So we had our first meeting with the school district folks today. We're not really looking forward to this transition since we feel like we're finally settling into a nice routine, we like all of Quinn's providers, and he is doing really well. But he is 2.5, and so The Transition Must Go On.
The school district folks were nice enough, but it was pretty weird how they kept talking about how Quinn needed to be "assessed" to determine his "needs" before we could even begin to discuss service options. Haven't enough public funds been spent on assessments for our child? We really know quite a lot about his "needs" and have stacks of paper to prove how knowledgeable we are.
Part of what's frustrating is that because Quinn's issues are primarily developmental, not physical (if you ignore the absence of FMR1 protein, hypotonia, macrocephaly, and increased risk for seizures and mitral valve prolapse), people always feel they need to "assess" for themselves. If Quinn had no legs, people would simply say, "Of course he needs some help getting around." But because he has no/little speech and a host of other less visible issues, he always needs to be "assessed". Even though to me not being able to say "mama" at 2.5 years old is as obvious a sign of disability as missing legs. And I'm not minimizing the difficulties of having missing limbs. I just envy the speed and objectivity with which missing limbs can be "assessed".
The hilarious part is that at the end of all these assessments, the conclusion is always the same: "Your child is really delayed." No way! For real?
As I said, the people were very nice. And I get how bureaucracy works. But it really is a PITA and I feel entitled to whine just a little.
Gregg Bissonette wishes Quinn Merry Christmas
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10 months ago
4 comments:
I feel for you. The transition from home care to school care is scary. And it is a PITA. And the people doing the assessments probably know as much. And what's worse is that this won't be the last time. Punkin has to be reevaluated every three years. FUN! I wish IEPs didn't naturally fall around birthdays. I just want to celebrate him being one year older, but instead we have to deal with meetings and goals and skill levels and least restrictive environments. Sigh. Sorry to be a bummer! I think I'm cranky this morning...
I am so sorry to hear how frustrating this is. I totally get it. We got an independant eval for speech therapy, so we could get the regional center to give us speech therapy at 12 instead of 18 months, and now they say, oh its great the local Herrick Speech therapist says she is at the 6 month level and you need speech, but you need to see our speech therapist for an eval now.
The sad thing is, they will probably send us back to Herrick for the eval. WTF?? And this was an eval from 3 weeks ago.... But I can be thankful that if I keep pushing forward and jump through the hoops, eventually I will get what I want/need.
Sorry for Quinn to have to continue going through annoying assessments.. No Fun. Will you be able to keep him at his current DayCare/School?
Vicki, that is crazy that they'd send you back to Herrick to "update" or redo a 3-week-old eval!!! Very frustrating. In answer to your question about services, that's the biggest issue. ALL of Quinn's providers will change when he is 3 - new school, new PT, OT, ST, new RCEB case worker, etc. And of course we ant to know what services will be offered, what our options are, etc, but we can't even discuss that for a few months, until all the new evals are completed by the school district.
Whine away...doing so is sometimes the only thing that keeps my little brain from exploding in frustration. Schools are not meant to be efficient (or even effective, I've noticed.)
We went through the entire hoop jumping process with our school and ulimately their reports read exactly like our EI providers' reports. Maybe because we brought our EI providers to all the assessments and they inserted the right words at the right times, lol.
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