Had our IEP Meeting This Morning (sorry so long)

We had our Placement and IEP meeting this morning. DS is turning 3 next month and currently receiving ABA, PT, OT and Speech from EI. He has a PDD-NOS diagnosis.

What they’re offering per his IEP is a 2.5 hour/per day program in-district with 30 min of group OT per week, 20 min of individual speech twice per week, 30 min of group speech per week, 30 min of group PT per week. They are putting him in a contained classroom (versus the integrated one) with approx. 8 student and 1 special ed teacher and 3 paraprofessionals. Our school district has the programs in one of their elementary school so they didn’t consider sending him out of district. I wasn’t surprised by this…I was expecting it.

I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Bear in mind that we live in NJ. From hearing a lot of your stories I feel like had we lived in NY he would definitely be in a full-day program. Do they have “in-district” programs on Long Island? I’m worried that this placement isn’t enough for him. On the other hand the way it works here, according to some of DS’s therapists, is that the only time they send a child out of district is for more pronounced cases of ASD. And in those cases I don’t think you apply…I believe they do the placement for you. His case worker said that since he has no cognitive delays they cannot justify an out-of-district placement. They don’t believe he needs an ABA program either. I think more of what bothers me is the frequency of individual services. Especially the OT. They said that they will reevaluate once he starts. But shouldn’t I negotiate now and get it in his IEP?

I’m also disappointed that he didn’t get in the integrated classroom. He is in daycare with typical children now and his therapists always find that he models typical children, especially lately, and excels when he is with higher functioning children. Now that he will be contained that will not be the case. But, he will still need to go do daycare every afternoon because I work so he will be with typical children there. Maybe it’s not a big deal.

Then lastly, THE BUS!!! I’m getting heart palpitations thinking about it. Maybe some of you knew this, and maybe this is just an NJ thing…but they’re not required to use car seats on the bus. They just have a lap seat belt. And not aide on the bus…just a driver. I can choose to have him use this ridiculous harness thingy that reminds me of something you’d wear when you go sky diving. I just don’t get this though. He’s 3! I’m already stressing.

So in the end I think if I can get the OT time increased than maybe I’d feel more comfortable. I do wish we had full-day programs here so that DS didn’t have to be bounced around from pre-school to daycare (which is also a pre-school program). But I’m not sure I can change that..

Thanks for listening. And if anyone has any NJ experience please let me know.

Message edited 6/14/2010 9:46:29 PM.

Re: Had our IEP Meeting This Morning (sorry so long)

I live on Long Island. My ds has been going for the last two years out of district 5 1/2 days a week in a 12:1:2. Since he is diagnosed with apraxia (no cognitive delays) he receives 4 x a week speech (1 of them is a group session) and two days a week O/T. I know here in my district with all the budget cuts that parents have been begging for services and a lot are having cuts made. I was a reck when he first started taking the bus, but he had no problems adjusting and loves going to school. HTH