Why is it so hard to get services?!?!?!!

[cckwmh]

I want to scream right now. My DD, which is 5 and in pre-K has a speech problem. I know it, everyone who ever speaks to her knows it -her teacher knows it, but the SLP and the director of the preschool special ed don't see it. I have been having them evaluate her every 6 months since turning 3. Prior to that she had EI evaluations, and was delayed, but not enough for services, thanks to budget cuts. DD also has mild hearing loss, which is worse when she is in noisy areas (like a preschool).

Well, I trusted my gut and made an appointment with a big childrens hospital to get her evaluated. I went for the long wait list hospital because I was told by another parent that the local school system often questions local outside evaluations. They do not question Childrens Hospital. Finally, after 5 months of waiting was called off the cancellation list (that god - her appointment was not suppose to be until september). and guess what??? She is 18 months delayed!!!!!

I know DD is bright, and that is what the director of the preschool spec ed keeps telling me. How smart she is does not help others understand her. I have to translate for her constantly, and I don't even understand her about 25% time. DD is getting frustrated and giving up. I am now going to pay for outside speech, which I am on a waitlist for!!!! The school system should be providing this service.

I am in the process of writing a letter to the school system - the superintendent, her K teacher for next year, the SLP who evaluated her and the one in her school next year, and anyone who I can think of. I just want to scream. I may need to write 2 letters - one where I say what I really want to and don't send, then the real letter.

I want to move to a different school system. I wish we were not stuck in a house that is worth so much less than we paid.

[elliput]

:hug::hug::hug: Make sure the school gets a copy of the evaluation from the children's hospital. Many school systems have had to make major cuts in their special education funding, so any outside evaluations you have help your case for getting your DD the assistance that she is entitled to in school. Press for an IEP if you don't already have one.

Good luck and don't give up! :hug:

[o_mom]

That really sucks. :( I know many places funding has been cut and kids have to be really far behind to get services. Even with a delay of 30% or more she may not qualify. I wish the system would figure out that it is cheaper to provide the services early rather than deal with the problems later. Here the district knows that most of the parents will just pay out of pocket, so they are really slow to offer anything.

[zag95]

I would see if the children's hospital can write a letter stating that your child need speech therapy to help her "catch up", in addition to the documentation that they are sending from the outcome of the testing. I would also have a recommendation or "prescription" on what they believe your daughter needs (2 times per week, etc). See if those SLP advise on how to work around the difficulties you have. Maybe you need to write a letter to the head of Special Ed for the district that you live in, and ask why your daughter is not qualifying for services, when it is clear that she needs the help and is deficient.

I would then schedule an additional meeting with the school- now that she is going to be in K, there should be "more" money- along with all of the specific documentation, to get her qualified to receive speech through the school system.

A couple of other angles:
If there is a Scottish Rite Center in your state or town, they may be able to help, and possibly provide services (may be dependent on income- but certainly worth a contact). If there is a University that produces speech therapists, you may see if they have some speech available through them- great opportunity for clinicians to work with your daughter, and her to benefit from their services.

Keep on with the fight! Good luck.

[gatorsmom]

I want to scream right now. My DD, which is 5 and in pre-K has a speech problem. I know it, everyone who ever speaks to her knows it -her teacher knows it, but the SLP and the director of the preschool special ed don't see it. I have been having them evaluate her every 6 months since turning 3. Prior to that she had EI evaluations, and was delayed, but not enough for services, thanks to budget cuts. DD also has mild hearing loss, which is worse when she is in noisy areas (like a preschool).

Well, I trusted my gut and made an appointment with a big childrens hospital to get her evaluated. I went for the long wait list hospital because I was told by another parent that the local school system often questions local outside evaluations. They do not question Childrens Hospital. Finally, after 5 months of waiting was called off the cancellation list (that god - her appointment was not suppose to be until september). and guess what??? She is 18 months delayed!!!!!

I know DD is bright, and that is what the director of the preschool spec ed keeps telling me. How smart she is does not help others understand her. I have to translate for her constantly, and I don't even understand her about 25% time. DD is getting frustrated and giving up. I am now going to pay for outside speech, which I am on a waitlist for!!!! The school system should be providing this service.

I am in the process of writing a letter to the school system - the superintendent, her K teacher for next year, the SLP who evaluated her and the one in her school next year, and anyone who I can think of. I just want to scream. I may need to write 2 letters - one where I say what I really want to and don't send, then the real letter.

I want to move to a different school system. I wish we were not stuck in a house that is worth so much less than we paid.

Ugh! How frustrating! And, i know EXACTLY what you are going through. EXACTLY. We moved here about 6 months ago and tried to get Greenbean services for his sensory issues. We went through the lengthy process (which I don't think was very objective but that's for another bitching post), I was told he was very bright and that he didn't qualify for services. They reiterated that he was "very bright" like 6 or 7 times. Duh! I know he's bright! But when he runs around screaming that the lights in the classroom are too bright for him or that the children singing is too noisy, that is going to affect his education!!!! I see the problems at age 3. Should we help him now or wait until he's older and disrupts the classroom with his issues? Why waste time when he could be learning how to deal with the issues now?

We have excellent insurance (we have to because of DH's health issues) so we have qualified for therapy through the local hospital (which happens to be an excellent one, thank goodness). The therapist sees the issues and is helping us outside the school district program which she admits is "lacking." The kicker is, that the school district we just moved from in Minnesota had an INCREDIBLE program that would have been great for Greenbean. They would have known exactly how to deal with this and teach him ways to cope. sigh.

