Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 5 y/o nonverbal autistic child, high support needs. We decided to take a year off from DCPS and attended Easter Seals (Silver Spring location) where my child’s ABA provider (RBT and BCBA) provided therapy daily, three hours per day, Mon-Fri, in the classroom. There are releases that must be completed and we had no issues. We saw great progress with use of AAC device, tolerance for sitting for circle time, interest in socializing/play with peers. We paid out of pocket for Easter Seals childcare (they have an early childhood care center- mostly neurotypical peers with a sprinkle of neurodivergent). Katie Beckett Waiver (TEFRA) through DC paid the daily copays for ABA. Also BCBS FEP primary.

DCPS will not allow private (insurance paid) providers render services at the school.

Was Easter Seals very expensive? Did they have a waitlist? And did you return to DCPS after at grade level? I understand they don’t allow redshirting anymore which is another concern we have…

Easter Seals is similar in price to other day cares. There is one in Columbia Heights that is a Community Based Option (so potentially free but likely won't have space at this point) and one in Trinidad that isn't, in addition to the Silver Spring one. I know families who've sent kids to all three and had good experiences. I also wonder if you asked Appletree what its policy would be if you could have a private provider do ABA in the classroom and/or have your kid picked up early (like before naptime) for therapy. Several of their campuses are on the short waitlist page of myschooldc so if they'd allow it, I bet your odds would be good of getting in.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again - Our child is very verbal but not really conversational and not good at expressive language vs just labeling things, She has been described to us as being on the mild end of the spectrum but tbh I’m not sure how accurate that is sometimes (or if she’s so young it’s just hard to tell) because she struggles so much with engaging in activities and participating with a group. We have been hearing even with an IEP and psych or doctor note families have been refused redshirting for children with autism in dcps.

When you give your child multistage directions, can she understand them?

Yes and can generally effect them correctly, But she does not always carry out - she seems to have attention issues with any given task. Lots of spacing out and takes forever to do anything (adaptive skills, physically moving from point a to point b etc)

The reason I asked is I thought my child was understanding, but in reality was just using context clues.

That is why he followed directions sometimes but not others. We thought he was defiant, but actually he was not understanding what we said.

Anonymous wrote:OP again - Our child is very verbal but not really conversational and not good at expressive language vs just labeling things, She has been described to us as being on the mild end of the spectrum but tbh I’m not sure how accurate that is sometimes (or if she’s so young it’s just hard to tell) because she struggles so much with engaging in activities and participating with a group. We have been hearing even with an IEP and psych or doctor note families have been refused redshirting for children with autism in dcps.

redshirting is a tiny part of the equation. You can’t have your daughter in ABA forever - she has to go to school. DCPS has other resources and placements. Certainly it’s fine to send her somewhere else for PK4 (we bailed on DCPS PK ourselves after a disastrous PK3 year) but K will come around so you need to know the options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again - Our child is very verbal but not really conversational and not good at expressive language vs just labeling things, She has been described to us as being on the mild end of the spectrum but tbh I’m not sure how accurate that is sometimes (or if she’s so young it’s just hard to tell) because she struggles so much with engaging in activities and participating with a group. We have been hearing even with an IEP and psych or doctor note families have been refused redshirting for children with autism in dcps.

When you give your child multistage directions, can she understand them?

Yes and can generally effect them correctly, But she does not always carry out - she seems to have attention issues with any given task. Lots of spacing out and takes forever to do anything (adaptive skills, physically moving from point a to point b etc)

I’d go for ABA, DCPS is useless.

Anonymous wrote:OP again - Our child is very verbal but not really conversational and not good at expressive language vs just labeling things, She has been described to us as being on the mild end of the spectrum but tbh I’m not sure how accurate that is sometimes (or if she’s so young it’s just hard to tell) because she struggles so much with engaging in activities and participating with a group. We have been hearing even with an IEP and psych or doctor note families have been refused redshirting for children with autism in dcps.

When you give your child multistage directions, can she understand them?

OP again - Our child is very verbal but not really conversational and not good at expressive language vs just labeling things, She has been described to us as being on the mild end of the spectrum but tbh I’m not sure how accurate that is sometimes (or if she’s so young it’s just hard to tell) because she struggles so much with engaging in activities and participating with a group. We have been hearing even with an IEP and psych or doctor note families have been refused redshirting for children with autism in dcps.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 5 y/o nonverbal autistic child, high support needs. We decided to take a year off from DCPS and attended Easter Seals (Silver Spring location) where my child’s ABA provider (RBT and BCBA) provided therapy daily, three hours per day, Mon-Fri, in the classroom. There are releases that must be completed and we had no issues. We saw great progress with use of AAC device, tolerance for sitting for circle time, interest in socializing/play with peers. We paid out of pocket for Easter Seals childcare (they have an early childhood care center- mostly neurotypical peers with a sprinkle of neurodivergent). Katie Beckett Waiver (TEFRA) through DC paid the daily copays for ABA. Also BCBS FEP primary.

