True or False

bumpuser511563

Physical Education does not equal Physical Therapy services.

DS's IEP requires 30 minutes PT and for the past 2 weeks he did not get PT. He did get PE like 3 times this week. DS is in kinder so I am confused whether to push forward to talk to the school or not.

TIA

hopecounts

What is the PT for?

PE does not equal PT unless it's adaptive PE if appropriate for his PT issues or the PT is doing push in during PE (which could work depending on what the PT is for)

bumpuser511563

DS has low tone and needs PT.

I was going to ask at a future IEP meeting to push up the time for more PT.

bumpuser511563

It is 30 minutes once a week for PT.

I thought the school was suppose to follow the transition IEP until either the teacher or the parent decide to meet after like a month into school to tailor the IEP to our needs or to the style of our current teacher.

I think our future IEP will be next month or October.

bumpuser511563

The last IEP was done in April which would follow DS to Kindergarten.

I will have to go home and look at the IEP again. I know it is 30 minutes a week for PT. I do know it does not say who is doing the delivery of PT.

It has been 2 weeks today. We verbally asked when we met the teacher prior to the first day of school when DS will be mainstreamed and teacher did not know. I asked once on a daily report when DS will be mainstreamed and we got no answer. And I asked on a daily report when will PT start and who is it on Wednesday night. Teacher has not responded.

DH and I plan to ask yet again by a visit.

thefuturemrskudla

Auntie, why would "30 minutes once a week" not be written in a PA IEP?

CaptainSerious

Auntie, in our district, almost all services are written in the "x number of minutes y times a week" format (or "x number of days a week"). I have often wondered how they could be considered strictly in compliance with accommodations written that way, but figured that since it seems to be standard language (at least in the two districts we've been in), the courts understand that those provisions are meant to be met during regular/typical/full school weeks.

kar5162

-auntie- said:

thefuturemrskudla said:

Auntie, why would "30 minutes once a week" not be written in a PA IEP?

It's not just a PA thing.

An IEP is a legal contract if you will. No district is going to expose themselves to being out of compliance because the PT took off time for a funeral, or because the child caught a stomach bug and was out all week, or the district was closed on the scheduled day for snow or a teacher in-service and the service wasn't offered.

DS's first 3 IEPs have been written as 60 min/1x weekly for Adaptive/Life skills (special education teacher) and 45 min/4x monthly for Motor (physical therapist) so there are certainly some (even large) districts who do expose themselves. I also have a sped teacher in Florida where they don't specify the number of minutes at all which was just baffling to me. She meets with kids "as needed".

bumpuser511563

-auntie- said:

Sailor Saturn said:

The last IEP was done in April which would follow DS to Kindergarten.

That sounds great. Was the plan to start mainstreaming included in the document? By law, the IEP includes a % of instructional day in a mainstream setting vs self contained setting. It's usually toward the back of the document in the templates I've seen. What is in the document is where he should be.

The mainstreaming was the LRE.

On the last page before the signature (schedule of services) it says "03 Removed from regular class 61% or more of the day."

I will have to go home and look at the IEP again. I know it is 30 minutes a week for PT. I do know it does not say who is doing the delivery of PT.

It's worth looking at. Just curious, who told you he wasn't getting his PT?

The daily report indicated he was not getting PT. We had over a month of no summer private PT because we ran out of appointments through DS's health insurance. I wanted to get PT back asap because that is a long time to be with out and he has low tone.

It has been 2 weeks today. 

This is not an unusual amount of time to get services started. I would expect something next week. The PT may still be reviewing paperwork and setting up a schedule that works for all her students. A lot of PTs juggle several schools and have to coordinate times with other therapists who also serve the self contained classrooms.

I saw the school website and was horrified that had no PT or PTA listed on the teachers and staff list.

We verbally asked when we met the teacher prior to the first day of school when DS will be mainstreamed and teacher did not know. I asked once on a daily report when DS will be mainstreamed and we got no answer. 

What's in the IEP? Did you put a plan in place to bridge him to mainstream? Given that he had PE 3 times in a single week, I wonder if they're already including him in mainstream specials- this is the traditional first step for a kid coming out of a more therapeutic setting. Who is making the decision around the timetable for mainstreaming? Are they doing a gradual transition?

The preschool had made a gradual setting from the ASD to developmentally delayed preschool class. The transition started from 15 minutes for 2 weeks and they increased to 30 minutes the following 2 weeks and so forth until he was there for the entire 3 hours at the end of the school year. What I disagreed with is the mainstreaming was based on behavior.

This placement was good in a sense that the bad behaviors he saw in the ASD class influenced him to also react in the same way. He went to the developmentally delayed class and the behaviors stopped and helped him be his best self.

I knew the elementary school had to start this placement because it was written in the IEP and we have not met for an IEP yet. I so want to already but I will wait till October.

I'm sorry the teacher communication isn't good. That is frustrating. Unfortunately, Back to School Night isn't the venue for individual parent concerns. I think you're wise to ask for a face to face- I would be contacting the IEP custodian over a classroom teacher, especially if the teacher wasn't included in the IEP meeting. DS's district does rolling IEPs- we were lucky to be the last kid in the building to get done, so we always met the next years teacher.

And I asked on a daily report when will PT start and who is it on Wednesday night. Teacher has not responded.

She probably doesn't know. I'd contact the IEP custodian or the Chair of CSE/CST in the building. It's time you got some answers.

DH and I plan to ask yet again by a visit.

Good idea. But I don't think the teacher is the only one you need to sit down with.

macchiatto

Interesting. X got itinerant teacher, OT and PT in his IEP when he first aged out of full Early Intervention. His was written as PT 90 mins/month and OT 60 mins/month, but both did them in 30-minute sessions (sometimes overlapping).

And OP, sorry I don't have an answer for you. X has started Kinder without an IEP so I don't know how that works at this level. Hope you get it straightened out soon!