Over the past year, well up until this fall that is,we have been knee deep in what I like to call
educational turmoil. Before the age of three, Bot was in the most fantastic therapeutic and educational programs all provided at no cost by our state's early intervention. The he turned three and all of those wonderful resources were pulled out from under us as we transferred into the public school systems early intervention program. He went from receiving hours upon hours of speech, feeding, and occupational therapies and attending what I feel is the most top notch early intervention preschool in our area to suddenly being denied all services. That's right, I said ALL services. The public school's evaluations showed that Bot didn't qualify for an IEP based on his cognitive scores which gave them the impression that his academic performance would never be impacted. For those of you not familiar with IEP's, in order to get one it must be proven that the child's academic performance is impacted by their disability. (I want to gag as I write that because I must have been told that line a million times). The OT agreed verbally to me that Bot seemed to be struggling sensory wise but no one on the IEP team seemed to give that woman the voice and respect she deserved. It did not matter that this was a child who struggled with communicating his needs and wants, or that he could not be around more than 3 or 4 children at a time, or that he still had some obvious hypotonia in his hands. It also did not matter that he had a diagnosis of Autism and Hyperlexia from one of the area's top psychologists nor did all of those notes and evals preformed by former therapists and teachers matter; the notes and evals that said that Bot could not function in a typical classroom. It only mattered to the public school that he could read and do other 'academic' types of things well beyond his neurotypical peers. We were infuriated and the school system knew it. They agreed to do a more in depth evaluation that in the end showed that yes, he was in the moderate range of Autism with some areas in the severe range and that he had significant areas of concern in his pragmatic language. I must add that I do applaud the school system for evaluating him further. That final evaluation provided him with an IEP and admittance into a nearby public school special ed preschool program with speech and OT pull outs. They couldn't provide any assistance with his feeding and eating disorder because you know...that doesn't impact his education.
He spent a full school year in a contained special ed classroom. That year was filled with ups and down but in the end, I do think the teacher was doing the very best she could considering she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I had to fight way harder than I should have to get him bus service but it was finally provided and was the highlight of his public school experience. He loved his bus driver as did I.
For this school year, Bot was moved into an inclusion classroom with over 20 something kids, the majority of which were ESL. He was provided an in class special ed teacher and aide to shadow him but that placement still did not make sense considering his sensory issues. All of his speech and OT hours were stripped and he was given "consultation only" services. It seemed to me like the school was going in the direction of trying to take away his IEP before Kindergarten.
Bot struggled in the classroom and I was in tears watching him be miserable. After his first day, he came home with some undesirable new behaviors that the teacher argued (yes, argued) in favor of Bot's peers. She told me that I needed to "have a talk" with Bot, as if to say that he was a big fat liar even though his Autism makes him the most factual child I've ever met. There is no gray with him, only black and white. It's safe to say, those first few weeks were nothing short of a disaster. There is a lot more to the story but there isn't enough time in the day for me to write all of that out.
We pulled him out and never looked back. When I went to the school to inform them of our decision, his teacher said "I don't blame you".
stay tuned for part two about the big move into an ABA Autism only preschool!
It's a strange way to try and educate our children. We too, had a decent IEP for my son's first two years of school but now we private pay over sixty percent of his ABA program and all speech and physical therapy. We are fortunate to be able to afford this. But, my limited contacts both virtually and in person have told me that the school district likes to revoke and revoke any and all services until the child is left with nothing as though autism somehow vanishes by the time they reach third grade. My son is in the second half of second grade now and I wish there were more hours in the day for therapy but there are not. I've always felt like it comes down to the money to fund our children. If we can pay, great. We can go out and find the programs and providers ourselves. If not, then we're forced to settle for what they provide which has never been enough.
ReplyDeleteExactly!
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