Austism IEP vs ED IEP

[HaoZi]

Kiddo is on an ED IEP right now. Autism wavier lady said that goes against Kiddo when determining if she gets on the wavier waiting list. The ED IEP, for whatever reason, provides her more support with a lower chance of suspension/expulsion, especially once she hits MS and HS. I don't know why, but this is what I was told.

Suggestions? Advice? Questions I should ask at the IEP mtg about this?

 

[mazdamama]

Since I have an autistic child too and am fighting with the school currently about his current IEP I have been doing alot of research online and will be prepared for his next IEP meeting come Monday. I am in FL so other then WrightsLaw and FAPE I have been researching the laws here in FL for education for children with disabilities. It may take you some time to go through and pick out what is specific to your child but will be worth it at that meeting. Our small school board is lucky in that we have a parent asst that the school board pays to help parents fight for the educational rights of their ESE children.

 

[buddy]

HUH??? I really dont get that. No IEP type prevents them from being suspended or expelled. who told you that? ANY child with ANY disability is protected from or allowed to be suspended according to legal guidelines. It all depends on the staff at the school how tolerant and not ingnorant they are. It is actually counter intuitive to me to say that a kid with a neurological condition like autism would be suspended or more likely to be expelled than a child with an emotional or behavioral disorder. Especially given that many kids with autism are also cognitively delayed. NEITHER sould be suspended in my humble opinion in most cases.... but I am preaching to the choir.

What the waiver lady is probably saying is that in each category of waivers there are only a certain number of waivers available and in your area maybe there are more available in the kinds of waiver that take kids with autism. (usually CADI or daughter waivers) Mental health waivers may be more limited in your area....??? It changes every few years around here....

In the end waivers are a medical assistance program and they should qualify or not qualify based on what their MEDICAL diagnosis is. the IEP can give evidence to the issues the child has. You might want to ask the workers supervisor for more of an explanation.

Do you feel she has Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)? Why is she on an ED IEP anyway??? did the school disagree with that category for her? Are you happy with her educational programing? For elementary school sometimes they share teachers... will she have access to autism programing (asperger's support with an Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) specialist? there are some pretty specific issues for kids with aspergers once puberty hits that might need to be dealt with differently than if she was only ED...

IN MN criteria this is what it says.... you would have to look for your specific state's wording but..

among the ED criteria it says...

(2) a pattern of unsatisfactory educational progress that is not primarily a result of intellectual, sensory, physical health, cultural, or linguistic factors; illegal chemical use; autism spectrum disorders under part 3525.1325; or inconsistent educational programming.

So is it because they went with the bipolar diagnosis? You have a ? on that one so I thought that the aspie was maybe more what you feel is right? Sorry I am not clear on that.

I would maybe just ask more questions. I think I would ask the Special Education director if that is true that she has seen a pattern of dismissals more in the autism category vs. the emotional category. If you love her school programming then I wouldn't change it for the chance of a waiver....

Maybe her IEP should say primary disability category of (whichever you feel is correct... Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or ED) and secondary category of (the other one... Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or ED)???

 

[TeDo]

Personally, the qualification for the IEP should not make a difference in the types of support Kiddo receives in school. Was this IEP developed before she got the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis? My guess is yes. The school "should" have changed the qualification when the new diagnosis was given. In our case, the EBD qualification hindered the way the staff dealt with the "behavior". When we got the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis, they INSISTED it be Added to the qualifying and not in replace of the EBD. The staff all felt that the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis was wrong and that it was all intentional and oppositional.

If the school is one you can work with, talk to them about changing the category or finding out what you have to do to have the category changed. Pretty much all of her behaviors you've mentioned can be explained by the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and related anxiety and miscommunication. The IEP itself does not change just because the qualifying category changes in most cases unless you/the team want it to.

 

[buddy]

What is so frustrating about that TeDo (besides of course that it hurt YOUR son) is that really kids with EBDisorders are no more willfully doing the wrong thing than anyone.... it IS their disability. But I too avoid the label like the plague because they treat the kids more like they are choosing to make everyone's life miserable.

 

[HaoZi]

Most of that went right over my head. She has a medical diagnosis of Asperger's that was diagnosis'd after she got the IEP. The school refused to test her for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and said medcial diagnosis is different from their diagnosis for IEP purposes, but teacher of record is open to changing, she just advises that we leave it as ED because for whatever reason there are more supports for ED than Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). I don't understand it, but there it is. Also she can get Occupational Therapist (OT) but the only Occupational Therapist (OT) available is 20 minutes/month. How lousy is that?

