Wow, just logged back in and realized I hadn't posted anything in over a month! Whoops! There's definitely been plenty to rant about, I was just being lazy.
Basically, the biggest thing to have happened in the last few weeks is that I learned the school district had failed to correct Ricky's background history section of the evaluation reports. Now, when we had his ARD and I first saw the error (it included my name and Ricky's, but the history itself was for another child!), I pointed it out immediately in the meeting. The psychologist who did the evaluation apologized and said that they use a database program for all of these forms. She said she must have finished one child, gone in and replaced names, saved it, gone to do something else, and came back to see the names changed and assumed she'd already updated it. Pretty unprofessional, if you ask me, but hey, we're all human, and we all make mistakes. She said she'd fix it and I'd get a revised a copy. This was back in January.
Well, when we had his placement ARD in May to move him to the other school, I was told I'd get a copy of his final IEP, etc for next year. So I've been waiting for it. School's out for the summer, so I didn't figure I could get ahold of anyone there, so I just kinda let it slide. Well, when I went to the Parent Leadership Training in Houston a few weeks ago (which was AMAZING!!), I found out about an autism conference in Corpus Christi that is supposed to be absolutely massive! Since I was also told at the initial ARD that the district would send me to one conference anywhere in the state once a year, I decided I wanted to go to that one. This is where things get ugly.
I emailed one of the specialists at central office to ask how I needed to go about getting up the registration for this conference. She said she had never heard of a parent making a request like that before, so she told me to email the special education director. I figured maybe parents just never actually asked for it (so many special needs parents are just not involved!?!?), so she may actually NOT be aware of it.
I got a very defensive response from the director that they do not have a "policy" that "obligates" them to do any such thing. She said I misunderstood what I was told, blah blah blah. Made me angry, but hey, I didn't have it in writing (which I now know better), so I couldn't do anything about it. No conference in October for me. :(
Since I was already talking to her, I told her that I hadn't received Ricky's IEP stuff and asked if I could get a copy. I went by the office to pick it up, and sure enough, NONE of the errors had been corrected!
I've had to go through a mess of meetings to go over what was wrong (everything) and provide details of his history again. I even had the ECI office print me out of copies of both Olivia's and Ricky's full histories, just to be safe. Since the psychologist who did his testing is no longer with the district, they have to fax it off to her, have her sign it, fax it back, and then I'm supposed to get a copy in the mail. I'm waiting to receive it now. Most frustrating.
On the positive side, Ricky continues to develop his speech. We're getting more conversations with him, even though they're very short. He has developed a stronger joint attention -- he's making it a point to come get us and show us something he's doing. We were around a friend's granddaughter a few weeks ago, and Ricky made it a point to go get everyone who wasn't in the room and bring them in to see the baby. He just loved her! He said he doesn't want to go to back to school, and he's fighting me on writing. We're not making any progress there. School starts in a few weeks, and we're not where I wanted him to be by now. Grrr.....
Olivia has now been referred for autism evaluation. She has taken up eating non-food items (rubber bands, hair bands, her Squinkies, plastic). She seems driven to do so; when we catch her, she gets upset and apologizes, but says "something" is making her eat it. She locked herself in the bathroom Monday night and was eating again. I took her to the doctor yesterday, and he is referring her to a new doctor in his medical group who is a pediatric neurologist. He said she specializes in autistic behaviors and is very good. He's sending a referral for both of the kids, so they will have a doctor. I'm waiting for a call on when those appointments are going to be. It looks more and more likely that Olivia is going to be autistic as well.
My friend Christine is having another baby, her third. When I told Mom about it and said that Ian was taking extra precautions to make sure WE didn't have another, she told me I didn't need to have another baby. We had enough problems as it is, and it wouldn't be fair to risk having another with autism as well. Ouch. Thanks, that was helpful.
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