Child Find?

[Anonymous]

Hi, our child is scheduled for an evaluation by Arlington County as part of the Child Find program and I was wondering whether anyone can tell me what the evaluation typically entails and/or what your experience was/is with this type of program (I understand it can vary county to county). We've been told the evaluation will take about 30 minutes, meanwhile my child takes about 30 DAYS to warm up to people (an exaggeration but only slightly), so I'm thinking this is not going to go well. I also heard that the presentation of the results can be kind of harsh. I'm also curious about people's experiences with the program. Our child is in a daycare "school" program that she really likes, so switching to Child Find will pose some significant adjustments for her and us since we will have to try to figure out an aftercare situation that works (our daycare center does not offer part time). So any thoughts or comments about this type of program would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

[Anonymous]

You are correct the experience can vary from county to county but it can also vary within the same county. My experience is with Fairfax Co and it's probably just as applicable to Arlington. We had evaluations through EI and through CF. My experience is that with Child Find, they're looking only for things that will imapct the child's ability to be successful academically. They take an "educational" approach, not a medical/developmental approach. It sounds like your DD is not in kindergarten yet and in order to qualify to attend the special ed preschool, she would have to score fairly low on the evaluations. Depending on who does the evaluation and (as you noted) how comfortable your DD feels, the assessment may or may not give a good picture of her strengths and challenges. My advice would be to have them do an evaluation but get your own done privately, if at all possible.

My youngest goes to a special ed preschool in Fairfax County. We use an in home provider and the bus picks him up/drops off from there. We still have the pay full time rates because the provider doesn't do part time but since we don't have to pay anything for the preschool or bus pick up, we pay it. It's also nice because in FFX, school is only a half day on Monday and when school is closed for teacher work days/holidays, we can just leave our DS in daycare without a hassle.

[Anonymous]

We did this last year in Arlington. The initial 30 minutes is simply for them to meet with you and your child to determine if evaluations are merited and if so which ones. Then the evaluations are scheduled and based on the results everyone votes (parents, each evaluator and the coordinator each have a vote) to determine if you child is eligible for services and under what designation (delay, austism etc). Then you determine the level of service -- therapy at your existing school in Arlington, therapy at your local elementary or special ed preschool at a county school.

[Anonymous]

How timely... I just had an evaluation and it went horribly. We are in the process of getting all the information purged and shredded. It was the most incompetent administered evaluation you can imagine. No chance whatsoever for a warm up. And they had three evaluators at the same time in this cramped little space. Then alone with the the SL for a while as I talked with the other two. While I was talking they had no idea what my kid was doing with the SL and commented how "loud and excited he was" then decided he needed a psych eval after it was determined by the panel (and former PIE case worker who knew him for over a year) he didn't need one and that this would have set back eligibility meeting by yet another month. By the way, my ds was blowing bubbles with the SL therapist and they were having fun, thus the excitement in his voice. We are going private. No words can describe how disappointed I was with the whole Child Find process. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How timely... I just had an evaluation and it went horribly. We are in the process of getting all the information purged and shredded. It was the most incompetent administered evaluation you can imagine. No chance whatsoever for a warm up. And they had three evaluators at the same time in this cramped little space. Then alone with the the SL for a while as I talked with the other two. While I was talking they had no idea what my kid was doing with the SL and commented how "loud and excited he was" then decided he needed a psych eval after it was determined by the panel (and former PIE case worker who knew him for over a year) he didn't need one and that this would have set back eligibility meeting by yet another month. By the way, my ds was blowing bubbles with the SL therapist and they were having fun, thus the excitement in his voice. We are going private. No words can describe how disappointed I was with the whole Child Find process. Good luck.

Augh. This is extremely disheartening and I am so very sorry you had this experience. Do you mind if I ask what county did the eval?

[Anonymous]

pp here. It was Arlington County.

[Anonymous]

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/special_ed/parents/parents_guide.pdf

Some information about the process.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for the responses!

