Reply to Tips for Seeking IEP for Incoming K at MCPS?

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "Tips for Seeking IEP for Incoming K at MCPS?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The school can test as part of the IEP process. It’s a long process and they will likely report back that there is either no problem or no educational impact. Once he is there and they see the struggles firsthand, you may find they change their tune but there are no guarantees. Hiring an advocate may up your chances but your description makes it sound like your child may not qualify even then. We know of a number of families denied an IEP for ADHD. Of course a big factor is the particular school. Our school recently had a complete changing of the guard and things are much better than they used to be.

Your child is unlikely to get OT even in a very supportive school. We were told they only provide OT as an add on to speech therapy and the deficit must be very severe. My child could not cut, write or even use a glue stick  (he had a documented physical disability that affected his fine motor). We were told if he didn’t qualify for speech he couldn’t have OT. Fortunately he did end up qualifying for speech and his disability was severe enough they agreed to OT. Sadly, the OT provided was worthless. It was group with 3 kids, once a week, and frequently canceled. As DC got older it became clear he had LD and the school fought adding it to the IEP based on their testing. We did private testing and hired an advocate. Success?  Not really! They provided pull out and push in but it wasn’t effective. We did private therapy for everything for years. With both disabilities, accommodations were the main benefit of the IEP. With that said, you might find it easier to ask for a 504. Obviously, a good IEP with both effective interventions and accommodations is what you want, but my child had a beautifully written IEP that meant nothing.

My other child with a well documented history of motor planning issues and years of OT under his belt was denied OT completely. He had an existing IEP in place for speech before K. We hired an advocate and met before the year started and got nothing.

Definitely go private for OT. Don’t wait until they deny you because early intervention is really key. Ask to be put on cancellation list for the neuropsych so you can come armed with documentation from the start. And then consider an advocate if you truly believe your child can’t be successful without supports. The system really stinks. Good luck![/quote]

Was this DCPS? The OT thing is because of the weird way the DC regulations define special education. OT alone is a "related service" and not special education, so a kid who only needs OT does not qualify for an IEP. That's why you also needed speech, which then pulls OT into the IEP! Pretty dumb when you have a kid who literally can't hold a pencil, as you know. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics