Is it worth requesting special ed services if child probably won't qualify (DCPS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you live? Other parents in your county might be able to be more specific with how to seek supports.

DCPS

[Anonymous]

Bumping for assistance. Can someone with experience in DCPS help? IEP ? 504?










Op - we’re in APS and I feel so fortunate with our particular school. It’s tough getting evaluations and supports in other counties. Wishing you well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like either your DS doesn’t actually have autism, or the educational impacts won’t be apparent until later. Don’t waste the school’s time. Also I’m curious about an evaluator that would dx autism with zero impact at school, and activitely discourage the IEP. It doesn’t add up.

He definitely has autism. ADOS was administered and the results were very clear. He was identified earlier than he might otherwise have been because he had extreme anxiety as a toddler that required therapy, leading to the eventual recommendation to get evaluated for autism.

Evaluator is NOT discouraging IEP. Actually evaluator is recommending we seek IEP. They are just being realistic about what the system will actually provide. We definitely don't want to antagonize the school by requesting the evaluation, but it also feels irresponsible to ignore the psychologist's recommendation.

A child cannot “definitely have autism” with no impact on their ability to function in school. It just doesn’t work that way. If what you’re saying is true my guess is that there is educational impact you’re not aware of.

The issue is likely the degree of educational impact and whether it rises to the level of qualifying for an IEP. Autism diagnosis does not automatically qualify a student for special education.

[Anonymous]

No experience with DCPS as I’m in ACPS, but we have a 4.5 yo DD with HFA (though I know the HFA label is controversial)—we have an IEP of almost entirely social pragmatic goals. We just did DD’s kindergarten IEP for next year and she has 2 social skills goals, 1 language goal (which is related to pragmatic skills), and 1 writing goal (she has been struggling a bit with writing but does not qualify for full on OT). A lot of her social skills/language goals are volleying conversations in structured and unstructured environments unprompted, and being flexible as ideas are presented in back and forth conversations with peers and teacher.

She isn’t getting a ton of services— will be 1.25 hours per week of push in special ed instruction, and 30 min push in speech support. She will be in a general ed classroom.

Next year she’s supposed to undergo re-evaluation and I do wonder if they are going to try to push a 504. I have no doubt she is on the spectrum, but almost all her issues relate to social pragmatics. She’s the kid who really wants friends but doesn’t know how to make them.

[Anonymous]

A diagnosis does not mean a child qualifies for or needs specialized instruction according to DOE guidelines. The eligibility category of autism is not the same thing as a medical diagnosis of autism.

[Anonymous]

We are in DCPS (were in a Charter) and have navigated 504s and IEPs.
To answer your question "Is it worth requesting special ed services", I think the answer is yes.
If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do. Schedule a meeting with the current K teacher to discuss what classroom placement they would recommend for 1st grade.
During the meeting probe for how the areas of your concern have impacted your child this year. Take great notes (or record the meeting on your phone - you do not need to tell the teacher since DC is a 1 party consent state).
In the meeting with the teacher, ask what is the process for requesting special education services. This question officially triggers the process.
https://dcpsspecialed.wixsite.com/home/at-a-glance
The school is going to say - let's wait until the fall.... everyone is busy now ...... they are going to try and kick the can because once you make the verbal request, the clock starts ticking for when they need to complete the process.
Given that you want to keep a + relationship and the school is being supportive, I when they recommend that the process starts in the fall, agree. But the 1st week of school, send an email and ask what the process is and if there is any paperwork you need to sign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A diagnosis does not mean a child qualifies for or needs specialized instruction according to DOE guidelines. The eligibility category of autism is not the same thing as a medical diagnosis of autism.

