Get this party started
Well, the ARD coordinator at the school ended up calling me before I had a chance to call her, and so yesterday I met with her, the diagnostician and the school psychologist to sign the papers that will get the boy child's Full Individual Evaluation, or FIE, started. They have 60 calendar days in which to complete it. The boy child has been given the heads-up that he'll be pulled out of class from time to time for testing, and he's had similar tests done before because of occupational therapy, so I'm hoping the process won't be too arduous for him. (Hee! Get it? ARDuous? Oh nevermind.)
I was a little put off by the diagnostician, who barely hid a scoff at the three-page psychologist's report I had brought with me (from Dr. H) and told me that without even reading it, she could tell we hadn't had the right sort of testing done on him and that they would need to do a full battery. I calmly (for me, which is not easy) explained that we had not done any testing ON PURPOSE, because when I had talked to the old ARD coordinator, who is no longer there, at the end of last school year when the boy was diagnosed, she was not able to give me specific information on which tests we would need to have done. And so Dr. H felt it would be best, both financially and for the boy child's comfort (because a full battery of tests can be ARDuous) that we just allow the school to do whatever they wanted as far as testing went. And that way, we would neither waste nor duplicate our efforts.
But she kept harping on about the full battery and finally it occurred to me that she's probably had a lot of parents protest, "But the doctor says he has it, so why can't we just go with that and get services started?" So I assured her that we WANT the full battery of tests, that we realize the school's findings may be different from the psychologist's (though frankly we are convinced the boy has AS -- he is TEXTBOOK, if you know anything about the disorder, but I didn't say that), and that he may not qualify for services (at which point we'll file appeals out the wazoo, but I didn't say that either). And also, I told her we realized it would take quite some time to get all the testing done and that services likely would not start for a few months, even if he qualifies.
But still, the diagnostician is officially on the List Of People Who Might Potentially Annoy Me, and will have to work to get off it.
And so, the testing! It will begin soon, I hope. The boy has been prepped and we are ready to go. I think.
I was a little put off by the diagnostician, who barely hid a scoff at the three-page psychologist's report I had brought with me (from Dr. H) and told me that without even reading it, she could tell we hadn't had the right sort of testing done on him and that they would need to do a full battery. I calmly (for me, which is not easy) explained that we had not done any testing ON PURPOSE, because when I had talked to the old ARD coordinator, who is no longer there, at the end of last school year when the boy was diagnosed, she was not able to give me specific information on which tests we would need to have done. And so Dr. H felt it would be best, both financially and for the boy child's comfort (because a full battery of tests can be ARDuous) that we just allow the school to do whatever they wanted as far as testing went. And that way, we would neither waste nor duplicate our efforts.
But she kept harping on about the full battery and finally it occurred to me that she's probably had a lot of parents protest, "But the doctor says he has it, so why can't we just go with that and get services started?" So I assured her that we WANT the full battery of tests, that we realize the school's findings may be different from the psychologist's (though frankly we are convinced the boy has AS -- he is TEXTBOOK, if you know anything about the disorder, but I didn't say that), and that he may not qualify for services (at which point we'll file appeals out the wazoo, but I didn't say that either). And also, I told her we realized it would take quite some time to get all the testing done and that services likely would not start for a few months, even if he qualifies.
But still, the diagnostician is officially on the List Of People Who Might Potentially Annoy Me, and will have to work to get off it.
And so, the testing! It will begin soon, I hope. The boy has been prepped and we are ready to go. I think.
posted by Miss Anthrope at 9:52 AM
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