DCPS will not allow private (insurance paid) providers render services at the school.

Was Easter Seals very expensive? Did they have a waitlist? And did you return to DCPS after at grade level? I understand they don’t allow redshirting anymore which is another concern we have…

If your child is nonverbal that is less of a concern. If you want your kid to be on grade level or redshirted then this is something to discuss with IEP team. The discussion on redshirting is about parents gaming the system for NT kids, not about kids with IEPs.

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 5 y/o nonverbal autistic child, high support needs. We decided to take a year off from DCPS and attended Easter Seals (Silver Spring location) where my child’s ABA provider (RBT and BCBA) provided therapy daily, three hours per day, Mon-Fri, in the classroom. There are releases that must be completed and we had no issues. We saw great progress with use of AAC device, tolerance for sitting for circle time, interest in socializing/play with peers. We paid out of pocket for Easter Seals childcare (they have an early childhood care center- mostly neurotypical peers with a sprinkle of neurodivergent). Katie Beckett Waiver (TEFRA) through DC paid the daily copays for ABA. Also BCBS FEP primary.

DCPS will not allow private (insurance paid) providers render services at the school.

Was Easter Seals very expensive? Did they have a waitlist? And did you return to DCPS after at grade level? I understand they don’t allow redshirting anymore which is another concern we have…

Parent of a 5 y/o nonverbal autistic child, high support needs. We decided to take a year off from DCPS and attended Easter Seals (Silver Spring location) where my child’s ABA provider (RBT and BCBA) provided therapy daily, three hours per day, Mon-Fri, in the classroom. There are releases that must be completed and we had no issues. We saw great progress with use of AAC device, tolerance for sitting for circle time, interest in socializing/play with peers. We paid out of pocket for Easter Seals childcare (they have an early childhood care center- mostly neurotypical peers with a sprinkle of neurodivergent). Katie Beckett Waiver (TEFRA) through DC paid the daily copays for ABA. Also BCBS FEP primary.

DCPS will not allow private (insurance paid) providers render services at the school.

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Anonymous wrote:I would choose DCPS where the teachers have masters degrees and not an ABA center where we got kids barely out of undergrad lightly 'supervised' by BCBAs who had entirely too many cases to know my kid.

For a THREE YEAR OLD? You’d be hard pressed to find a clinic that would even take a 3 year old, this is a home based age. Please name the clinic, I need to investigate.

Yikes, calm down, I missed the age. But my answer is the same. I'd definitely choose DCPS with experienced special ed teachers over a coming in to my home to try and 'help' my kid.

+1. a full time ABA program with no actual teachers for a kid approaching 4 is very “suss” as the kids say.

Here you can find the educational and experience requirements of the person creating ABA programs. These are not “22 year old kids with 6 weeks of training” as your suss opinion suggests.

https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BCBAHandbook_250304-3.pdf

Go back and read. The BCBA was never the one working with my kid. They oversaw the 22 year old working with my kid. Never, ever was the BCBA with my child more than 1x in a year. Utter, utter waste of time and energy.

That was on you for agreeing to it. We had a bcba working directly with our child.

Ok good to know I'm stupid and no other parent has ever made a mistake. We were told this was the only option and the gold standard and we were silly to think anything else was acceptable -- MUCH LIKE most of you are telling OP on this thread.

+1 I don't understand PP's rudeness. The standard model that insurance pays for is an RBT supervised by a BCBA. People are referred to these programs by professionals. Nobody should be shamed for following the advice of trained professionals. The advice should change if this model doesn't work well. And private equity needs to get out of ABA. It really goes to show how greedy someone can be to take advantage of autistic kids to enrich themselves.

I hate it so much. I am a bit believer in behavioral therapies. but they ruined ABA. I feel lucky that my kid did not need a more intensive level of services. I recall when I did need more services for behavioral issues I found one practice in the region that was owned by an individual … so look around. You can tell by the websites if they are PE owned.

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Anonymous wrote:I would choose DCPS where the teachers have masters degrees and not an ABA center where we got kids barely out of undergrad lightly 'supervised' by BCBAs who had entirely too many cases to know my kid.

For a THREE YEAR OLD? You’d be hard pressed to find a clinic that would even take a 3 year old, this is a home based age. Please name the clinic, I need to investigate.

Yikes, calm down, I missed the age. But my answer is the same. I'd definitely choose DCPS with experienced special ed teachers over a coming in to my home to try and 'help' my kid.

+1. a full time ABA program with no actual teachers for a kid approaching 4 is very “suss” as the kids say.

Here you can find the educational and experience requirements of the person creating ABA programs. These are not “22 year old kids with 6 weeks of training” as your suss opinion suggests.

https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BCBAHandbook_250304-3.pdf

Go back and read. The BCBA was never the one working with my kid. They oversaw the 22 year old working with my kid. Never, ever was the BCBA with my child more than 1x in a year. Utter, utter waste of time and energy.

That was on you for agreeing to it. We had a bcba working directly with our child.

