Need a free or very cheap advocate in Montgomery county, MD

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[Post New]03/28/2019 21:24
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Khamy
Member Offline
Hi,

My child has been diagnosed with aspergers (High functioning autism) by a private psychologist.

It has been confirmed by a MCPS psychologist.

He has an iep his main impairment is speech and language delay because when he was in third grade his autism was not impacting him academically.
Now we can see it does and he struggles more with his peers.

He has 45 mins speech and language sessions, 3 times a month and extra support in math (he has 2 teachers in class).

In daily basis, he has instruction and behavior support provided by his subject teachers. That's all.

After our iep meeting the team decided to perform some testing to evaluate what services he needs and if we should put autism as his main impairment.

I need an advocate for free or very cheap to help us getting the services my child needs deserves.


Thanks,
[Post New]03/28/2019 22:21
quote
Anonymous
Khamy wrote:Hi,

My child has been diagnosed with aspergers (High functioning autism) by a private psychologist.

It has been confirmed by a MCPS psychologist.

He has an iep his main impairment is speech and language delay because when he was in third grade his autism was not impacting him academically.
Now we can see it does and he struggles more with his peers.

He has 45 mins speech and language sessions, 3 times a month and extra support in math (he has 2 teachers in class).

In daily basis, he has instruction and behavior support provided by his subject teachers. That's all.

After our iep meeting the team decided to perform some testing to evaluate what services he needs and if we should put autism as his main impairment.

He's currently attending Julius West middle school in Rockville.

I need an advocate for free or very cheap to help us getting the services my child needs deserves.


Thanks,

The first thing you need to do is go the wrightslaw website and get the 4 book bundle and start reading try to get an advocate too. Maybe you can do ally of the legwork yourself and pay a respectable advocate to show up at the meetings
[Post New]03/28/2019 22:43
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Khamy
Member Offline
Thanks!
[Post New]03/29/2019 06:14
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Anonymous
I suggest removing the school name from your post. Special educators may read this board and could recognize who you're talking about.
[Post New]03/29/2019 06:29
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Anonymous
The unfortunate reality is that what you are asking for does not exist. You can look into The Parents Place. I think they offer free consultations but good luck getting through to them. It’s not that they don’t care... but you can imagine how slammed with requests they must be. Advocacy is extremely time intensive.

So, you are either going to have to pay out of pocket or become your own advocate. In addition to the wrights law books, you should get involved in the special education community. There is an upcoming event that can be hugely helpful through www.xminds.org.

MCPS also holds workshops etc on special education services that they offer. You have to be very proactive and learn the rules of the game yourself if you want to help your child.
[Post New]03/29/2019 06:46
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Anonymous
Xminds is a good recommendation.
[Post New]03/29/2019 08:07
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Khamy
Member Offline
Yes I plan to go to xminds next week event.
Ok maybe we need to make a financial sacrifice then. Xminds has an advocacy service I'll talk to them first.

Thanks,
[Post New]03/29/2019 10:16
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Anonymous
Good luck! I ended up hiring an advocate and paying. I did find it worthwhile even though it cost $100+/hour. But, they interviewed us (the parents), reviewed my child's testing, attended IEP meetings, went to school to do observations, called in other school administrators on our behalf, recommend further testing, etc... they spent hours on our case. We ultimately prevailed in getting the outcome we wanted... but it wasn't cheap and it wasn't quick.

That is the process and you are guaranteed nothing. But, I found that the advocate understood my child's needs and didn't let the school get away with railroading us into accepting minimal services when my child needed more.
[Post New]03/29/2019 11:30
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Khamy
Member Offline
Thanks for sharing your experience.
[Post New]03/29/2019 12:15
quote
Khamy
Member Offline
Anonymous wrote:Good luck! I ended up hiring an advocate and paying. I did find it worthwhile even though it cost $100+/hour. But, they interviewed us (the parents), reviewed my child's testing, attended IEP meetings, went to school to do observations, called in other school administrators on our behalf, recommend further testing, etc... they spent hours on our case. We ultimately prevailed in getting the outcome we wanted... but it wasn't cheap and it wasn't quick.

That is the process and you are guaranteed nothing. But, I found that the advocate understood my child's needs and didn't let the school get away with railroading us into accepting minimal services when my child needed more.



Is the advocate in Montgomery county?

If yes can I have his/her website link please?
[Post New]03/30/2019 09:23
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Anonymous
If you even want a chance at pro bono or reduced fees you would have to provide proof of dire financial circumstances.
[Post New]03/31/2019 12:55
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Khamy
Member Offline
Anonymous wrote:If you even want a chance at pro bono or reduced fees you would have to provide proof of dire financial circumstances.


Thanks!
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