I think everyone knows that. I also think it can be beneficial to take a close look at where the child is in terms of educational performance, identify red flags that haven't created major issues yet, get that baseline, get a sense of how responsive the school can be. Have a baseline. Sometimes they don't see things until they look for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in DCPS (were in a Charter) and have navigated 504s and IEPs.
To answer your question "Is it worth requesting special ed services", I think the answer is yes.
If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do. Schedule a meeting with the current K teacher to discuss what classroom placement they would recommend for 1st grade.
During the meeting probe for how the areas of your concern have impacted your child this year. Take great notes (or record the meeting on your phone - you do not need to tell the teacher since DC is a 1 party consent state).
In the meeting with the teacher, ask what is the process for requesting special education services. This question officially triggers the process.
https://dcpsspecialed.wixsite.com/home/at-a-glance
The school is going to say - let's wait until the fall.... everyone is busy now ...... they are going to try and kick the can because once you make the verbal request, the clock starts ticking for when they need to complete the process.
Given that you want to keep a + relationship and the school is being supportive, I when they recommend that the process starts in the fall, agree. But the 1st week of school, send an email and ask what the process is and if there is any paperwork you need to sign.

OP here - I really appreciate you sharing this advice. It's always difficult to know when to push and when to go with what they say.

[Anonymous]

No.
1) you have an evaluation and diagnosis
2) do they only need accommodations? If so, just request a 504.
3) do you think they need specialized instruction and meet the eligibility criteria for autism (search your county’s website or ask the dept chat for the autism eligibility form). If you think they need specialized instruction, you can request a local screening committee meeting and the school team can agree or deny testing.
4) if you don’t think your child needs specialized instruction, then requesting a meeting and testing would be a waste of everyone’s time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in DCPS (were in a Charter) and have navigated 504s and IEPs.
To answer your question "Is it worth requesting special ed services", I think the answer is yes.
If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do. Schedule a meeting with the current K teacher to discuss what classroom placement they would recommend for 1st grade.
During the meeting probe for how the areas of your concern have impacted your child this year. Take great notes (or record the meeting on your phone - you do not need to tell the teacher since DC is a 1 party consent state).
In the meeting with the teacher, ask what is the process for requesting special education services. This question officially triggers the process.
https://dcpsspecialed.wixsite.com/home/at-a-glance
The school is going to say - let's wait until the fall.... everyone is busy now ...... they are going to try and kick the can because once you make the verbal request, the clock starts ticking for when they need to complete the process.
Given that you want to keep a + relationship and the school is being supportive, I when they recommend that the process starts in the fall, agree. But the 1st week of school, send an email and ask what the process is and if there is any paperwork you need to sign.

If a team agrees to testing now, it won’t be completed this school year. It would likely go to summer clinic- not the school team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No.
1) you have an evaluation and diagnosis
2) do they only need accommodations? If so, just request a 504.
3) do you think they need specialized instruction and meet the eligibility criteria for autism (search your county’s website or ask the dept chat for the autism eligibility form). If you think they need specialized instruction, you can request a local screening committee meeting and the school team can agree or deny testing.
4) if you don’t think your child needs specialized instruction, then requesting a meeting and testing would be a waste of everyone’s time.

The psychologist recommended specialized instruction, as stated in the OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in DCPS (were in a Charter) and have navigated 504s and IEPs.
To answer your question "Is it worth requesting special ed services", I think the answer is yes.
If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do. Schedule a meeting with the current K teacher to discuss what classroom placement they would recommend for 1st grade.
During the meeting probe for how the areas of your concern have impacted your child this year. Take great notes (or record the meeting on your phone - you do not need to tell the teacher since DC is a 1 party consent state).
In the meeting with the teacher, ask what is the process for requesting special education services. This question officially triggers the process.
https://dcpsspecialed.wixsite.com/home/at-a-glance
The school is going to say - let's wait until the fall.... everyone is busy now ...... they are going to try and kick the can because once you make the verbal request, the clock starts ticking for when they need to complete the process.
Given that you want to keep a + relationship and the school is being supportive, I when they recommend that the process starts in the fall, agree. But the 1st week of school, send an email and ask what the process is and if there is any paperwork you need to sign.

If a team agrees to testing now, it won’t be completed this school year. It would likely go to summer clinic- not the school team.

