Does this seem right? (School district related)

abs05

So my daughter will be three in November.  She has been receiving private speech therapy for 10 months now and she has both oral/verbal apraxia. 

She has had two EI evaluations.  The first was right before her second birthday and we were not eligible for services because she had over 10 words. (She had 14.  Giant difference, right?)  Six months later she had another evaluation and did qualify for services.  However, we still weren't eligible to receive them because we were getting private services.  They pretty much word for word said "Yes, she is delayed and behind.  However, we can't help you because it would be a duplication of services."  They would have made us stop private services and we would have only seen them once every other week.  They said they would help us with school district transition though.

Well, fast forward a few months.  Apparently everything they told me is wrong.  We should have been eligible for both the whole time.  I know EI is stretched thin and we wouldn't have gotten much, but they were supposed to offer us services regardless of our private therapy.  Because we didn't receive their services, EI actually won't help us with the transition.  Not only that, the school district won't offer any evaluations until her third birthday.  So, the whole being eligible for services on your third birthday apparently just means you can start the process right at three if you didn't go through EI?

I'm confused.   Now, the school district has been very nice.  They have answered my emails right away and have explained all of our options very well.  The lead SLP will be going to her boss to see what other options we might have since we were eligible for EI.   She said she was confused on why we were told what we were and is going to stay in touch with me.  She also said from what I described we should be eligible for a twice a week speech only preschool class  along with pull out services at our elementary school.  Basically, 3-4 days of therapy.  So, I'm pleased with that.  I just thought that we should be able to start the process now no matter what so services can officially start in November?

I could write a whole different post on how irritated I am with EI.  Oh my goodness. 

mommytoconnor

My son is 3 yrs old and started preschool in August for speech therapy.  We had EI services. Thru EI when your child is around 2 yrs 9 months they start the eval process for transition to preschool.  It took 4 eval appt's and the final one they go over everything with parents that they observed for during evals and what the determination is. EI did start this, for all they did was fill out a request and submit speech evals from therapy.  They went to first eval and after that nothing, so really EI didn't do much. It's been my experience that the people at EI don't really know much about a lot. I was told so many different things it could make your head spin, so I feel your frustration. I would push forward with the school district and I would also call EI supervisor and notify them of the misinformation you were given. 

ToastieSimons

My boys have been in EI. However, we have an AWFUL set of case managers. I submitted the letter to our school district the 120 days in advance and even got semi yelled at about not waiting in the EI people. @Auntie, correct me if I am wrong. Children are eligible to receive services at the age of 3. However, they have 120 days from the time you submit a letter of request to have all the evaluations done. My son turned 3 on June 1. I submitted a letter on feb 3 and they had everything ready for his birthday. He started preschool on June 3 since june1 was a Saturday.

spartybride3

Sorry im a lurker, but im a school psychologist, so this board is of interest to me. Legally the school district needs to hold a transition meeting/evaluation to determine if your child qualifies for services under IDEA by your child's 3rd birthday. They are eligible to receive services through the public school system at that time. It is possible that the school district may determine your child is not eligible under IDEA. If you request an evaluation through the school district, they have 10 days to respond to your request and the evaluation must be completed within 60 school days. The school district should have your child's EI file already (that is what happens in my district).

abs05

Thanks.  I guess I am just confused.  I thought that we had a right to actually start services on her 3rd birthday if we do indeed qualify.  Instead we don't get to start the qualifying process until after her birthday all because EI didn't provide services when they should have. Based upon what the lead SLP told me on the phone after the initial intake we will qualify . They will also accept the apraxia diagnosis from our private SLP.  I mean, she is only understandable to me and my DH, and even then we often have no clue as to what she is saying.  She speaks in vowels and has no pragmatic language yet.  There is educational need.

So far I am very pleased with school district.  They have been prompt in responding to my questions and have explained things very nicely.  My contact did say our situation is unique and she pretty much berated EI.  (EI has a horrible reputation in my area.  Horrible.) She's going to her boss to see what they can do push us through sooner, but I don't know how much luck she'll have.  My question was really just if that was legitimate--that if you didn't go through EI then you can't receive an evaluation through the school district until the 3rd birthday.  That goes against what I have read online so I was just curious.

 

spartybride3

EI or not, children cannot receive services in the public schools until they are 3 years old. From the limited info I have on your situation, you should not have any difficulty qualifying under IDEA. The district will probably do a play-based assessment (hopefully with qualified evaluators). If you do not qualify for whatever reason, I would fight the district's conclusion and request an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) at the district's expense. Your situation seems pretty straight forward though & qualifying doesn't seem like a problem (in my professional opinion). 

