Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Panic

I have created panic and chaos...I didn't mean to! The other day we got Austin's kindergarten registration paperwork in the mail. Jeff and I have been talking and thinking about holding him off a year. At the same time the school district is hvaing a meeting for kids transitioning from CPSE to CSE (committee on preschool ed to comm. of school ed). So I called the Office for Support Services and explained and asked what I should do...where do I go from here...etc. She told me that if we have concerns about him not being ready, then we need to have a meeting with the CPSE to discuss his case. But that the therapist and I each needed to get something in writing to her by Friday to get him on January's schedule.

At this point he would only turn 5 days before school started, so he'd be one of the youngest in his class. Is it fair to start him when he's already behind when perhaps holding him off a year would make a big difference? Our concerns include fine motor, social emotional and auditory processing. I think his cognitive is okay. I do have some minor speech concerns, mostly with articulation and fluency. We are also concerned that med levels may need to be adjusted. He's been off for the last few months. Hard to pinpoint exactly why and how, but the last time I had this feeling, the result was not good.

So, I called his OT and left her a message, explaining our concerns and that we were thinking about holding him back a year. She freaked! First off this poor woman only sees him for 30 mins a week and she's not intimately aware of his full medical history. Well the OT called Ms. Nancy, Austin's old special ed teacher and a WONDERFUL woman. They talked and then the OT called me today. She said it NEVER crossed her mind that we wouldn't send him to kindergarten. She reminded me that if Austin still qualifies for services that once he tranfers to CSE, he MUST get those services in the district. This would be fine except he spends his days out of district. And then add onto that, if he doesn't qualify for CSE services then we have to try and get him covered under section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act. To do that he must meet one of 12 disability criteria and I am not 100% positive that Epilepsy alone would qualify him. Plus these services would only be available in the kindergarten setting. Do I want him to missa full year of potential services??

So now I don't know what to do. Am I over reacting...does he need a full eval including psych all over...is he ready for kindergarten with just some support? I don't know. I think I need to call Ms. Nancy myself. She has always been very good with Austin and still visits him even though she is no longer paid to. Perhaps she can visit him this week and give me some insight. Part of me wants a full eval again...just to get a new baseline. Part of me says I am opening a can of worms.

I guess I will have to wait and see how this plays out.

1 comment:

Cin_D said...

What about 2 years of kindergarten?