Big hugs. You shouldn't have to pay for this yourself. But, at least now your DD has been diagnosed. Hopefully your school district won't find a way to discredit that diagnoses. Keep us posted.

[Indianamom2]

I am so sorry. I know how frustrating a significant speech delay can be and I also know how frustrating it is to waitlisted when you know your child needs help sooner rather than later.

I think that having the children's hospital write a letter to the school system with their findings is a fine thing to do, and I would, but I also know that the budget cuts are making it very difficult for the schools to provide services, so it may not make much difference.

If there is a silver lining to this, it is that private therapy (like the children's hospital is offering) is usually MUCH better than what the school provides. Obviously, there are exceptional school speech therapists, but my experience has been that the private therapy yields much better and often faster results, so there is a bright side.

Also double-check your health insurance policy. You might be surprised that they cover speech therapy services or at least some portion/certain amount per year. I know ours covered about 45 sessions/year, but we had to file it ourselves. The children's hospital should be able to help you code their diagnosis properly which might also help get the services covered.

:hug: It's hard, but as one who has the ability now to look back and see how far we have come and the difference it has made....it is well worth it in the end.

[Gena]

:hug: I'm so sorry you are going through this.

Is the school saying that your DD does not have a delay or are they telling you that her delay is not severe enough to qualify for services?

You need to have a full understanding of two things: the results of your child's testing/evaluations AND what the requirements and cut-offs for qualifying for services are. This cut-off my be determined by the district or by your state's department of education. You may be able to find this online or you may need to make some calls to get this information.

You said that you asked the school district to do evaluations every 6 months. Were these evals done? Do you have the results? Do you know which testing tools/methods were used and what they were testing for? How do they compare to the requirements to qualify for services?

Unfortunately, some children do have documented delays, but still do not mqualify for services tyhrough the school. For example, in my area a preschooler needs to score in the lowest 7%ile to quality for services and the problem cannot be limited to an articulation disorder (meaning there must be more going on than just pronunciation problems).

You also mentioned a mild hearing loss. Does your DD qualify as hearing impaired under IDEA? That might be another way to get her eligible for services.

ETA: I just remembered that this is the BP and not the Lounge. So maybe you know all of the above already and you just are just venting your frustrations. If so, then just take the first line of my post and skip the rest. :hug:

[snowbunnies300]

Check out http://www.wrightslaw.com. I purchased one of their books so that if I have problems in the future with our school district that I had a road map of what I needed to do and in what order. They have sample letters in their books. I sent my copy to a friend in CA but could have it over-nighted to me if necessary.

Good luck in working with the school. You really have to have your "i" dotted and "t" crossed.

[crazydiamond]

I understand a bit of this.

DD was diagnosed at 2 years old being 30% delayed. It is mild, but noticeable. We got the county early intervention to give us this diagnosis and the cutoff for services was 30%. So we think they "kindly" gave us a 30% classification. Due to our income we had to pay 200 per month to the county/state to receive services. They sent a letter to our school qualifying us for future school services when she approached three.

Unfortunately the county services were awful, we battled with them for a long while - long enough to make the transition into the school system recently. However, the school tired not to accept her into their services. We had to press them to do it.

I might suggest you also try approaching members of the elected school board before writing the superintendent or principal. If you can find a connection to anyone on the board - they might advocate for you.

[WatchingThemGrow]

When DD didn't qualify through the schools for speech, I went to a private provider and paid through our insurance to get her therapy. It worked really well. Is there any way you can get her started with someone privately instead of waiting?

[zag95]

My DD has been receiving speech services through EI since prior to the age of two (she was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and has since had 2 surgeries with another scheduled this summer). In addition to EI- we also have been receiving private speech therapy- for almost 1 yr- a 50 min session each week. This has made a world of difference in her progress.

I would pursue options with the district, but consult with your children's hospital and see if they have private SLPs they recommend, that could work to address your daughter's specific issues (our SLP works more with Cranio kids)- maybe they can guide you to someone who is experienced with providing what your daughter needs. I'd get started ASAP.

[Serepta]

I am so sorry you had to have that experience! It's so frustrating to hear of children who need assistance who don't receive it in schools. I'm on the other end of that since I work as a school psychologist, so I can assure you if it makes you feel any better that the schools get just as frustrated. Funding for many special ed. programs have been cut, and as a result often times the early intervention services are not as good as they should be. There's also often a huge difference between what a hospital setting considers a delay, and what is considered a delay in the school setting. Sadly, schools are usually only able to provide services for students meeting very specific guidelines set by the state education department, which, depending on where you live, could mean the child has to be pretty significantly delayed in order to qualify for help in school. The good news is that help is usually more available once the child is kindergarten age. But, if I were you I'd ask the hospital to write out specific recommendations for services they would like to see offered to your child. That might help! Also, definitely provide the school with documentation from the Dr. that your child has a history of hearing loss, because you may be able to get some services under IDEA. Anyhow... good luck with everything, and I'm so sorry to hear of your frustrations!

[katy700]

We're going through the same thing. My daughter is hearing impaired but has no speech delay. Your child can qualify for services soley on hearing impairment through the IDEA law. She gets private therapy and will also receive services through the school system.

[swissair81]

I'm sorry.

My DS fell through the cracks in a somewhat similar way. He was having some serious motor issues and PT was initially covered by my insurance, until they decided to suddenly cut him off without warning because the school district should deal with it. The school district only deals with kids with a 50% disability or more. They dragged their feet and had the county evaluate him- who agreed with me. By the time I finally got an appointment for an evaluation with them- he started walking. They wouldn't take him anymore, even though he really could have used the help. I was so annoyed.