Community› The Bump Message Boards› Special Needs
Special Needs
New Discussion

Developmental preschool...auntie???

mcarter127mcarter127 member
in Special Needs
Sorry ladies, I haven't been on here much since losing Eli...it's been a rough few months to say the least!
We are in the midst of the school district evals to see if ds is eligible for developmental preschool and services through the district.
Our initial eval was nerve racking and it's hard to say how it went. DS was in all of his hyperactive, inattentive, crazy stimming glory during the eval so that was good for them to see. He had about 20 different activities out, none of which he stuck with for linger than a minute other than a shape sorter. He also spent a lot of time organizing their toys and telling them that things didn't belong together. He had 2 meltdowns and threw blocks at the psych and office staff.
We also went in armed with a report from his 3 EI providers and they all strongly felt he needs ongoing services. His developmental neuro also wrote a letter to the same effect.
At the eval was an OT, ST, PT and school psych. The preschool teacher could not make it. The PT was a real witch and basically went through the entire EI report and argued with everything from his orthotics to the speech eval. Im not even sure why she was there as Spencer has never received PT and I did not request a PT eval. At one point she put ds on a trike, gave him a push and then said his feet following around with the peddles counted as riding a trike so our OT was wrong!!! She was completely unprofessional!
The psych did a Vineland on him but skipped the maladaptive behavior portion even though behavior is one of his main obstacles! She also did a classroom observation where ds was totally antisocial and only managed to complete an art project with an adult on either side of him, redirecting him to the task every few minutes. Other than that all he did was wander around, chew his chewy tube and cry when another child got too close. At the end she said he did great?!?!
Sorry this is soooo long, I just wanted to give the whole back story. It feels like they're trying to find reasons not to qualify him. I know they don't have much room but that shouldn't be our problem! Id be ok with them sending him to a school farther away if that's what it took or even not starting preschool until Sept as long as they provided OT and ST in the meantime!
If he gets denied what are our options? I know we can appeal but does that ever really work? His eligibility meeting is next Friday, is there anything I should ask for before then?
Thanks so much for reading!!! This process is so frustrating! I know the focus will be on how his issues effect his ability to learn but I do feel like we have lots of good examples of how this is the case!
Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
Report Reply to Post

Re: Developmental preschool...auntie???

  • mommyof4boysmommyof4boys member
    You can request an Independent Eval be done at district expense.  What state are you in?  I'm rather well versed in NJ law and am pretty good at IDEA.
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • mcarter127mcarter127 member

    imagemommyof4boys:
    You can request an Independent Eval be done at district expense.  What state are you in?  I'm rather well versed in NJ law and am pretty good at IDEA.

     

    I am in Washington 

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • mcarter127mcarter127 member
    image-auntie-:

    Some thoughts-

    1. EI and school district services have differeing philosophies. They're going to feel different and sometimes different feels scary.

    2. It doesn't matter that the PT was a witch. There seems to be one at any IEP meeting I ever attended. She can blather about other "needs" but she really can only weigh in on her area of expertise. She was called in because a MFE must be done in all areas of suspected disability. "pedaling" isn't really an expected skill at age 3, so following the pedals is what is expected. It's not really an educational issue, just a quick way to test where he is in terms of gross motor.

    3. If it seems like they're trying to deny him a special education placement, it's because they are legally mandated to serve him in LRE. It is his right. LRE for most kids this age is a private parent-funded preschool so that would be the goal they're working from as anything else is more restrictive.

    4. They can consider what the people in EI suggest, but they are not bound by it.

    5. It's been a long time since I did a Vineland, but I know there are sections skipped because of age. The VABS for children under 6 does not include the optional maladaptive domains. She didn't "skip" it, it's not age appropriate.

    https://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-law/42331-assessing-infants-and-children-with-vabs/

    6. Doing great, may have meant she was able to glean a lot of information from the time she spent with him rather than meaning she thought he performed like an NT kid.

    7. My advice would be to wait until you have your eligibility meeting. He may qualify and all your worry will be a waste of emotional bandwidth. If he doesn't, you request an IEE and move forward from there.

     

     Thanks for your response, I really appreciate it! 

    Regarding the Vineland, the school,psych did say there was a separate behavioral evaluation so I just assumed that was the maladaptive behavior portion. Maybe it is a completely different eval, I'm not sure.

    Thanks again for all the info, I'll let you guys know what happens Friday! Fx! 

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"