Extended IFSP and school enrollment - DC

[Anonymous]

We are considering either extending my child's IFSP for another year at our childcare center or enrolling in a DCPS/DCPCS and starting an IEP for PK3. We received an offer at a school, and I want to start the enrollment process but I might unenroll and stick with the IFSP - I plan to make that decision later in the summer. Does anyone know if enrolling in and of itself nullifies the IFSP and moves us straight to the IEP? Or does that only happen once my child actually starts school? I've asked Early Stages and our DSC and no one is fully answering my question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are considering either extending my child's IFSP for another year at our childcare center or enrolling in a DCPS/DCPCS and starting an IEP for PK3. We received an offer at a school, and I want to start the enrollment process but I might unenroll and stick with the IFSP - I plan to make that decision later in the summer. Does anyone know if enrolling in and of itself nullifies the IFSP and moves us straight to the IEP? Or does that only happen once my child actually starts school? I've asked Early Stages and our DSC and no one is fully answering my question.

I"m curious what answers you get - I thought once the child turned 3 it had to be an IEP as they age out of early intervention system. You can decline the placement but any services would come from DCPS and you need to transport the child to them rather than them coming to the child care.

AJE could give you the right answer. http://www.aje-dc.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are considering either extending my child's IFSP for another year at our childcare center or enrolling in a DCPS/DCPCS and starting an IEP for PK3. We received an offer at a school, and I want to start the enrollment process but I might unenroll and stick with the IFSP - I plan to make that decision later in the summer. Does anyone know if enrolling in and of itself nullifies the IFSP and moves us straight to the IEP? Or does that only happen once my child actually starts school? I've asked Early Stages and our DSC and no one is fully answering my question.

I"m curious what answers you get - I thought once the child turned 3 it had to be an IEP as they age out of early intervention system. You can decline the placement but any services would come from DCPS and you need to transport the child to them rather than them coming to the child care.

AJE could give you the right answer. http://www.aje-dc.org/

Thanks. There's a new option to extend the IFSP, which we've already done as my child is 3.5. We can do that for one more year and don't want to give up that option until we are sure that school is right for him.

[Anonymous]

Where are they suggesting to place your child? Maybe someone here has experience there?

[Anonymous]

If it's a lottery placement, it shouldn't move you out of the IFSP. If it's an Early Stages placement (early stages said, here's the IEP, here's what he needs, here's his location of services) it WILL move you out of the IFSP.

We were on the fence about this last year as well, had a lottery placement in our neighborhood school, completed paperwork/enrollment/accepted the spot by the May deadline. Did not move to an IEP/officially off the IFSP track until July. Had we actually attended school in August without completing the official IFSP to IEP process, I don't know what they would have done, but the act of accepting a lottery placement didn't matter. In July, Early Stages "placed" us at our neighborhood school, and accepting that placement (and the IEP) is what bumped us off the IFSP track.

We regret it. We would have had a better year/seen more progress had we stayed with IFSP services, which were actually finally working. Early Stages/DCPS decreased several of our services (and then the local school failed to provide some of them/provided them inconsistently), our class placement was chaos, while we switched schools mid year and recovered a little bit, I'm certain we lost ground, and we would have had so many more options and I think a better outcome had we stuck with the IFSP (at one point, before we located another PreK 3 spot, I was prepared to exit DCPS and head back to a daycare setting and fund some services privately, is how bad it was, particularly since what we could fund privately was minimal compared to what was needed).

Your experience may differ, particularly depending on how much support/services your child needs or of what kind, what school you're at, what other options you have, whether IFSP services are working, etc.

[Anonymous]

Oh, also, yes, my experience was getting accurate information from anyone about the process and the extended IFSP option/when the switchover occurs was sort of maddening. They seemed to have no idea - but then it was effectively the first year they were dealing with it. Sounds like they haven't quite cleared things up (that is, they're not prepared for a subset of families who are on the fence - they seem to deal fairly well with those who are certain one way or another, can carry out those processes, but less prepared for answering questions about final deadlines etc). I generally had to demand info in writing, refuse to sign X or do Y, and request to speak to the head of whatever, in order to get to someone who seemed to know what they were talking about.

Also, you should figure out if Early Stages might place you elsewhere/recommend a level of services not available at the school you lotteried into - in which case you're deciding between the unknown Early Stages placement (they may be willing to give you some info on what they'd propose, but no guarantees on location) and IFSP services. And Early Stages placements are essentially first come first serve - so the longer you wait the fewer options you may have. But this only matters if wherever you lotteried into can't serve you (and matters even less, in theory, if you've lotteried into a charter). Otherwise, if the level of services you have is minimal enough, relatively speaking, you'd just go wherever you lotteried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, also, yes, my experience was getting accurate information from anyone about the process and the extended IFSP option/when the switchover occurs was sort of maddening. They seemed to have no idea - but then it was effectively the first year they were dealing with it. Sounds like they haven't quite cleared things up (that is, they're not prepared for a subset of families who are on the fence - they seem to deal fairly well with those who are certain one way or another, can carry out those processes, but less prepared for answering questions about final deadlines etc). I generally had to demand info in writing, refuse to sign X or do Y, and request to speak to the head of whatever, in order to get to someone who seemed to know what they were talking about.

Also, you should figure out if Early Stages might place you elsewhere/recommend a level of services not available at the school you lotteried into - in which case you're deciding between the unknown Early Stages placement (they may be willing to give you some info on what they'd propose, but no guarantees on location) and IFSP services. And Early Stages placements are essentially first come first serve - so the longer you wait the fewer options you may have. But this only matters if wherever you lotteried into can't serve you (and matters even less, in theory, if you've lotteried into a charter). Otherwise, if the level of services you have is minimal enough, relatively speaking, you'd just go wherever you lotteried.

