How My Boy Kicked Autism
Chapter 12 Transition
I learned in clinic today that AAA is recommending that you receive 40 hours per week of direct intervention. If and when you are ready to transition to a school setting, they want to send someone who knows you and has been specifically trained to work with you. They also want to send up to 4 different therapists to get you in to the habit of responding to more people around you. They do not recommend any transition to a school or community setting with out one to one support due to your escape artist nature but they do want you to start generalizing what you are learning into other environments soon. Your supervisor would need to meet with me, mom and all 4 therapists (sometimes Sassy) twice a month for 2 hours to monitor your progress and learn to implement your program accordingly. This is a total of 18 hours per month of clinic time. AAA also needs 8 hours per month of funding for Program Supervision so they can observe you in different environments and adapt or amend your program as you progress. They also want to start getting us more involved so if there are any hours left in the day, they want us to participate in parent training classes. After of course the collective 6 hours per week of individual speech therapy and OT that are on opposite ends of town. Just wait till you have to drive me around when I am too old to see straight.
I have seen how you freak out when you have to transition from one activity to another. I don’t know how that is going to work for you in a classroom. Especially if it is in a classroom with other boys who have trouble with change. That’s gonna get downright ugly. I can hear the principal’s voice on the line already. You need to start really s-l-o-w but I get the impression that the District is aiming for a full emersion holding tank approach. I am going for the 52 hours per week of therapy 52 weeks per year approach. I hope there will be middle ground, but with them being asked to foot the bill, I imagine our respective ideas of appropriateness will not be the same at all.
Anyway, this is not about how you transition. This is about how your services will be transitioned. I just feel like I use the word transition so much that I simply can’t stop saying it. Transition.
Transition. OK. I am transition-ing to Eligibility.
What does eligibility mean? Apparently, it is a vague term because it means something different for the Regional Center’s than it does for school districts. Regional Center eligibility criterion is set forth in the Lanterman Act . A School District eligibility criterion is set forth in IDEIA .
Melanie believes you clearly meet the eligibility criteria for both the Regional Center and District which is half the funding battle because both agencies will have to fund services if you are found eligible.
The problem is that we don’t get to decide how to spend the money because it is not ours. Even though the program you are doing is research supported, there is still controversy about methodology. Even if there is an agreement about methodology, there is further debate to be had about intensity, frequency, duration, training and qualifications for providers.
With the Regional Center, we get a choice in provider if we agree about services and the service provider has to be a Regional Center vendor.
With the school district, we have no say in who the provider is and if a non-district provider is used, there has to be a Master Contract. Master Contract aside, our school district has spent a lot of money over the years developing autism programs but they won’t give me any research that shows that kids in their program have gone on to be successful. Even though AAA is contracted, some schools do not voluntarily allow an outside agency inside their classrooms and do not fund outside providers. If a need cannot be met within the school, then they simply offer a different school or train or hire an employee responsible for meeting your underlying need or deny that a need even exists. Rather that hire an agency that has demonstrated exponential progress working with you in a short period of time and that knows you and how to adapt your program on an on-going basis, the school will hire a complete stranger with a high school diploma and maybe, if we are real lucky, an ABA course. That could pose a very big problem for you and me both.
Enough preparation and speculation. I sent written notice to the school district that Melanie will be attending the transition meeting and that she will be audio recording it.12 The meeting is two weeks before your birthday, nothing like cutting it close!
In response to the appeal filed with the Regional Center, an informal meeting ensued wherein Frank Fictitious, on behalf of Blank, agreed to withdraw his fair hearing request. In exchange, the Regional Center agreed to complete an assessment prior to the transition meeting so that there would be no gap in services so long as the Regional Center determined Blank was eligible before his big 0-3.
In the spirit of collaboration, Frank invited the Regional Center to the District transition meeting.13 As of the morning of the meeting, he had not seen the reports and did not know the recommendations from either the Regional Center nor the school district. He was heavily armed with data, progress reports and independent assessments.