?? educational consultants

[klmno]

So, I've read from a couple of you here that you can hire an educational consultant to help find the best placement for your child. I was wondering if they help even if the difficult child's big problems are at home and not at school.

Also, do they help find ways to get the placement funded or is it understood that the parent has to be able to afford it? Do they also place in wilderness programs?

I've been told my options are 1) the school recommends a different placement (which won't happen right now), 2) the PO has to recommend it and submit for it and this PO won't consider anything except home or commitment to state Department of Juvenile Justice because that is the current court order and this po is not one to even think , much less suggest, even the slightest change from the court order, even though she could and the judge would consider it, 3) change all tdocs/psychiatrists to local mental health authority and go through their processes of evaluations on difficult child, their trial and error counseling, etc, until they give up and I've flat-out refused that option. I suppose there would be the option of just signing custody over to social services, but I'm not too keen on that one either. And, I'm not sure that would be that simple in difficult child's case.

 

[smallworld]

An educational consultant will help locate the program or programs that best meet your child's needs. The consultant does not necessarily locate sources of funding.

Our son's psychiatrist told us not to consider wilderness programs because he believe J needs to be on medications for mood stabilization and most wilderness programs do not have adequate medical supervision.

Have you checked with an insurance case manager to find out what types of programs/services your insurance would cover?

 

[Steely]

Ditto smallworld..........so many of these placements do not have the medical component needed for these kids as my saga of a post highlighted with Matthew.

To the best of my knowledge, the ed consultants do not help with funding......but possibly there are some out there. I am not sure.

Truth be told, the current placement Matt is in, I had already found myself a long, long time ago...........I has saved it in my favorites, and months later, low and behold, the ed consultant suggested it as the best one. I am not so sure how much difference an ed consultant can make vs a determined mom.

Food for thought.

 

[klmno]

My insurance covers the weekly tdocs and necessary psychiatrist, regular dr, of course, and will cover up to about a 1 week stay in a psychiatric hospital if it is definitely acute. That's it- and around here, I'm lucky to get that. The local mental health people are incompetent, that sounds bad I know, but we've been there done that. Unfortunately, in the jurisdiction we live in, you have to go through the county mental health people to get to the Children Services Board (CSB). If I had known what I know now, I would have raised difficult child in the city jurisdiction where you can access their Children Services Board (CSB) more readily and they actually are more knowledgable.

I made the mistake of raising difficult child in the jurisdiction that everyone talked about having good neighborhoods, schools etc., without realizing that these are people that don't want to spend tax dollars on treating kids that really need help- actually- these are people that don't want to admit that the kids in these neighborhoods NEED help, and they would prefer that if you're the parent of one, you move away so you don;t make them or the schools look bad.

PS By local mental health- I mean the county agency, not the private. I have difficult child in private health care, all the way around and refuse to take him back to the county people because they have proven themselves incompetent to me in more than one area and on more than one occassion.

 

[witzend]

I PMed you.

 

[dadside]

Educational consultants may do as others have noted. (And they look generally for educational facilities with needed services and environment for whatever reason, not just for addressing school problems.) A minority will also arrange any needed testing/evaluations. Fees charged and services offered cover a wide range. Even some of the best known or respected ed.cons. do less than you might expect by referring only to schools/programs they already know without investigating or considering other, possibly more appropriate places. Others will search for just the "right" place if they don't already know one. Also, some ed.cons. are paid by the programs themselves, with a minority said to collect from parent and program.

If you know your child's needs, and if you have the time, you can often do at least as well as an ed.con.. The real question is time, and while the various web sites help tremendously, you still have to get on the telephone and "dig" to really narrow the options. The better you can define the need, the easier it may be. It gets harder when looking for somewhere to help with x and y rather than somewhere that provides a and b.

 

[klmno]

Thanks, everyone! I'll do a little online research as soon as I have time. I'm just trying to find out what, if any, viable options there are.

 

[klmno]

Well, another thought. What if the biggest problem is that I can't haul him around all the time from appointment to appointment and still work 40 hrs per week. It really isn't fair to say he needs to be in an Residential Treatment Center (RTC) because of that. True, he's had some other issues that would qualify him, maybe, but I'm not sure that they happen often enough for me to say he needs an Residential Treatment Center (RTC). The biggest problem right now is that I need to be able to work full time. Even if medication insurance got changed and I started taking difficult child to the county place for treatment (which I hate that idea), one of the problems I have with them is that I can show up at 9:50 for a 10:00 appointment and still be sitting there at 12:30 trying to get difficult child in. It has a worse effect on my job and difficult child getting to school then the way things are now.

So, anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone been in this situation before?

 

[Rotsne]

I would be very careful trusting those private firms rather than the consultants occupied in the publich school system because several of them have been known to receive money for each child they refer.

I remember a case my cousin (a lawyer) told me about involving the courts in Oregon, a boarding school.

On January 29, 2000 I had a telephone conference with Ms. Nancy Hungerford and Mr. Taylor. Because of the issues that had arisen concerning Dr. Conway’s impartiality I offered the parties an opportunity to arrange for another evaluation of J. J. by an independent examiner. Both parties declined

and

Ms. Andrea Hungerford, one of the District’s attorneys, worked with Dr. Welch to obtain the independent evaluation of J. J. that was agreed upon at the September 1998 IEP meeting. Seeking a recommendation, Ms. Hungerford called a client of hers in the Bend - LaPine School District. The client gave her Dr. Conway’s name and the names of one or two other private psychologists who could perform an evaluation and assessment of J. J. The client described Dr. Conway as a private psychologist whom her school district occasionally employed to do especially hard evaluations. MBA was not mentioned in the conversation. Ms. Hungerford believed she gave Mr. Taylor names of two persons who could conduct the evaluation, including that of Dr. Conway. She had no personal contact with Dr. Conway at that time nor did she participate in arranging the evaluation. She was unaware of Dr. Conway’s ongoing relationship with MBA.

I would be so careful about who you hire.