Thank you SO SO much. That is extremely helpful - both your information and your experience. It is a lottery seat that I'm talking about, so it sounds like we won't get bumped from the IFSP simply by accepting the seat. I'm leaning towards keeping the IFSP but wanted to wait a bit before making that decision. The school we got an offer at is fine, very close to our house and accessible (son has a physical disability which limits our school choices), but I'm not 100% sold it's the best environment for him. I think this will get harder as we move up and up on the waitlist for some schools that I think might be a good fit. But our IEP doesn't offer nearly the level of services we get through the IFSP, and I am thinking one more year might be good for him with the intense level of services. We also might have a major medical procedure in the next year, which would leave me feeling better at our current childcare center. I'm indecisive as a person anyway, this is a choice that is really tough for us. I really appreciate your insight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, also, yes, my experience was getting accurate information from anyone about the process and the extended IFSP option/when the switchover occurs was sort of maddening. They seemed to have no idea - but then it was effectively the first year they were dealing with it. Sounds like they haven't quite cleared things up (that is, they're not prepared for a subset of families who are on the fence - they seem to deal fairly well with those who are certain one way or another, can carry out those processes, but less prepared for answering questions about final deadlines etc). I generally had to demand info in writing, refuse to sign X or do Y, and request to speak to the head of whatever, in order to get to someone who seemed to know what they were talking about.

Also, you should figure out if Early Stages might place you elsewhere/recommend a level of services not available at the school you lotteried into - in which case you're deciding between the unknown Early Stages placement (they may be willing to give you some info on what they'd propose, but no guarantees on location) and IFSP services. And Early Stages placements are essentially first come first serve - so the longer you wait the fewer options you may have. But this only matters if wherever you lotteried into can't serve you (and matters even less, in theory, if you've lotteried into a charter). Otherwise, if the level of services you have is minimal enough, relatively speaking, you'd just go wherever you lotteried.

Thank you SO SO much. That is extremely helpful - both your information and your experience. It is a lottery seat that I'm talking about, so it sounds like we won't get bumped from the IFSP simply by accepting the seat. I'm leaning towards keeping the IFSP but wanted to wait a bit before making that decision. The school we got an offer at is fine, very close to our house and accessible (son has a physical disability which limits our school choices), but I'm not 100% sold it's the best environment for him. I think this will get harder as we move up and up on the waitlist for some schools that I think might be a good fit. But our IEP doesn't offer nearly the level of services we get through the IFSP, and I am thinking one more year might be good for him with the intense level of services. We also might have a major medical procedure in the next year, which would leave me feeling better at our current childcare center. I'm indecisive as a person anyway, this is a choice that is really tough for us. I really appreciate your insight.

In case it helps, PT was the service we had the most issue with getting provided. There was an OT and SLP "based" at our school at least a few day a week, so those services were provided semi-regularly, sort of, though not in the best fashion (they were fond of large groups of kids, who weren't really needing group services, and then they'd trade off - so while my kid was in the room for 30 minutes, she only got 30/4 minutes of attention because the SLP didn't work with the kids together, but rather switched who she was working with). PT however ... it took at least a month to get up and running, and then they tried to do marathon sessions (HOURS in a row) to "make up" time, then wouldn't show up again. The PT was assigned some insane number of schools 20+ - that I just didn't see how it was possible for them to serve. Our experience at a charter has been much better across the board with related services, and the services for the most part actually occur and are appropriate (individual versus group, where individual is appropriate). And the service providers don't seem to have insane caseloads (I imagine the only way the SLP/OT in DCPS could serve their caseload was to do the large groups). Not sure if that's the same for all charters. But I think, in DCPS, unless you're in one of the few DCPS schools with a program targeted towards kids with physical disabilities, the PT situation will be the same throughout the system, and if there's not a largish population of kids getting related services, it might be similar for speech and OT too, depending. If the OT is only at the school Thursday mornings, and your kid is sick, or they have an IEP or conference or are sick themselves, or there's a class field trip, there's no make up opportunity, and things end up not happening. So you could definitely ask for that sort of info from the school - is anyone based at the school, how often are those providers there, how many other kids - which would give you a good sense of whether services have the opportunity to happen consistently or not and some more information on which to base your decision.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for the help. Turns out we could have enrolled without risking losing the IFSP until the school year but it took so long to find out that we missed the enrollment deadline. Here's hoping we get off the waitlist at another school...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks again for the help. Turns out we could have enrolled without risking losing the IFSP until the school year but it took so long to find out that we missed the enrollment deadline. Here's hoping we get off the waitlist at another school...

Well that sucks. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Op- sorry if I missed something. We are in your exact same situation. DS is 3.5 and we are starting preschool in the fall- but keeping EI services through the summer.

My question is- why does your lottery placement matter? Early stages spots exist outside the lottery. Will you kid be inclusion & you just want to get away from your neighborhood school?

our case will be differnt because DS will have a full time IEP but we didn't even bother with the lottery. We know where he is going in the fall

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op- sorry if I missed something. We are in your exact same situation. DS is 3.5 and we are starting preschool in the fall- but keeping EI services through the summer.

My question is- why does your lottery placement matter? Early stages spots exist outside the lottery. Will you kid be inclusion & you just want to get away from your neighborhood school?

our case will be differnt because DS will have a full time IEP but we didn't even bother with the lottery. We know where he is going in the fall

I was just concerned that if I decided to turn down the lottery spot (after going through the enrollment process but before school actually started) if I would still be able to continue with the IFSP. It's different when you accept an Early Stages placement, but I guess you can enter the lottery and see if you get a school that works for you through that process. I just wanted to know if I lost the option to use EI after the fall just by accepting a spot. Does that make sense? The conclusion is that I wouldn't have to turn down EI services until he actually started school.