I am just wondering how I can I determine what services the school should be providing.
My son is five, he will be six the end of June. He attends private school and was tested by the public district. He had an IQ and speech and lang eval. I met with an neurpsycologist who said he had definite CAPD issues. However, the audiologist won’t test him until September, she said she couldn’t test him now because it was too close to the speech/lang eval.
I want to try to get him services over the summer. It is almost the end of kindergarten and he can’t recognize all the letters and letter signs. I don’t want him to regress over the summer. I can do alot myself but would really like some help if available, from the school district.
I still haven’t had a meeting with the school to review their testing. The school psycologist says wait it out but the neuropsycologist I met says under no circumstances should I wait it out, I should stay on top of it as much as possible.
I would really appreciated any suggestions. I don’t know how I get an actual diagnosis or what it needs to be to qualify for services?? Also if I get a diagnosis what services to I ask for, he really needs to have help with the letters and some numbers help??
Thanks
K.
Re: Getting an IEP
My brother receives summer tutoring so he doesn’t regress. We didn’t have to prove that he would regress. It was originally recommended by his reading specialist. The last two years he received about 5 hours during the month of August in Wilson and MAth.
This year, we have an atty now, he will be receiving 2 hours a week for 8 weeks in Wilson and 2 hours a week for 8 weeks in math. Hopefully to prepare him for the next grade and a new school!!
Anyway, I am wondering if his private school kindergarten teacher and the private first grade teacher write letters explaining that he may regress and they want him prepared for first grade. I don’t know if that will work.
Also, the student services secretary recommended that I write a letter to the Director of Special Ed asking her for her suggestions on what I think we should do. I am not sure how much help that will be since he isn’t even in their school system. I doubt they want to throw money at us when they aren’t getting anything in return, so to speak.
K.
Re: Getting an IEP
I don’t know. I think it may be what is minimally required by federal law—like you have to bus kids who live two miles from school. Anything you want to do beyond that is up to you. I think it is the district which changed, if that is what you want to know.
Beth
Re: Getting an IEP
On the Mass. Dept. of Ed. web=site there are some PDF files that explain spec. ed. eligibility, etc. Basically, after eval the questions are: does the student have one of the disabilities in the Fed. definition, is the student making effective progress in school, is the lack of progress caused by the disability, and does the student need spec. ed. to make effective progress? If your child hasn’t been classified as spec. ed, see if there are any summer programs for at-risk kids over the summer, like Title 1 or even state-funded-our town had a summer program to help kids they thought would not do well on the MCAS exams. Ask about the local Community Partnerships for Children in your area, they may also have programs over the summer.
Re: Getting an IEP
Where can I find the federal definitions?
The neuropsychologist said he had definite auditory processing issues but he can’t have the formal auditory processing screen until September. By then school will have started and I don’t want to pull him out.
Thanks
K.
In my district now your child must demonstrate a signficant regression (rather than no progress) in order to qualify for summer services. This eliminates most LD kids. This was determined by doing some evaluations before and after Christmas vacation (my son actually went up because we worked with him during break!!) The standards used to be different here and my son qualified for summer school so I would think that a first step would be to find out what the standard is to qualify for summer services. If it is similar to what it is now in my district, it isn’t worth the energy because he will never qualify.
On the other hand, there was a program for “at risk” to be first graders at my son’s old school. It was teacher judgment that qualified a child.
Beth