Ok good to know I'm stupid and no other parent has ever made a mistake. We were told this was the only option and the gold standard and we were silly to think anything else was acceptable -- MUCH LIKE most of you are telling OP on this thread.

+1 I don't understand PP's rudeness. The standard model that insurance pays for is an RBT supervised by a BCBA. People are referred to these programs by professionals. Nobody should be shamed for following the advice of trained professionals. The advice should change if this model doesn't work well. And private equity needs to get out of ABA. It really goes to show how greedy someone can be to take advantage of autistic kids to enrich themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would choose DCPS where the teachers have masters degrees and not an ABA center where we got kids barely out of undergrad lightly 'supervised' by BCBAs who had entirely too many cases to know my kid.

For a THREE YEAR OLD? You’d be hard pressed to find a clinic that would even take a 3 year old, this is a home based age. Please name the clinic, I need to investigate.

Yikes, calm down, I missed the age. But my answer is the same. I'd definitely choose DCPS with experienced special ed teachers over a coming in to my home to try and 'help' my kid.

+1. a full time ABA program with no actual teachers for a kid approaching 4 is very “suss” as the kids say.

Here you can find the educational and experience requirements of the person creating ABA programs. These are not “22 year old kids with 6 weeks of training” as your suss opinion suggests.

https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BCBAHandbook_250304-3.pdf

Go back and read. The BCBA was never the one working with my kid. They oversaw the 22 year old working with my kid. Never, ever was the BCBA with my child more than 1x in a year. Utter, utter waste of time and energy.

That was on you for agreeing to it. We had a bcba working directly with our child.

Ok good to know I'm stupid and no other parent has ever made a mistake. We were told this was the only option and the gold standard and we were silly to think anything else was acceptable -- MUCH LIKE most of you are telling OP on this thread.

Anonymous wrote:
We are a little worried that at-home only ABA may not help sufficiently with her social skills and ability to be with a group classroom environment. She currently already has 1:1 Floortime developmental therapy in the home on weekends, though I understand that is not structured like ABA is. I think she would struggle with a 1:1 full time approach and I worry she would miss out on social developments. She did seem to enjoy being around the other kids even if she does not yet understand how to truly engage with them. Hence the interest in center-based preschool/daycare like environment if we cannot get DCPS to agree to a hybrid. We have asked DCPS to add more to her IEP and had a lot of difficulty even getting them to add speech even though it was recommended in her medical clinical report, so it seems it would be an uphill battle to get anything more than what is on her plan if we want her in a gen ed classroom.

OP - can I ask why you want your child to remain in a gen ed classroom in DCPS if she is struggling? DCPS has other classroom options for ASD kids that may be worth exploring. They are not as fast-paced as the Gen Ed classroom and more time is spent in ensuring concepts are mastered before moving on to new concepts (similar to ABA methods). It may be worth asking if you can tour them to get an idea what they are like. The 12:6 class "looks" like a Gen Ed classroom for the most part, but has a special education teacher and more kids with IEPs; the fully-inclusive classroom is different; and can be a mix of PK3/4 students depending on the school/class.

Your concerns about lack of social opportunities in a full-time ABA program at home are certainly warranted. I'm not sure what your situation is, but school is the main way in which our kid gets to play with other children since we don't have an established friend circle in the city. Our child also really enjoys being around other kids, the school routine, and can follow directions with much repetition and prompting. We found that a more self-contained classroom where they are getting 1:1 supports in addition to modified curriculum was a good fit. We do ABA after school with a BCBA; it's fewer hours but a good mix of school vs home setting (for us).

If you are really struggling with DCPS to get the accommodations your child needs and wish to keep your child in the DCPS system for the foreseeable future, it may be worth looking into hiring an educational advocate. Our experience working with the school administration has been positive, but working with DCPS central is really frustrating and time-consuming so i understand why people opt for that.

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Anonymous wrote:OP, our child has a very similar profile, we just finished up PK3 with DCPS and struggled with the same decision. We chose to stay in DCPS for PK4 with accomodations, because:

1 - The full-time, center-based ABA programs we toured were both depressing, and - practically speaking - too far away to commute every day reasonably with both parents working. Also felt like the RBT's were less qualified than the BCBA our kid works with in DCPS.

2 - The social-emotional aspect. I was homeschooled through high school (without any say in the matter) and dealt with serious feeings of isolation; I don't want my kid to be fully in a home-based ABA program without the ability to interact with other kids in a classroom environment, which is also valuable.

3 - There are other options in DCPS you can explore with higher supports like the 12:6 classroom or CES program, which is ABA based and targeted towards kids with ASD. There's a whole process to get a referral for CES, which can take a long time if you don't have an advocate. General ed is too much for our child, and the pace was too fast and also our child struggled with verbal instructions even with supports.

4 - ABA is still available after school and weekends, if you choose to supplement at home

This is not similar. Your experience was 15+ years ago and op would probably just do it for a year. I absolutely would try it.

What are you talking about? Our kid is 4 - this is our experience Right Now.