Experiences with school systems and early intervention programs

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

If you have worked with any school systems' special education programs or county/DC early intervention programs, would you share your experiences? We have not had much interaction with either kind of program and I am interested to hear which ones are good, and which are difficult to deal with.

If you used the free public early intervention programs I'm also interested in how you heard about them. We live in DC and we really did not know they existed until recently. I know they have a mandate to identify kids who need services, and I'm wondering how people find their way to them.

[Anonymous]

We used the Mo Co. infant and todders early intervention program beginning at about 18 months until age 3. Our child had a major speech delay and some OT issues. We were "referred" to them by a Georgetown ped. speech therapist as the GUH program had a huge wait list for therapy (we were able to have an evaluation performed however). Our county providers were wonderful and my son enjoyed their weekly visits to our home. Overall, very satisfied.

[Anonymous]

Could I talk to the parent who wrote the previous post. Our child is being suggested delayed in speech and OT by GT Physical Therapists. I am curious to compare notes with other parents, to get a sense of what level of child response is concerning, because our son seems to be very responsive to us as parent. I would appreciate if I got a chance to talk to you. My no. is 703-888-0733.

Neena

[Anonymous]

I live in DC and have some experience w the DC early intervention program.

I contacted them when my DS was 7 mos b/c has was referred for PT and all of the places for pediatric PT in DC had waits and could not tell me how long it might be for him to be seen.

If you contact them and request an evaluation, they must do 1 AND for us, they scheduled it within 2 weeks.

Unlike Mo Co., DC provides benefits on a sliding scale based on income (it is my understanding that in Mo Co services are free). What DC provided for us was they got us in home PT (we paid for it through our insurance).

In addition, if your child qualifies for DC Early Intervention, DC provides a voucher for Day Care. Don't ask me why this benefit exists. This is not on a sliding scale! Now there are not many places that accept the voucher, but if your child is in daycare, and is at 1 of these places, it is a major benefit!

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I am in Fairfax and went through ChildFind of Fairfax County Public Schools. We were referred by our pediatrician when we brought up some concerns at our child's 3 year visit. We've had great experiences with the testing, diagnosticians and the preschool early intervention teachers. They are wonderful through and through.

[Anonymous]

I've had experiences from a professional standpoint with Mont County infants and toddlers. Most people are very happy with the services. In fact, many parents are disappointed once their children age out of the program because preschool and school-age programs aren't quite as personal as I and T.

[Anonymous]

We were part of Arlington's PIE program, then our son became a 'dual enrollee' getting PT/OT/Speech services from the public school from age 3-5 (while attending a private day care). He went to kindergarten there on an IEP then in 1st grade he was determined ineligible. He just got Section 504 accommodations as a 3rd grader - overall, very pleased with all the services we received. The early intervention helped make his as successful as he is now.

[Anonymous]

DCPS and DC early intrvention suck. they suck so much that we need to hire an advocate because our autistic school still has no placement in a program. they are slow, we never received the services we should have gotten.