The business of an IEP

This morning Brian and I had a long meeting with Connor's support team at school: school psychologist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, special ed teacher and kindergarten teacher. Because of his autism diagnosis, he has an IEP (individual education program); the IEP has to be updated every 3 years to determine whether he still qualifies for the services he is receiving. His last IEP was done 3 years ago when he got his pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) diagnosis, before the autism diagnosis came. And here we are 3 years later doing another one. For the past 3 years he has been receiving speech, OT and special ed services through the preschool and now kindergarten setting.

For the past couple of months he's been going through lots of testing/evaluations/observations to see where things are. The meeting this morning was to share the findings with us, and to answer 2 questions: 1. Does Connor continue to meet eligibility requirements for special education services? 2. Because Connor is turning 6 (!) in the Spring, does he qualify for a school-aged disability?

The answer to both questions ended up being "Yes." But there are going to be some changes to his IEP. He no longer will receive speech (which inititally was his biggest focus) and OT (this has been a lesser service with just some basic support). He has been receiving some sort of speech therapy since he was 2, so that's 3 1/2 years! He is in essence "graduating" from speech - his speech teacher is going to do a little graduation event for him. The team actually considered not qualifying him for any services, but feel there is enough evidence to show that he would continue to benefit from ongoing speical ed support. So now, he will only receive special ed support, to address the one area that continues to be challening for our Connor: socialization. The resolution from the team at today's meeting is, "Connor is eligible for special education services for autism, in the areas of self-direction with independence and self-advocacy. Recommended services are social skills group weekly and in-class support for independence strategies."

I am so happy with their assessment - I have wanted him in a social skills group, but the one at Children's is way $$$. I think this will be sooooooo good for him. A quick little vent: I just have to say, I sometimes get annoyed at the bad rap public school gets these days. Of course there are some that probably deserve it, but I have had a fantastic experience with his school. From the top down, he has received excellent support tailored exactly to his needs. The principal and his entire team are "on it." I think we have found a situation that works as it should: principal, teacher and support staff working with us, the parents, to help Connor succeed and do the very best he can. I am so grateful for this.

His care team did share thoughts that have followed Connor since he was very first diagnosed: he is extremely mild and very high-functioning, in some ways not exhibiting typical autism behaviors, but it some ways, exemplifying some autistic tendencies to a T. He's always been a difficult diagnosis because of this, which ultimately is good, because he really has some huge strenghts, but then also some big weaknesses. Our philosophy as his parents always has been to use those strenghts to fill in his weaknesses. Once given the right tools, Connor is always capable of achieving huge things. In this, we try to be more "pushers" than "enablers" so to speak. But his little mind is just so interesting, and doesn't connect the dots or develop "typical" behaviors and tendencies like minds generally do.

The school psychologist made a most interesting point in trying to determine whether or not Connor will continue to qualify for services. She said if this was 20 years ago or so and they were going solely on does he need help to be academically competent, then NO, he would not qualify. But because things have progressed and they now look at the whole student, including these other factors like socialization, he does in fact qualify. Thank goodness this thought has come along! Because school really is about so much more than just ABCs and 123s.

From his testing, his congnitive abilities continue to be a huge strength. He continually has been testing above grade level in math and reading (in vocabulary, his syntactic understanding was described as "superior"). His struggles are writing, and again, socialization. But his team feels rather strongly that if he continues on the path he's on, there's a good chance he might not even have an IEP in the future.

So there we have it! A slightly new direction in his education plan, which I think ultimatley shows that he has made some huge progess. And we have no doubt that he will continue to make big strides. I am so grateful to be this little boy's mom.