I took him to a

dev. ped. who recommended 4x per week speech for his apraxia. He

currently receives speech 3x per week.

I talked to his case manager who very nicely said, " historically,

only autistic children get speech 4x per week. " So I guess she was

trying to say they will probably deny the extra.

I'm sure there are preschoolers in the district whose not autistic

who receive speech 4x.

His apraxia is mild. Am I wrong to fight for the extra day?

Certainly, he can only benefit from it. His apraxia is never going

to go away, but I know with therapy he should be able to compensate

for it.

I just don't know the proper things to say at the meeting when they

say only 3x. I know I can say, that's unacceptable and not sign off

on the IEP.

If anyone out there has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

Patti

[Guest guest]

>

>

> I talked to his case manager who very nicely said, " historically,

> only autistic children get speech 4x per week. " So I guess she was

> trying to say they will probably deny the extra.

>

>

> I just don't know the proper things to say at the meeting when they

> say only 3x. I know I can say, that's unacceptable and not sign off

> on the IEP.

>

> If anyone out there has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

>

> Thanks.

>

> Patti

My 4 1/2 yr old son's school told me the same thing when I pressed for 4 X

a week. The preschool handicapped program is closed every other Monday

for IEP meetings etc, so I proposed that the weeks he was in school on

Mondays, he'd get therapy on those days. So the end result is every other

week it alternates between 3 and 4 times a week. Plus we pay for private

therapy once a week on top of that. We also had a report from Dr. Agin

that helped us in the fight to get the 4th session added.

-Lis, Brittany and

[Guest guest]

Hi, Patti-

You might want to try taking in a copy of the Late Talker book to your IEP

- in the back is a sample from Illinois of school district guidelines on how

much therapy is to be provided for kids with speech/communication disorders.

You might also try looking it up on line or contact someone from ASHA for

documentation that consistent, daily therapy is really what is needed for kids

with apraxia as they need the constant repetition that daily work would provide.

We had been getting individual speech 2xs/group speech 1x weekly until we called

another meeting in August and said that it was simply not good enough. The 2xs

weekly were 40 minute sessions during which Josh would tire and then not attend

to what the SLP was trying to accomplish - kids with apraxia, with the mental

fatigue that comes with it, simply cannot handle such long sessions easily. So,

we explained that to the district, we had our SLP on our side, we had the Late

Talker with us and had it just open to the

Illinois guidelines (we are in Illinois, BTW), and we easily took care of the

problem. Josh now has speech 5xs weekly - four individual at 20-25 minutes each,

then a group session 2x weekly (still for 40 minutes but that's OK with us - we

wound up getting a bit more speech time by doing it this way). He's also in a

speech immersion-type program where his classroom teacher (special ed)

incorporates all of the Kaufman techniques during the day - the SLP showed the

teacher and the aides in the room how to use the kit as well as a lot of the

other things she does with him so they incorporate it all in the other academic

and fun stuff they do in the classroom.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Sherry

<Sennokot1@...> wrote:

I'm having my 3 1/2 year old son's IEP meeting in 2 weeks. It's the

annual meeting because his IEP is up for review. I took him to a

dev. ped. who recommended 4x per week speech for his apraxia. He

currently receives speech 3x per week.

I talked to his case manager who very nicely said, " historically,

only autistic children get speech 4x per week. " So I guess she was

trying to say they will probably deny the extra.

I'm sure there are preschoolers in the district whose not autistic

who receive speech 4x.

His apraxia is mild. Am I wrong to fight for the extra day?

Certainly, he can only benefit from it. His apraxia is never going

to go away, but I know with therapy he should be able to compensate

for it.

I just don't know the proper things to say at the meeting when they

say only 3x. I know I can say, that's unacceptable and not sign off

on the IEP.

If anyone out there has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

Patti