I need advice on what to do with my 3 yo

[April1975]

My 3 yo was evaluated and now receives services consisting of a special ed teacher coming to our house for 2 hours a day 5 days a week. He will start a special ed school and receive ST, OT, PT and Play T. The school is fairly small (60 kids) but offers a lot of activities that I think will be good for him. Most of the kids at the school are on the autism spectrum, which is great for us.

Here is the problem. The IEP for Sept has him in a 6:1:1 which is what the school recommended (which was based off their 30 min assessment of him and his district evaluation). The specially ed teacher thinks they are all way off. The district evaluation recommended a 10:1:2 (10 students, 1 teacher, 2 para professionals) , but we wanted him in that school and exaggerate at our meeting to get him the special ed teacher to bridge the time until school start. The district then gave us a 8:2:1 option. When we went to sign the papers, we found out that the school recommended a 6:1:1 class.

The teacher does not think he has any mental retardation and thinks he is actually academically advanced (the district evaluation said mild mental retardation). She thinks his speech is okay but his communication is poor. She also thinks his other major issues are poor social skills and needing guidance to complete a task (if he is not interested, he wants to move on to something else). She said he hit almost all the goals on his IEP already so she has had to move the goal post. They now spend a lot of time in pretend play, communication, etc. She said she thinks he has a mild form of aspergers or PPD-NOS since he doesn't have a lot of the autistic traits.

The school he starts in Sept maxed at at 8:1:2 class size and the classrooms are all self contained. She thinks I should not keep him there for more than a year and she plans to recommend him being in a more challenging class. She also thinks that he may regress in a 6:1:1 class. This was the best school in a 10 mile radius and at this time a year, all the best schools are all filled. I am also nervous about him losing services when we move him to a more challenging class. I am also nervous about him regressing. I trust her because her son was in my son's shoes and is now doing well, with no services, in middle school.

I really don't know what we should do now. If anyone has any advice, please let me know. Thanks

[texaschic]

I have no advice but didn't want to read and not respond. Is there any way the special ed teacher can send her recommendations and concerns to the school? Even if it didn't do anything this year, at least it would be in his file for future reference and create a paper trail.

In my limited experience with my oldest son's ST recommendations vs. the school (ST recommended private therapy plus group therapy at the school), is that neither ever agree. The major issue in our district is school funding. In order to be "qualified" for school services, he would have to be VERY delayed in speech. Llike you mentioned in your post, my son's therapist spends a lot more time with him than the school's 30 min. evaluation the school performed to make a decision based on that.

I hope there is some kind of resolution before school starts. My only advice is to be tough and keep asking questions until you get the answers you are satisfied with.

KUP!

[Gwenn]

The teacher you are referring to sees him in your home, right?

I would tend to trust,her opinion since she knows him and works with him, but I also think it's a good idea to start him in the program and see how he does. If he is performing well and seems to be more advanced than the other kids, I would push aggressively to have him moved "up" to a different room. But it is very hard to predict how he will do until he gets there, so I would give him that chance first.

[April1975]

Thanks so much for your response. Yes, she sees him at home for 2 hours a day 5 days a week. She has actually devided some days into 1 hour at home and 1 hour at the library to work on some other skills.

I spoke to her again and she says pretty much what you said Gwen. She said I should also ask about the needs of the other kids to see if they are about the same and also push for another evaluation in Dec. But since I don't want to lose a space for him now, I should do a wait and see. He has never gone to daycare so she says I should see how he deals with it first. It will be a big adjustment for him.