Who do I need? What do I do? What would YOU do?

[Anonymous]

I really need some advice regarding my child in Kindergarten. We have a diagnosis of either Asperger's or PDD-NOS (depends which of our doctors you ask). So, HFA with no cognitive delays, but sensory needs that place him on the spectrum.

DS attends a local charter school, and has an IEP in place but the present (recently re-written, BTW) IEP is clearly still insufficient for his needs. He either needs more service hours or a part-time aide. What do I do?

I've heard anecdotally that some DCPS schools have provided aides to HFA children. If that's true, is it reasonable to expect that same level of accommodation from a charter school?

Also, who do I need to go to for help? A lawyer? An education consultant? An advocate? And, does anyone have an idea of how much this would cost?

I really do NOT want an adversarial relationship with this school. I happen to like it very much. I want to keep DS there for as long as it's an option and I would like my other child to go there too. I want this process to be as collegial as possible. Having said that, I do not think the school is voluntarily stepping up to the plate and offering what my child needs, so I think I need to talk with a professional and get some help.

[Anonymous]

I think you need an advocate - asap! They usually run about $250 p/h. If you search on the board on the word "advocate" you may find some helpful info such as names, process etc.

Good luck and good for you for starting early!

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't hold my breath to get an aide. I have a HFA 5 year old in DCPS and he didn't qualify for one. It doesn't sound like your son needs an aide, I think he needs more specialized instruction, meaning that his hours with a special ed teacher should be increased.

Good luck! I really don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I have found the process of trying to get an aide frustrating and we were told that DCPS is trying to cut funding for that down. Even the low functioning autistic kid in our classroom doesn't get an aide anymore and he really benefitted from it.

[Anonymous]

Also I'd be interested to hear which schools supposedly provided these aides... because I really haven't heard that at all.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm not married to the idea of an aide. I could be perfectly happy with more specialized instruction (as long as it's push-in instead of pull-out). It's just clear to me that we don't have enough.

The school I heard where HFA children had aides was either Lafayette or Janney. Sorry, not trying to be vague, I honestly don't remember more than that.

On another note, you say that there's a low-functioning autistic child in a regular DCPS classroom? How is that even possible? It's unconscionable!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you need an advocate - asap! They usually run about $250 p/h. If you search on the board on the word "advocate" you may find some helpful info such as names, process etc.

Good luck and good for you for starting early!

Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

No the low functioing child is in an autism classroom and taken care of very well, so no worries Actually I heard the same about Janney, so I'd be curious if that's really true.

Btw we are in the same boat and I am trying to push for specialized instruction within the regular ed classroom as well. We have our meeting sometime in June.

[Anonymous]

I personally know of a child at Janney who has HFA and an aide.

[Anonymous]

Hire an educational advocate.

We have had great luck with Dr Laura Solomon. She knows DC well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hire an educational advocate.

We have had great luck with Dr Laura Solomon. She knows DC well

Is there anything I need to know or do or prepare in advance of talking to an advocate?

[Anonymous]

I personally know of a child at Janney who has HFA and an aide.

I think I know this family, and I'm pretty sure the family pays for the aide, not the District of Columbia

[Anonymous]

Hiring an advocate/consultant is a good idea. Aside from attending IEP meetings and giving advice, we have also found it valuable to have the consultant do observations in the classroom from time to time. We provide observation reports to the school. These observation reports include recommendations which will sometimes spur the school (DCPS) into providing accomodations that they either had not thought of or wouldn't offer otherwise. Not inexpensive, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hire an educational advocate.

We have had great luck with Dr Laura Solomon. She knows DC well

I looked up Dr. Solomon, it looks like she does evaluations - is that right? I think I actually already have the neurological/ST/OT evaluations that describe DS's diagnosis, issues, strengths, weaknesses, etc. What I need (or what I think I need - feel free to point out how I may be wrong) is someone to do a school observation and then come to the IEP meeting and say "Based on what I've seen, the IEP is insufficient to meet this child's needs in the following areas..." "I advise the following additional services or accommodations..."

Does she do that or do I need to find someone else?

[Anonymous]

We're in Virginia and used Dr. Ruth Heitin. She prefers the term "consultant" to "advocate" since advocate has adversarial connotations http://www.educationalconsultingva.com/.

I agree that you need some professional assistance. We hired Dr. Heitin after providing the school with numerous private evaluations about DS yet they still declined to evaluate him (they wouldn't accept our evaluations) because based on their casual observations of him, nothing about him stood out. But, we knew he wasn't learning anything at school. A good consultant (which will cost you about $250/hr) will read all the reports you have, meet with you and your child and help you determine what needs to be done in order to get your child to an appropriate education level. There's so much to know and unless you specialize in this sort of thing, you couldn't learn it fast enough to be as effective as you need to be in dealing with the school. There's also something to be said about having someone on your side that's not emotionally invested in the outcome - they're taken a lot more seriously than "just the parent".

Having a consultant has gotten us the services we know DS needs and has helped us maintain a positive relationship with the school. We have two kids with IEPs and when we first started the IEP process, the meeting were long, tense and divergent. Dr. Heitin does most of the talking for our side and does all of the pushing. We chime in every now and then with our concern and our appreciation but Dr. Heitin is the one slogging through what is an appropriate goal, what is a valid measure, why the kid needs related services and how many hours it will take to get where he needs to be. It's not cheap but we feel it's been very good value. She knows what the law/regulations say and what can really be done - sometimes even the teachers and therapists don't know. Another benefit to using a consultant like her is that the schools know her or know of her. We had to postpone an IEP review because we'd requested OT and ST be added to the IEP but no one had contacted the OT and ST to start the process. There was no point in continuing the meeting until we had their input because without it, we wouldn't know the impact on their ability to access the curricula (a magic word). Dr. Heitin was miffed and asked that the pyramid procedural officer attend the next meeting. She did and what an eye opener that was. There was a whole different level of preparedness, let me tell you. Nowadays, there's not much pushing that needs to be done. Dr. Heitin still comes with us and the meetings are still long but we have amazing IEPs. A good consultant is what you need, I think. Good luck and congratuations of starting so early. That's the best!

[Anonymous]

looked up Dr. Solomon, it looks like she does evaluations - is that right? I think I actually already have the neurological/ST/OT evaluations that describe DS's diagnosis, issues, strengths, weaknesses, etc. What I need (or what I think I need - feel free to point out how I may be wrong) is someone to do a school observation and then come to the IEP meeting and say "Based on what I've seen, the IEP is insufficient to meet this child's needs in the following areas..." "I advise the following additional services or accommodations..."

Does she do that or do I need to find someone else?


Yes: Dr. Solomon helps get IEPs re-written also.