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Can anyone point me towards a special education advocate in the Lower Mainland? I'm having major issues with the school, in regards to IEP, how behavior is handled, and even improper use of restraint
I've tried a google search with no luck
Z,
thanks for the info. Our son's "1-1 worker" is NOT an ABA worker, just a child-care-worker. He was already working with D when D joined our family, and had been for over a year. Initially, he was working with D for 12 hours a week. "Working" is kind of a loose description; MCFD provided the worker as a support to the previous foster family. Then kept him on when D came to us, to provide some continuity in relationships for D.
MCFD has since cancelled that contract, so, while the worker is still an agency employee in regards to the other kids he works with, his contract with us is private. As a result, I'm able to pay him slightly less than the agency charges – he's getting $16/hr rather than $19/hr.
To be honest, it's a dreadful waste of money. We only continue it (only at 3 hrs a week now) because D adores him. But he's not really working on any skills, if anything, a lot of inappropriate behavior is reinforced – ugh. I'm hopeful that we can have the worker get on board with our ABA program once it starts up, and then we'll be getting "our money's worth" so to speak.
The agency we're going to be getting ABA through is Pivot Point. They seem quite competitively priced. The behaviorist comes in and does the assessment, designs the program, and trains us and our "staff", along with the worker they provide. We then get 5-7hrs a week of therapy from their worker, along with the therapy we put in place ourselves. I definitely see the value in setting up one's own ABA program, but I am not at all experienced enough to oversee one.
As for extra funding with D being adopted, we're "sort of" getting that. He's getting six months of one afternoon a week at a daycare centre paid for (for socialization purposes – and a nice break for me!). He's set up with play therapy, which just started. Right now we're working on getting the ABA paid for and set up. It will be covered partly through the Post Adoption Assistance option, partly through applying to the "guardian trust" (from what I understand that's the "extra" budget MCFD has for kids in care). The SW are very much in agreement that ABA is necessary for D, and that he deserves (as do we!) to have that happen.
Does anyone know if there's some way to apply for extra autism funding for D, since his previous caregiver never "bothered" with it? He missed out on having ANY early intervention – it's totally appalling. D was diagnosed a month before his 5th birthday, and received less than six months of very limited intervention via the Child Development Centre, which was NOT funded through the autism funding, and that was it. We didn't get him until he was 6 1/2, so that's over $20,000 in services he missed out on. Nevermind the fact that if he'd been in a half-way decent foster home and had a social worker with a brain he'd have been diagnosed much earlier…
It's so hard sometime, knowing all the opportunities my son has missed, and how so many people, along with the system meant to protect him, have let him down
I know it's useless wishing we'd had him sooner, but it doesn't stop us from doing so…
Thanks for the quick responses!
Dave – the reason I'm pushing for testing is to "prove" that my child IS capable of learning, and that they need to aim for him graduating on a normal diploma. I'm not afraid of losing supports, as D's behavior and communication are at such a level that he clearly needs support. A big problem is that D never received early intervention, and has a lot of behavior/trust issues from his placement history, on top of the autism.
We're currently trying to get Pivot Point onboard and paid for through MCFD (D is a child in care for another month, when we're getting our adoption Notice of Placement), so that D gets some ABA. A big issue is that while he's bright, his compliance is very low, and so his skills are rather disorganized. He can read, but is just learning to make requests. He can answer questions about physical properties of items that aren't present, but can't tell me what he did in school today…
I've been battling pretty heavily with the school so far this year, and am alternating between being encouraged that they seem to be trying, and bordering on rage because they just don't "get it".
I think their belief that D is mentally retarded and unable to ever achieve independence or a higher level of learning really contributes to their unwillingness to teach him. If I can provide test scores from an independent professional which show that D is in fact intelligent, then perhaps they'll feel motivated to try and teach him?
Right now he's being kept busy doing dot to dots and spelling out three letter words – stuff he could do two years ago. There's not an appropriate IEP in place. I keep being told "it takes time", but all I feel is time racing away from us, as he falls further and further behind
Kandi – I think I will call you! I'd be really interested in hearing your opinion of the testing, and how you managed to get it paid for by your extended health. We too, have extended health, which will cover D roughly 4 months from now, and I'll have to look into whether it will cover psyched testing. I know it will cover a visit to a naturopath!!!
Danielle