Since your daughter is not 3 yet, can she receive EI for the next 1-2 months?

abs05

-auntie- said:

abs1978 said:

Thanks.  I guess I am just confused.  I thought that we had a right to actually start services on her 3rd birthday if we do indeed qualify.  Instead we don't get to start the qualifying process until after her birthday all because EI didn't provide services when they should have. 

You should be starting services around her 3rd birthday. It sounds like EI dropped the ball. The transition should have been seamless, but there's little you can do about that going forward. It's best ot to let your anger and frustration carry over. 

I agree.  I'm disappointed that EI didn't help us when they should have, but we've been  happy with our private SLP.  We have been lucky that insurance gives us unlimited vists until her third birthday so it all worked out.  The school district has been nothing but helpful so far so I feel hopeful that it will be a better experience.

Based upon what the lead SLP told me on the phone after the initial intake we will qualify. They will also accept the apraxia diagnosis from our private SLP.  I mean, she is only understandable to me and my DH, and even then we often have no clue as to what she is saying.  She speaks in vowels and has no pragmatic language yet.  There is educational need.

This is good. The school district needs only to consider the private evals, they can dismiss them if their team doesn't see things as the private SLP did.

I know.  I nearly did a leap of joy when they told me they would accept our diagnosis!!  I've heard so many horror stories on this one.

So far I am very pleased with school district.  They have been prompt in responding to my questions and have explained things very nicely.  My contact did say our situation is unique and she pretty much berated EI.  (EI has a horrible reputation in my area.  Horrible.) She's going to her boss to see what they can do push us through sooner, but I don't know how much luck she'll have.  My question was really just if that was legitimate--that if you didn't go through EI then you can't receive an evaluation through the school district until the 3rd birthday.  That goes against what I have read online so I was just curious.

You certainly could have contacted the school district ahead of her 3rd birthday and requested an evaluation. It probably would have been scheduled closer to turning 3 for a couple of reasons. A lot of the scales used in a MFE aren't normed for toddlers; you'll get a more comprehensive report at 3 than 2 1/2. 

The other piece you are up against is that in many places, evals are done by the team the works with elementary aged children who are already in the system. It's very common for kids who have flown under the radar as preschoolers to have issues that crop up in kindie and 1st or an older kid whose known to have ADHD may develop new behaviors that require another eval. Most often teachers and parents take a wait and see approach initially to see if the issues are just a rocky adjustment to school or they'll try RTI as a first approach. After 2-3 report cards the parents may sign the consent to evaluate form and start the clock. Some of those kids, are being scheduled and seen now for issues from last school year.

 Ah.  This makes sense and goes with what our OT told us back in June.  When we had our evaluation, DD tested as having age appropriate skills.  She was at the low end of normal on a few things though (such as pencil grip) and our OT recommended getting another evaluation done at 3.  She explained that the bar for a two year old is significantly lower than the bar for a 3 year old and felt like we would qualify for OT at that time.  So, the evaluation piece makes perfect sense to me.  I just couldn't figure out why we couldn't get an evaluation done before her third birthday, but if the testing being done is meant for a preschooler only it makes perfect sense.  I did get the impression that services could start pretty much immediately after our evaluation, so a few weeks is not a huge deal.

abs05

spartybride3 said:

EI or not, children cannot receive services in the public schools until they are 3 years old. From the limited info I have on your situation, you should not have any difficulty qualifying under IDEA. The district will probably do a play-based assessment (hopefully with qualified evaluators). If you do not qualify for whatever reason, I would fight the district's conclusion and request an IEE (Independent Educational Evaluation) at the district's expense. Your situation seems pretty straight forward though & qualifying doesn't seem like a problem (in my professional opinion). 

Since your daughter is not 3 yet, can she receive EI for the next 1-2 months?

I have no idea.  At this point it seems pretty unnecessary since we are still getting private services. 

rsd12

My middle son has articulation and phonology speech issues. At age 2.5 it would have been considered age appropriate. Our previous town (we have since moved out of state) will not evaluate until the 3rd birthday (well, unless EI is I involved). Our current state will evaluate at 2 years 9 months. But they will also enroll at that age.

Since he was 3 at his eval, his speech was no longer considered age appropriate. So I don't find that piece of it unusual. He started preschool (peer) and speech at 3 years 4 months.

My oldest son was in EI since he was born for speech (birth defect) and EI did help transition to the town 3 months before his 3rd bday. But he could not start until his 3rd bday. He just had private and group speech but not classroom.