To respond to the last poster. We do private and school therapies. To be honest, the school therapies somewhat pale in comparison. The objectives are different but for the most part, everyone we know that has to take their kids to therapies scrimps together resources to continue it privately also. We are all trying to help our kids but I doubt we'd have made the progress we have if we only used what is offered at school. It's sad but true. I hope others have had better experiences with public school. We are in Montgomery

Anonymous wrote:PP, if your child is an a self-contained autism class, wouldn't the child get OT and ST through the school? Not judging wanting to get private therapy, im just wonder if it raisees a question w the school -- ie if child needs it outside, is the school not doing its job?

I'm the PP. Why wouldn't we do both? Most everyone I know in a self-contained class does both. They are complementary. Plus schools are notoriously stingy with the OT/ST hours. We had to push for years for him to have one-on-one sessions at schools.

The school OT and ST have different objectives - school OT focuses on handwriting, etc. School ST is also focused on educational goals. Private OT is to address overall impulsivemess, sensory input. Private ST is is also deeper on receptive language than anything the school provides.

PP, if your child is an a self-contained autism class, wouldn't the child get OT and ST through the school? Not judging wanting to get private therapy, im just wonder if it raisees a question w the school -- ie if child needs it outside, is the school not doing its job?

Our DS leaves 45 minutes early 2x per week for private OT and ST. No one has every objected. We are in DC and DS is in a self-contained autism classroom.

I pulled my daughter out once a week last year during school -- DCPS.

It counts as an excused absence. Just inform the school.

Never once got a slip or admonishment from the school.

I do this too. The school has to send me a form letter every once in a while stating my child's number of tardies and something about how it is every parents job to encourage good attendance. The principal is apologetic.

We did this for years. At the beginning of the school year, I send a memo to the front office (with copies to DS's teachers) indicating DS has therapy appointments on X days and I will be dropping him off (or picking him up) at Y time. I go on to state that unless I hear from them otherwise, I will assume these are treated as excused absences. It's never, ever been a problem. The therapy appointment schedule is not documented in the IEP but we do document what private therapies we do.

We are pulling our kindergartener son out of MCPS half an hour early three days a week for private OT and speech. No one batted an eye.

Talk to your school. Our school is fine with an AM therapy appointment but it is a private school with more flexibility.

Hi, My daughter has 2 early morning speech appointments/week from 8-9am. Her School starts at 8:35am.
We are thinking of dropping her at 9:15am.
They don't have late evening appointments.
So, either we send her to School late or she cannot attend Private Therapies. Does this coming late has to be documented in IEP?
Whom should I approach about this. Thx!