klmno
Active Member
I stayed up late last night (couldn't sleep anyway) and searched on line, read through school regulations, etc. First thing this morning I called to get info. on the day treatment program that is at the place where I had difficult child's MDE done last year. Here is the way they work...
The average stay is 4-6 months. Some kids are pretty much just severe behavior problems; not all, and they do have several that are bipolar. They have a psychiatrist on board to work on medications and have a lot of therapy- individual, group, art, music, etc. They run all year but the minimal school component is not there at all in July. They said if he came in the summer, we would need to address his IEP not having extended school year requirement. Basicly no insurance, including medicaid (which I need to get difficult child on), will cover the cost. It has to be initiated by the sd - they refer it to CSA (whatever that is) of the locality, and they determine if they will pay for it. It takes about a month or so, usually, to get them in once the sd makes a referral. I asked about difficult child's probable need to go to summer school and if he went to this program in the summer, would this keep him on track to progress to next grade next school year. He said they turn the grades over to the school and the regular school determines grade placement.
He, also, said the sd that difficult child is in has referred many students to their program because they just aren't equipped to deal with BiPolar (BP) issues. Oh, boy, did that make my blood boil. Last year they were trying to send my son to a school that was all "bad behavior" issues- kids throwing chairs acroos the room- no substantial diagnosis's like we see on this board- and the best one out of three that they had me look at had about a 20% success rate of the kid ever going back to a regular school (even if in Special Education classes). I went to the school in Aug. last summer and showed, in writing, difficult child's new diagnosis of BiPolar (BP), then the MDE evaluation that said they don't think it is true BiPolar (BP), but difficult child has mood cycling and needs to be on mood stabilizer until he learns skills and strategies for stressors, etc. Wouldn't you think the people at school- or at least ONE PERSON could have mentioned to me in all their conversations about how they can't/wont deal with these issues at their school, even if it is written in his IEP, that they can refer him to a treatment facility that will? That's ok, I think it will help my case.
Anyway, I called the ed. spec. from this place, who was on the MDE team and who also had accompanied me to one of difficult child's iep meetings in Jan to see what he thinks. He was in a hurry and told me to call him again Mon. morning when he can pull the file and we can discuss it. I want to ask him if he thinks this would be the right place for difficult child.
My main concerns are 1) since difficult child's number of violations has so drasticly reduced this school year, he doesn't meet their definition of "behavior problem" anymore. Great! However, when he "shuts down" at school or home, or becomes so overwhelmed with work sometimes to the point of crying and raging - he rips his work up and it never gets completed. Then, there are the few times that has has DONE the projects or homework and refuses to turn it in because, in his words, "it just isn't good enough" (sometimes- many times- he does the work and turns everything in normally). I thought this meant that according to IDEA, this fell into the category of a disorder that effects behavior that effects ability to learn. Well, the teachers give him zeros for all this lack of completed work. This is why he is failing so much this year- along with memory and processing issues that might be a part of medications but I'm not sure- he showed deficiencies in these areas on his testing before. The school says they don't help with this because he doesn't have a Learning Disability (LD). Anyway- I need to know how this place defines "behavior" and if they can help difficult child learn strategies and coping skills to deal with these emotions and cycles, rather than giving him a behavioral contract that just rewards and punishes what he is capable of doing now, without helping him learn how to be capable of more. Does that make sense?
And my second worry- if the sd is involved in getting this paid for, my gut tells me there is a catch. Like, how much control does this give the sd over difficult child and my lives for the rest of the time he is in this sd? Does this mean more pressure to sign any iep they stick in front of me in the future?
I think I will take a little time this weekend to see if I can find another local day treatment program that insurance will cover. In the meantime, any thoughts, suggestions, advice, pointers will be appreciated!!
by the way- Smallworld, you have kept me going this week! Thanks so much!!
I'll be checking back in but haven't been on much this evening- difficult child and I are spending some quality time together- (at least that is the plan LOL)
The average stay is 4-6 months. Some kids are pretty much just severe behavior problems; not all, and they do have several that are bipolar. They have a psychiatrist on board to work on medications and have a lot of therapy- individual, group, art, music, etc. They run all year but the minimal school component is not there at all in July. They said if he came in the summer, we would need to address his IEP not having extended school year requirement. Basicly no insurance, including medicaid (which I need to get difficult child on), will cover the cost. It has to be initiated by the sd - they refer it to CSA (whatever that is) of the locality, and they determine if they will pay for it. It takes about a month or so, usually, to get them in once the sd makes a referral. I asked about difficult child's probable need to go to summer school and if he went to this program in the summer, would this keep him on track to progress to next grade next school year. He said they turn the grades over to the school and the regular school determines grade placement.
He, also, said the sd that difficult child is in has referred many students to their program because they just aren't equipped to deal with BiPolar (BP) issues. Oh, boy, did that make my blood boil. Last year they were trying to send my son to a school that was all "bad behavior" issues- kids throwing chairs acroos the room- no substantial diagnosis's like we see on this board- and the best one out of three that they had me look at had about a 20% success rate of the kid ever going back to a regular school (even if in Special Education classes). I went to the school in Aug. last summer and showed, in writing, difficult child's new diagnosis of BiPolar (BP), then the MDE evaluation that said they don't think it is true BiPolar (BP), but difficult child has mood cycling and needs to be on mood stabilizer until he learns skills and strategies for stressors, etc. Wouldn't you think the people at school- or at least ONE PERSON could have mentioned to me in all their conversations about how they can't/wont deal with these issues at their school, even if it is written in his IEP, that they can refer him to a treatment facility that will? That's ok, I think it will help my case.
Anyway, I called the ed. spec. from this place, who was on the MDE team and who also had accompanied me to one of difficult child's iep meetings in Jan to see what he thinks. He was in a hurry and told me to call him again Mon. morning when he can pull the file and we can discuss it. I want to ask him if he thinks this would be the right place for difficult child.
My main concerns are 1) since difficult child's number of violations has so drasticly reduced this school year, he doesn't meet their definition of "behavior problem" anymore. Great! However, when he "shuts down" at school or home, or becomes so overwhelmed with work sometimes to the point of crying and raging - he rips his work up and it never gets completed. Then, there are the few times that has has DONE the projects or homework and refuses to turn it in because, in his words, "it just isn't good enough" (sometimes- many times- he does the work and turns everything in normally). I thought this meant that according to IDEA, this fell into the category of a disorder that effects behavior that effects ability to learn. Well, the teachers give him zeros for all this lack of completed work. This is why he is failing so much this year- along with memory and processing issues that might be a part of medications but I'm not sure- he showed deficiencies in these areas on his testing before. The school says they don't help with this because he doesn't have a Learning Disability (LD). Anyway- I need to know how this place defines "behavior" and if they can help difficult child learn strategies and coping skills to deal with these emotions and cycles, rather than giving him a behavioral contract that just rewards and punishes what he is capable of doing now, without helping him learn how to be capable of more. Does that make sense?
And my second worry- if the sd is involved in getting this paid for, my gut tells me there is a catch. Like, how much control does this give the sd over difficult child and my lives for the rest of the time he is in this sd? Does this mean more pressure to sign any iep they stick in front of me in the future?
I think I will take a little time this weekend to see if I can find another local day treatment program that insurance will cover. In the meantime, any thoughts, suggestions, advice, pointers will be appreciated!!
by the way- Smallworld, you have kept me going this week! Thanks so much!!
I'll be checking back in but haven't been on much this evening- difficult child and I are spending some quality time together- (at least that is the plan LOL)
