How long should I wait for the school to begin OT services? My son has had 3 years of private OT. We have stopped private because it was self pay and also because the school district has OT services. This child needs OT for his handwriting. I spoke about it several times last year, of course, I was always ignored. Then at the year end IEP meeting the teachers themselves brought it up. Of course I completely agreed that he needed OT and thought it was in his IEP. Fast forward to the beginning of this year and I’m waiting for it to begin, his teacher is assuming it would begin two weeks into the school year. Then, she discovers that while discussed, it wasn’t included in the IEP. I immediately started the process for the evaluation. He has been evaluated and now we are waiting for all the OT’s in the county to meet and discuss if he needs the service! I just heard from the teacher that we are still waiting for the meeting of all OT’s. Evidently the OT at the school is filling in for the permanent OT while she is on maternity leave; (she is supposed to return next week.) and substitute OT won’t or can’t make the decision for his services. (Sounds to me like a stall tactic.) We have been waiting since mid-August and it is now the end of October. My son was evaluated mid-September. How long should I wait before I contact everyone appropriate in my county concerning this service?
Re: How long should I wait - what state are you in?
I agree with SAR. What does the report say? I would definitely get a letter together about how he isn’t getting the appropriate education he needs. Your son shouldn’t suffer because the school isn’t prepared or organized!
K.
Thank you both - He starts next week!!
I went back to his teacher with pointers I received from both of you and began asking lots of questions. At first they tried to say the meeting / conference would be in two weeks. When I came back with why wait 2 weeks. They came back with he begins next week. Got it in writing - well… by email.
Re: How long should I wait - OT services from school?
I don’t know what the process is in your state for reviewing the IEP, since obviously something was missed.
We have a nine-year old son with Coordination Development Disorder, affecting his small motor skills only, in conjunction with receptive and expressive language disabilities. His IEP states that he should receive appropriate OT. However, I just spoke with his district-provided OT last week; she told me that her case load is so large that she is only able to give our son 90 minutes a month of OT, and that in her opinion, he needs more. So I call our widely-known Children’s Hospital. They can evaluate him in nine months. How helpful.
We are obviously going to have to pay for OT somewhere, although we still have to research to find someone who can provide OT privately. We are already paying for various private tutors for the language disabilities, which are more of the primary deficit. In speaking with the OT, she suggested we could always go the route of getting our son an “Alpha-Writer” (a small, portable word-processing device for children who can’t physically write). I don’t know what to make of that; does she believe our son will never catch up in his handwriting abilities, and we should just give up on that?
Anyway, it is our experience that the “OT” arena gets the table scrapings when it comes to funding from the district. How sad!
Re: How long should I wait - OT services from school?
How much OT is written into the IEP? If it states only “appropriate OT” then they are not following the guidelines of a legal IEP. Check the IEP. If the IEP states 60 minutes a week then they either provide it or pay for it privately. They can’t not provide a service because of lack of money.
As far as getting a Alpha-Writer (probably an Alpha Smart) it is always good to work on a problem from more then one angle. The need for Assisstive Technology should be considered at IEP meetings (though most districts do not). You have the right to request an Assisstive Technology evaluation.
Helen
Do you have a written copy of the OT eval., and do you know if it recommends direct OT services? I wouldn’t wait to get the meeting scheduled, can you write to the director of spec. ed. requesting a mtg to review the findings of this latest eval.? It really isn’t your problem if they’re all out on maternity leave, it should be up to the head of special ed. services for your school.