I have the experience of requesting testing in early April - the school dragged their feet and had the meeting to discuss my request in late April and recommended that they start the evaluation in the Fall because "everyone was busy" with year end. The school had a reputation of dragging their feet and I asked what DCPS's required timelines was once a request was made and for a copy of the "Acknowledgement of Referral to Special Education Letter"
Surprise - they did not officially put the request in the system as they were hoping to do everything in the fall.
They were actually able to complete testing in May and had the Eligibility meeting in June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like either your DS doesn’t actually have autism, or the educational impacts won’t be apparent until later. Don’t waste the school’s time. Also I’m curious about an evaluator that would dx autism with zero impact at school, and activitely discourage the IEP. It doesn’t add up.

My son wasn't diagnosed as having ASD until he was 11, because he is smart and does well with the school routine. He had issues at home all along - and 123 Magic or whatever works with NT kids was an utter failure with him.

It is possible for kids to mask very effectively in one setting but not others.

OP - seek out services, your son probably qualifies for a 504 if not an IEP, and there are probably some things that the school can offer under a 504 even if he doesn't get a full IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it would be worth it to go through the school evaluation process. It sounds like he would qualify for a 504 with accommodations for extra prompts and breaking down multi step processes. He might also qualify for an IEP for social skills support - it wouldn’t necessarily mean pull out services but could get him into the co-taught classroom.

He is very young and the demands on kindergartners aren’t much, so you don’t know what the future will bring. Having the school evaluate now might shave some time off their response if things go off the rails in the next year or two.

I disagree. The demands on kindergarteners are actually quite high if the child is on the spectrum and exactly when you’d expect to see the disability readily apparent. Truly scratching my head at this one.

Tons of kids, especially girls, are being diagnosed with autism as teenagers. The disability is often NOT readily apparent during kindergarten. Associated behavior/attention issues are often misinterpreted as being caused by something else.

Those are not accurate diagnoses.

You're wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like either your DS doesn’t actually have autism, or the educational impacts won’t be apparent until later. Don’t waste the school’s time. Also I’m curious about an evaluator that would dx autism with zero impact at school, and activitely discourage the IEP. It doesn’t add up.

He definitely has autism. ADOS was administered and the results were very clear. He was identified earlier than he might otherwise have been because he had extreme anxiety as a toddler that required therapy, leading to the eventual recommendation to get evaluated for autism.

Evaluator is NOT discouraging IEP. Actually evaluator is recommending we seek IEP. They are just being realistic about what the system will actually provide. We definitely don't want to antagonize the school by requesting the evaluation, but it also feels irresponsible to ignore the psychologist's recommendation.

Please don't self-deny. It is very common that parents are told (incorrectly) by someone (friends, school staff, etc.) that they will not get an IEP.

It is your legal, civil right, as parents, to a free and appropriate public education for your child (FAPE). Schools have an affirmative "Child Find" duty to seek out and evaluate all potential "disabled" children and make sure that those children receive the necessary support to get FAPE.

Upon receipt of your (preferably written) request, the school is obliged to form an IEP team composed of specific school personnel who have qualifications to determine eligibility. You are an equal member of this team.

There are many laws that address educational (and other institutional) disability discriminations, because education is an investment in our country's future human capital. We all need your kid to be able to give their best contribution to society in all dimensions. You are not being the best possible parent if you willing give up some of your student's civil rights. Asking for your civil rights shouldn't "antagonize" anyone. Anyone who is antagonized by your request is behaving unprofessionally.

Also, practically speaking, if you are denied an IEP and then come back again later when things have deteriorated, it makes your subsequent request for an IEP stronger.

There is a huge shift K-3 - social rules become more complicated, students are expected to know and learn implicit classroom rules, language becomes increasingly complex, expectations are higher. All of this places an increasing burden on a student who may be able to compensate initially but at some point later those compensation skills become overwhelmed and the student has increasing difficulty. Common points to become overwhelmed are - entry to preschool, shift to K, 3rd grade, 6th grade, 9th grade, college and grad school.