Reply to DCPS IS halting all therapy services for kids in private schools

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Reply to "DCPS IS halting all therapy services for kids in private schools"

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[quote=Anonymous]

If your child has an IEP with frequencies listed, then you need to pin DCPS down exactly how is staff in a private school even if willing and to say nothing of their backgrounds, going to be able to find the time even with idea of "push in" to provide speech, physical therapy or occupational therapy. If it has been "pull out," then I think you would have an even stronger case to keep things as is.   It is more than crazy to change over from qualified therapists to coaching except for the most mildest cases of say speech and OT.    But again, it is a cheaper way of doing it.  You would think that DCPS might want to give the more vocal and strident families "an easy out" in one sense to get off their backs by going private and just be willing to provide the therapies in a correct manner with probably a backing off of hours as soon as possible.  It was done at the last moment to prevent families from organizing any kind of aggressive or public response.

It is hard to judge the legality of it because on the one hand the former model served the needs of only a few families who could provide the transportation to a DCPS school setting for direct therapy.  Otherwise, families of equal means even were footing the bill for private therapy.  On the other hand this approach closes the door to a private school setting for all students with special needs by diluting level of direct service delivery and also limits choice.

OP - I can sympathize with the sudden change of therapists because years ago with our youngest I was able to keep her in a split model preschool program of regular and special ed programs and get her to up to five sessions of speech, OT and PT in the preschool years before and after her programs,  but I did not work and it was at the very local elementary school.  In those years the "medical model" of therapy was used by school divisions, which went away a long time ago.  It is often  a hard choice between an appropriate academic program, a setting with positive peer social interactions in an inclusive setting and one which provides the additional related therapies and/or appropriate behavioral supports.  In our case we opted for a lot less social inclusion for an appropriate self-contained program to meet her academic needs  and the therapists she knew from preschool years who served her well.  She was actually the behavior role model, and we supplement speech with private speech as well year-round.  There is usually some tradeoff in seeking what will work for your child or teen.[/quote]

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