[Anonymous]

In light of the posting about following up, which I totally appreciate, I am the OP following up on our experience getting evaluated in Arlington County for the Child Find program. To summarize how we got to this point, we took the medical route to getting a diagnoses for our DC based on speech delays identified by our ped during the 18-month appt. That resulted in month after month of endless appointments and tests with neurologist, developmental ped, audologist, orthoped, and another specialist I can't even recall. During that process, one of the med folks advised us to get an eval via our county's early intervention program, which we did. The early intervention eval noted suspected SPD with speech and motor delays. Received ST and OT. DC is now turning 3 soon, will "gradulate" from the early intervention program, so the folks involved recommended getting an eval for Child Find services. The first Child Find appt involved meeting with three professionals at Arlington County Public Schools for an initial determination about what the evaluation should cover. Our DC attended that meeting. The result was a recommendation to evaluate for everything except a psych eval, so the evaluators consisted of general developmental, speech/language, and an occupational therapist. The eval took about 2 hours and entailed trying to have DC perform directed tasks, observation of DC while she explored the room and did self-directed tasks, and discussions with me. I was in the room w/DC at all times and they never separated us for any part of the eval. DC was extremely shy and unwilling to perform any of the directed tasks but was happy to explore the room on her own and do some self-directed tasks with toys that interested her. DC barely spoke during the entire eval. The next meeting was the eligibility meeting. DC did not attend but the teacher who was responsible for the developmental evaluation was there, as well as a speech therapist (but not the one who conducted the eval) and the program director. The eligibility meeting involved discussing the "report" that was prepared after the evaluation. I had requested a copy of the report in advance and got it about two days before the eligibility meeting. I think I'm running out of space so will continue this in following post ....

[Anonymous]

OP again -- the report discussed the results of the evaluation and whether the conclusions were based on observations of my DC or whether they were based on the discussions with me since my DC was unwilling to perform almost all the directed tasks. I forgot that a social worker also conducted a telephone interview with me and that was included in the report, along with the results of the eval. During the eligibility meeting the three professionals discussed the report and then we had a conversation about what we (DC's parents) thought and whether there was anything in the report that we thought was inaccurate or otherwise concerned us. This was truly more of a conversation -- at no time did I get the sense it was "us versus them" or that I was having to fight for something. They were very open to the questions DH and I posed and one issue that I thought was incorrectly reflected in the report. Following that the professionals had a discussion (pretty much among themselves but while were sitting there) about whether they thought our DC was eligible for services. I found the discussion to be very thoughtful and thorough and, unlike the experience of a prior poster, I was actually pretty impressed with the process and had a good experience. Maybe that's because we were referred from early intervention and had the early intervention coordinator there with us. Regardless, I thought the meeting was very professional and helpful. The end result was a qualification for services and referral to the next stage to prepare an IEP. They advised us to think about our expectations for the IEP in anticipation of the meeting, which I understand will involve the principal and a special ed teacher from our "home" elementary school, although our child could be placed in a preschool program at one of the other schools if it is determined that a different school has a more appropriate program (and assuming full-day preschool is warranted versus receiving tailored services, e.g., two hours of ST and OT each week at our home school). So we are now waiting to schedule the IEP meeting at which it will be determined what services are appropriate for our DC. Again, many thanks to the folks who took the time to respond to my original posting, I really appreciate it!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for following up! So glad to hear you had a positive experience.

[Anonymous]

Question from Arlington parent also in the IEP process ... for those of you who began your Child Find experience with your child already enrolled in pre-school, daycare, etc., how did the discussions proceed in terms of where your child would receive services? I.e. Can anyone tell me how/who decides whether the therapy will occur in the local school v. the daycare/preschool your child already attends?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I'm in the middle of this process and waiting to schedule the IEP meeting. PP, FWIW, I had the impression based on discussions during my child's eligibility meeting and afterward that the options were to receive services at the school or be placed in an Arlington preschool program. At no point has there been any indication during my process that receiving services at my home or at my child's daycare center might be an option. Having said that, I did notice that the Child Find brochure indicates that community services are available, so maybe that is feasible. With respect to your question about who decides where the therapy will occur, it is my understanding that decision is made during the IEP meeting, which involves the principal of your local elementary school, the special ed teacher, the Child Find services director (I think) and you (and anyone you bring with you). Not sure whether this is helpful, but I'm also trying to figure this stuff out (and feel like I'm having to do it on the fly)....

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing this information. We currently participate in the PIE program and are about to have the next evaluation done for Child Find. It really helped to hear about your experience.

[Anonymous]

PP (12:41) here. I was asking about placement because another PP's post (11/4 @ 14:23) sounded a little like geting services at the private daycare/preschool one's child attends is possible. I have asked re: the county policy on this and have yet to get a straight answer from the local school folks or special ed coordinator. The process does require a lot of 'on the fly' self educating. It's easy to see how a child could slip through the cracks without one or more tenacious parents!

Thanks for sharing your experience, PP.