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Tom and I had a meeting with the Committee for Preschool Education (CPSE) at our school district. Last time we did this, the social worker from TJ’s preschool came with us as his preschool advocate. This time, his teacher and the head of the preschool came with us.
Our goal was to gain approval for TJ to attend classes at the preschool five days a week. He would attend class as usual on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the same integrated classroom. The other two days would take place in the special education building. His occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) would be provided by the preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of having him attend it elsewhere at the outside provider we’ve been using. He would ride the school bus instead of having us drop him off and pick him up. He requires a lot more support in the classroom than other students in his class, including his other “identified” classmates.
The CPSE “forgot” to invite his OT and PT providers to the meeting. Because his preschool isn’t currently considered special education, none of his service providers were present. The committee requires him to have two more evaluations conducted before they will approve additional services. It’s December. We’re already running out of time to get him up to speed so he can start kindergarten next September. I can’t help but think that they went out of their way to make sure this couldn’t be approved now… in order to save the district money. Nevermind that this is my son we’re talking about.
The good news is that the committee is allowing the preschool to perform both evaluations. We’d been told originally that we should use an outside agency to get his Functional Behavior Analysis (FBA) done, and the earlier appointment we could get was February 8. But I talked to the preschool director after that, and she was able to convince the CPSE director to let them handle it to get it done sooner. They can take care of the FBA now, and his speech/language evaluation to look at his pragmatic language will be done by the week after Christmas break if it can’t be squeezed in before that.
Hopefully this means that we can meet with the committee again in January and get this taken care of ASAP.
I hate jumping through all of these bureaucratic hoops. But I am so grateful that his preschool is full of wonderful people who are going out of their way to help advocate for TJ and what he needs.
That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
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Ugh, I do not miss CPSE meetings. We were lucky and the head of our CPSE was amazing. She had everyone there. She would talk to me on the phone before meetings and we set a plan in action before it was official. Of course, I think she was really amazing because she had children that had been through this and knew how it was on the other side of the table. If you need to pull a card that will make them jump – utter the words they hate “Fair Hearing!” Works magic I tell you. Those words make educators shudder (heard them from parents at meeting I have been the teacher at). Good luck!
Oh, it is so frustrating when all that bureaucracy gets in the way and prevents you from moving on to what is best for your child. I wish you good luck. TJ is very fortunate to have such a great advocate in his mom!