How Can We Speed Up the Process of Getting a Dedicated Aide in DC?

[Anonymous]

I have a kid with HFA and severe anxiety. He is a runner with a 140 IQ. You are confusing cognitive ability with emotional regulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My posting about whether the charter school was able to handle "a runner" was to be focused on the safety of the child as a central issue that just an aide may not be enough if one has that kind of expression of a disability. In truth I guess if a child could not comprehend one should not run out of the building, there is a good reason to ask what he/she might be getting out of an immersion charter school program - if cognitively the student is not able to do the work - because surely these are very selective programs based upon the ability and interests of the students who apply to be able to do the work and benefit from the placement.

My kid has an IQ in profoundly gifted range and is above grade level academically across the board. Academics and cognitive ability has never been an issue. Also, with the FBA and BIP - all behavioral issues have been resolved. Not behavior issues at all currently - more well behaved than many of his NT classmates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My posting about whether the charter school was able to handle "a runner" was to be focused on the safety of the child as a central issue that just an aide may not be enough if one has that kind of expression of a disability. In truth I guess if a child could not comprehend one should not run out of the building, there is a good reason to ask what he/she might be getting out of an immersion charter school program - if cognitively the student is not able to do the work - because surely these are very selective programs based upon the ability and interests of the students who apply to be able to do the work and benefit from the placement.

Charter schools are not "very selective programs," they are public schools whose admissions are done by lottery and who have an obligation to educate all children who enroll. There are some kids with special needs for whom language immersion might not not be the best idea, but many for whom it is just as beneficial as for NT kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Original parent here. Thanks again for all the replies. Today they responded about the functional behavioral assessment. I've been told it takes 4 to 6 weeks to complete, which is why they want to wait until the fall to start the process. (There are only about 4 weeks left in our school year.) While I understand that, I feel like something needs to be done while that process works itself out.

So sorry you are in this difficult situation. What grade? Ask for an IEP meeting and ask for at least another classroom aid which the school maybe more receptive to even if it is only semantics. If he is "escaping", there needs to be more supervision and help in that classroom.

When my DS was in preK (we're at YY), DS had a classmate who threw furniture - before the school got the class another teacher, the kid's grandmother volunteered to sit in the classroom which helped. Soon grandma was replaced with a Sp Ed teacher.

My son's classroom in preK4 had a ratio of 3:19, teacher, assistant, Sp Ed teacher. K had 3:17. 1st and 2nd has 2:18, Sp Ed teacher who is a "floater" comes into the classroom.

You can increase the amount of hours of Sp Ed support for the rest of the year. The school will have to have the Sp Ed teacher in the classroom to meet the hours in the IEP.

Getting the FBA done at the start of the year in the fall will work better bc the point of an FBA is to come up with a behavioral plan which may need to be tweaked depending on how well your DS responds. Since the school year is only about 4 wks more, doing the FBA now may not help much and you may even have to do it again in the Fall. Kids can change pretty quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My posting about whether the charter school was able to handle "a runner" was to be focused on the safety of the child as a central issue that just an aide may not be enough if one has that kind of expression of a disability. In truth I guess if a child could not comprehend one should not run out of the building, there is a good reason to ask what he/she might be getting out of an immersion charter school program - if cognitively the student is not able to do the work - because surely these are very selective programs based upon the ability and interests of the students who apply to be able to do the work and benefit from the placement.

My kid has an IQ in profoundly gifted range and is above grade level academically across the board. Academics and cognitive ability has never been an issue. Also, with the FBA and BIP - all behavioral issues have been resolved. Not behavior issues at all currently - more well behaved than many of his NT classmates.

Isn't that like 180 IQ?!

[Anonymous]

OP. are you doing any outside therapy or ESY? A lot can change in a summer.