What to do next? Elopement and aggression with first grader
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Anonymous
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Our 2e 6yo DS started first grade in DCPS in September and has had multiple severe behavioral issues since resulting in him being regularly sent home from school (about 4-5 times so far). A lot of elopement including running off school grounds, aggression including against other kids and staff, screaming. The school called CHAMPs (emergency response service for children having a mental health crisis.)
We did a full neuropsych eval last summer with CAAT which said he did not have ASD but diagnosed anxiety and DCD plus being 'twice exceptional' eg high IQ plus delay. We recently had him reassessed and they added in ADHD. We started seeing an out of network psychiatrist and just got into the Georgetown child psychiatry program. We have tried stimulants without success (they made him more anxious, angry and upset). About to try guanfacine. He has been in OT since he was 3. He has an IEP for developmental delay (although no one-to-one aid). He is spending most of the day in the social worker's office and is not engaging in classroom activities. He is clearly deeply unhappy - the school social worker thinks the issue is more anxiety than ADHD. I don't really know what to do next. We cannot afford private school and my fear is that they wouldn't take him anyway with the behavioral issues. Anyone have any advice? |
Anonymous
| Talk to the psychiatrist about an ssri. Often it’s best to try therapy for a good long time but this is urgent and you should at least consider it. |
Anonymous
If that continues, you will need to request a change of placement through an IEP meeting. I would not pull him out and put him in private. I did that and it was the worst thing I could have done for my kid. We ended up back in public and had to start the IEP process all over again. We were in PEP in Mont Cty and if I had just left him in MCPS for K we would have moved to a self contained classroom much earlier. My decision to move my kid to private cost him 2nd and 3rd grade. It was 4th grade before he had appropriate placement. |
Anonymous
| I would call a DC education attorney. They can set you up with a vetted advocate to negotiate a better situation for him at his current school, and if he is unable to remain in his home school the attorney can have DCPS pay for a more appropriate placement. |
Anonymous
| OP here. What would a change of placement involve? A new school in DCPS? The psychiatrist said we should try the guanfacine before adding SSRIs. Although that would be the next step. So far I feel like medication has if anything made things worse. I am also frightened about long term side effects of putting my 6 year old on antidepressants (although I realize the current situation is awful). His behavior isn’t great at home but it’s way worse at school. |
Anonymous
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Guanfacine made my already aggressive child go out of control to the point where I had to have him removed from the house. The first few days were fine and we thought we had found a solution. And then, bam.
Besides medication, I'd be asking the school for a team meeting to develop a plan for dealing with these issues. |
Anonymous
| OP again. Thank you. I will call an education lawyer today. Had been wavering - this is the encouragement I needed. I feel like I’m stumbling around in the dark. |
Anonymous
| OP — Your priority needs to be to help you son get his behavior under control and to find out what any trigger might be. Is there a chance he could benefit from a smaller class setting for the time being if there is an option in the school building. It could be that the larger classroom is too distracting and increasing his anxiety. If a smaller class all day for a time is not appropriate or possible, then I would request pullout for reading and math instruction some of the time. You are being proactive on the medical side, but for DS the school setting remains the same and even if everything clicked it could take several weeks for medication to kick in. Therapy at that age is likely even more of a challenge. |
Anonymous
| OP again, thank you so much. Are there any specific education attorneys that you would recommend? I feel overwhelmed by the choices when I search google. |
Anonymous
Nigel Atwell or the Harvey Law Group. |
Anonymous
| OP again - thank you 15:24 - the class size is small already, only 17 kids. But he was in a play-based preschool before with 12 kids and while it wasn't sunshine and roses, he definitely was not escalating to the point that he has been since transitioning to first grade. |
Anonymous
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What steps have you gone through with the school? You need an IEP and an FBA/BIP. You should hire a consultant to help ensure they design an appropriate BIP AND that they actually implement it.
You are correct that no private school will take him with these behaviors, not even the SN schools. You could reach out to Auburn because I did hear that they will handle some behaviors, but I'm not sure about that. Also, I would recommend having him assessed at an actual autism center like KKI. You may need ABA for the behaviors. |
Anonymous
I would actually go for a non-lawyer educational consultant first. That's what we did and it worked well. You don't need to be adversarial as the first step and also don't need the lawyer's skillset to design an IEP/FBA. You need someone with a background in special education or therapy for that. Part of their job is to create/retain the record in case you do need to go for a private placement with a lawyer. Also cheaper. |
Anonymous
| I have to disagree with the prior poster, the extreme safety issues presented with running away means you should go directly to lawyer. You need all the firepower you can in your corner before this escalates even further. |
Anonymous
Lawyers do not mean adversarial, it means they have the power to compel DCPS to take actions that a consultant cannot. |