Last year my sons kindergarden teacher suggested that we have him evaluated
for O T. They said he had some fine motor skills that needed some improving but not enough to qualify him.
He is now in 1st grade and his teacher is saying that he should be tested again.
My question is…. Once I get a note from his doctor the school will have him tested like they did last year. I would like to know how I can have him tested
outside of the school and have the school district pay for it. I feel that if the district tests him again they will say the same thing as last year.
We are in Long Island NY
Thanks Barry
Re: request for ocupational therapy
If you go through your pediatrition you can get your medical to pick up the cost.
The tricky thing is that it cannot be for a learning disability, med will not pay for that. Talk to your Dr. about referring you to a nueropsycologist to do the tests. Have him refer you because your child is withdrawn and possibly having some depression (its only on paper) but it is a way to get med. to cover the cost of the test.
Re: request for ocupational therapy
If you go to the “LD in Depth” section of this website, some of the articles under “assessment” and “IEP” tell you how to do this. Basically, you first have the school assess the child. If you disagree with their findings, you file a request for IIE (independent individual evaluation). Most schools will grant a request for IIE because it is less expensive for them to pay for the outside evaluation than it is to hire an attorney to defend them if you challenge their refusal. I think you and the school have to agree on who does the testing.
A lot of schools won’t test for sensory integration disorder, and most will not provide services for SI unless it is clearly interfering with academics. With an outside tester you could ask that SI be assessed and, if there is an additional charge for this, you could pay it yourself.
We got an OT evaluation through our HMO. All we needed was a referral from our GP. This way we were free to choose the OT and the evaluation included sensory integration.
Mary
Re: request for ocupational therapy
My nine year old son just had an OT evaluation/test and we set it up through our pediatrician. It only cost us our insurance copayment. He needs and will be receiving OT outside the school and again it will only cost us our copay per visit. Our school tested him and said he wasn’t in need of services. It was his tutor who suggested he be tested again. So, you may want to try your pediatrician for help.
Before you have him retested for OT and denied services because he can just pass the test…1) find out which test they are using…usually one called the B and O which stands for the developers names, 2) make the very strong suggestion he be tested for SI issues which will be a far more extensive testing and will reveal (if he has any) the bigger problems…
My dau was repeatedly tested with the B&O which she “just” passed so no services but when they finally tested her for SI the fine motors issues were much larger of a problem then they wanted to admit so guess what Yup she got services…just 3 years too late!