can someobne PLEASE explain the options my son has after he reaches 3 years old.

I know that he gets services at home until the August 31st after his 3 bday which will be almost a year from now. His bday is 4/7. However I am confused as to what the options are... if he gets approved for a center based preschool, do they have full day options? Does a bus pick him up? What if i decide to put him in a catholic nursery school can her get services there? I mean can the therapist go there? Heres the other issue we live in queen and will be moving to li hopefully by spring/early summer, does it work differntly in queens than nassau? also if we have his meeting and then move how soon can i get a meeting in LI? Can he go to a center based preschool in queens even if we move to LI? TIA

Message edited 9/9/2010 7:56:14 PM.

Re: can someobne PLEASE explain the options my son has after he reaches 3 years old.

I am going to try to answer what I can. I am in Nassau, so that is the system I know.

There are full day options, but he has to be approved for it. The full day classes fill up early too, so if you think this might be a possibility, you should start the process for getting him into a program ASAP.

The county will pay for bussing if you are approved for a preschool program. If you choose not to bus him, you can get some reimbursement for driving him there yourself.

If he goes to Catholic school, he is still eligible for services, but I think the coordination of that may vary by district. My niece and nephew go to Catholic school and the kids who need special ed get bussed to another location during the school day to get the services.

I am not sure about the difference between Queens and Nassau as far as transferring him once you move. We did work with a PT that told us she worked in a public school in Queens, and in that district, the district had preschool programs in the public schools that the kids went to.

Re: can someobne PLEASE explain the options my son has after he reaches 3 years old.

I'm in Suffolk, but, I'll try and help.
We just "aged out" of EI.
My son is now in a center based program/pre school.
*I* opted for the bus. I don't think its mandatory. Just makes my mornings easier with DD.
All his therapies take place At school.
Im not sure if they continue coming to the house after EI.
Everything now goes through the school district.
I am pretty sure there are quite a few schools in Nassau that offer the services.
As for setting up the meeting, I'd say, as soon as you know exactly where you'll be living, I'd contact the district and have them set up a date with you.

I hope this helps.

Re: can someobne PLEASE explain the options my son has after he reaches 3 years old.

DS just transfered out of EI into CPSE.

My first advice is to start EARLY. VERY EARLY.

For services, etc... It really depends on your school district and what they are giving you. Not all SD are created equal.

I will give you what OUR timeline was. We are in Nassau.

DS is born at the end of June.

We were not allowed to contact the SD (while still under EI) to start the paperwork for CPSE transition until the beginning of September last year. Your EI service coordinator should have gave you the date already or you can ask her/him. You will need to sign paperwork for the transition from EI to CPSE too before you can even start CPSE. All the preliminary transition paperwork is handled by EI. Stay on top of that.

DS had turned 2 the June last year. He was eligible to start preschool/CPSE as of January of this year (as stated above the earliest we could contact our SD was in September of last year). He would have been 2.5 yo. So you don't have to wait for DC to be 3 to transition to CPSE. The reason I stayed through EI until 8/31, is that he was still young IMO, He had a lot of "personal" attention/one on one with his ABA therapists at home. I felt he would not have been ready just yet. Also through CPSE, if your child is not approved for Summer program, there are no therapies in the Summer. If your DC is approved for Summer program, it's only 6 weeks. So you have 3-4 weeks uncovered. I did not want that so I stayed with EI until the end of August.

It's also VERY hard to find a spot in January. Usually the schools have opening in September and fill up until the following Summer. You "might" have some opening in the Summer but those are rare. It's really September enrollement.

Once you get your date to start CPSE paperwork. START ASAP. Trust me!!! Your school district will do evals. My district did them at their school. Nobody came to my house. Once they do the evals, they will do an IEP meeting (an equivelent to the IFSP EI meetings) to tell you want you are approved for. Then they will send the packets to the schools.

Now, what you get approved for depends not only on the SD (and $$$ budget) but mostly the outcome of his evals with CPSE. That will determine if DC goes to school PT/ FT and gets other services at home or at the school.

For example, DS gets a load of services in addition to ABA. He gets speech, OT and PT.

So given his evals, he was approved for a 6/1/2 ratio (that's 6 kids, 1 teacher, 2 TA). That's a VERY small ratio. For kids who are not as high functioning as others. It was determined that he would be best in a FT program. He is getting speech, OT and PT still in CPSE. So a PT program would have meant that in the 2.5 hours of school he would have barely been in class but mostly doing pull outs for the other services. We do get Sped Ed at home do after school.

There are endless options. Get in a school but get services at home for those OT, PT, etc... But some SD don't want to do that because it's more $$$ to pay therapists to come to your house, vs. providing those services at a school. Hence, why they prefered DS to go to the FT program.

You can get a SEIT to assist your child in a regular preschool. But usually it's someone who stays only half time of the school program. It is usually concidered that if your child needs someone more than half the time of the classroom then they need to go to a special needs school.

It all depends on what your child abilities are.

There are many schools for many disablilities. But they are very limited spaces.

For example, Little Village has no opening to the public for their FT programs. They have a PT program and they take kids from their PT program to put them in FT. So essential, they 2 classes of 6 spots are NEVER available.

I strongly suggest you have the paperwork and evals done BEFORE Christmas/Holiday. That way your packet will be in the school early early January. Then you "might" have a better chance to go in some schools.

I am not sure of your scenario, because essentially you want to put your child in a "regular" school but get services there or at home. Your SD may not agree.

In the end, you might have to fight for what you want. Choose your battles but don't settle for what you are not happy with.

You can always hire an attorney if you need to fight your SD. Maybe not on the first meeting though.


For the bus. You do not have to take the bus provided. It's paid by the County. If you have to transport your child, you will get reimbursed for mileage. If you do get the bus, please ask for a matron. It's not automatic and your SD needs to give you more paperwork for that.


As far as Queens, it's A LOT different. I know a mom who is a parent member for CPSE. She attends and "support" the parents who come to the IEP meeting. She said the that City if really tight for $$. A LOT tighter than Nassau. It's hard to find therapists to come to your house. OT, PT, etc... You might have to wait several months to get one. So a lot people end up doing out of pocket. That's if you live in Queens.

If you are living in Suffolk or Nassau you can send your child to a school in either Queens, Suffold or Nassau. They prefer for you to stay locally but you can argue and get what you want. You just can't with BOCES, you cannot cross County borders. So you live in Suffolk, you must go to a BOCES in Suffolk.

Some people in Nassau go to DDI in Huntington/Suffolk.

We were given a school for DS in Queens and we live in Nassau. We did not do it because I cannot imagine me driving or the bus driving DS to go to Queens at 9am and the traffic on all parkways. I assume he would have to leave the house 1.5 hour before school started.

Message edited 9/10/2010 3:45:40 PM.

Re: can someobne PLEASE explain the options my son has after he reaches 3 years old.

Thank you so much SMDL !!!!! What an excellent breakdown of what to expect. You have explained it so well, that I am saving this link to my favorites.

I really don't know what I would do without this board !!!!

Re: can someobne PLEASE explain the options my son has after he reaches 3 years old.

thanks everyone