ETA: For what it's worth she's at a different school than where she was when she got the IEP.

 

[buddy]

Most of that went right over my head. She has a medical diagnosis of Asperger's that was diagnosis'd after she got the IEP. The school refused to test her for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and said medcial diagnosis is different from their diagnosis for IEP purposes, but teacher of record is open to changing, she just advises that we leave it as ED because for whatever reason there are more supports for ED than Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). I don't understand it, but there it is. Also she can get Occupational Therapist (OT) but the only Occupational Therapist (OT) available is 20 minutes/month. How lousy is that?

ETA: For what it's worth she's at a different school than where she was when she got the IEP.

LOL sorry...

I think it seems that we assumed it was likely she got the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis after she already had the ED IEP.

That happens a lot because people miss the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis.

What is confusing to us is that there should be no way that there are MORE or LESS services depending on that label. It may be a function of the staff hired in your district but it makes no sense that a child with an emotional and behavioral disorder would have more protection from suspension/expulsion than a child with a neurological disability . (in my opinion and legally, if it is related to their disability, they should have goals and teaching to help them learn the skills that are lacking and causing the behavior issues) Plus, if a student has Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) they often need the specialized teaching that is offered by Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) trained teachers.

I am proposing that if you are comfortable with the ED label (you still think that bi polar and ODD are valid??) then maybe ADD Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as a secondary disability area on the IEP. As she gets older, if there are things that due to her Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) she really does not understand and may be limited in, an ED/EBD program may hurt her by using reward/consequence programs to teach behaviors that she neurologically just does not understand. If the ED program has as you seem to say, Occupational Therapist (OT)/sensory?? intervention... that is great, any program should... But Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) programs tend to have it incorporated into their entire environment, music selection, scent selection, mats, swings, etc...even in high functioning and Asperger's resource rooms. It is so common for those kids that it is often available to them all if needed. but maybe your district is more progressive and appropriate with ED kids....just make sure that goes on to the middle school level.


Yes, the medical diagnosis does not mean she automatically gets an IEP, but it is to be considered when selecting a category, they need to make sure that an autism professional is involved with making decisions during the IEP criteria process. It says that in the federal mandate.

Then for the waiver, that is a separate system... many counties divide up mental health and developmental disability waivers... Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), esp higher functioning kids and kids iwth Aspergers, tend to get non mental health waivers around here.... If in your county there are more of those, then Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) may be better for her. Why her IEP would matter for that decison??? We have to use the medical system to get waivers. The IEP can be sent for supporting data but it is not diagnostic and the Waiver is MEDICAL INSURANCE so, I was confused why they would have said that to you. I hope that someone else in the county can help you sort that out.


I am sorry I made it worse, didn't mean to. Occupational Therapist (OT) should be based on YOUR CHILD"S needs...if they are saying that all the kids in that program get Occupational Therapist (OT) for twenty minutes...that is against the law. The reason is the federal law says that no decision can be made for programming based on the general label of special education nor on the individual category label. One can't say.... all kids with autism come to school fifteen minutes later than the gen ed kids because they need less sensory stimulation. IT has been fought and won in court many times.

 

[HaoZi]

I've been trying to get her Occupational Therapist (OT), they're saying all she can get is 20 min/month, that's all anyone gets, max. The last school didn't even want to screen her for Occupational Therapist (OT) and SpEd county tried to say there was no need (BS!!!). There is no mental health wavier here that I've heard of. The wavier stuff is state.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Even in the best school systems... kids never get all the Occupational Therapist (OT) they need, because much of the Occupational Therapist (OT) work is more "general" - quality of life stuff, not necessarily specific to school. So... most of us have to pay for it ourselves, if insurance doesn't cover it.

 

[pajamas]

This is just me, but I'd probably like to see Autism as the primary exceptionality because everybody understands it's a lifelong disability that you are born with (regardless of how late it's diagnosed). You'll run into a lot of folks (esp. general ed teachers) who think EBD could have been prevented/cured by better parenting. in my humble opinion, there's a risk of no longer qualifying for services under the EBD designation if the interventions are working so well that her behavior improves dramatically, and then you're up a creek. I've also been advised in the past to avoid EBD if possible due to the potential for unintended consequences in adulthood when HS records are taken into account (think government service).

I've personally had an easier time getting services under the Autism label for Holden, compared to EBD for CeCe. We recently add "Other Health Impaired" as a secondary covering CeCe's bipolar diagnosis. Our psychiatrist wrote it up as a chronic health issue that interfered with education to ensure she qualified for intermittent hospital/homebound services.