Evaluation through the Board of Ed

octopus

Tue, Aug 11 2015, 1:44 pm

The DOE will not make an autism diagnosis. You will have to get a private evaluation for that. You can still have your child evaluated by the DOE if you want your child to get services. You may get more services if you have the private eval. However, since all these things take time, you can most definitely go for the DOE eval, get whatever services you can get, in the meantime schedule a private eval, and when you get the results of that, call a meeting at DOE to adjust the service level your child is getting.

So, what you have to think about is: what kind of services would you like for your child?
do you want special education placement? services in a regular ed school? If you have an autism diagnosis, you will be eligible, through insurance for a BCBA therapist (that does ABA) to come to your home. You may be eligible for respite care through insurance. I'm assuming your child is five or older.

octopus

Tue, Aug 11 2015, 2:06 pm

this is the DOE process:

you have to write a letter to your district requesting an evaluation for your child. In this letter you will write your concerns. If you can get a teacher or principal's letter included in that initial mailing, that would be good as well. Make sure you stress behaviors at SCHOOL. They are not concerned with behaviors at home. You should also state how these behaviors are affecting him/her academically at school, and how it's affecting child's overall functioning, etc. If you want to request a speech or OT eval- do so, in the letter. The only testing that is automatically done is the psycho-evaluation (with school psychologist).

The DOE will process this info and will mail you a date for an evaluation(s). You will come down to the DOE building and your child will be tested by a school psychologist, while you will give a social history to a social worker. After the evaluation is done, you may have to come back on a different day for the speech or OT eval.

The DOE will "process" the eval and will set up another meeting to discuss whether your child is eligible for services. You can participate by phone or in-person. But if you really want those services, it is better to show up in person. You make sure to get the results of the evaluations BEFORE this meeting- which they should give you, but sometimes they are inept. Really, those initial letters are the most important because the DOE supervisor at this meeting has already made up their minds what they are giving your child, so the better you build your case from the beginning, the better off you are. Be prepared to disagree if you have to and try to prove your point. That's why having results from a private eval will make this process easier. When you go for that private eval, make sure you get a copy of whatever report or diagnosis on doctor letterhead. and make copies of it! you will need it.

feel free to pm me or ask through the thread.

amother

Floralwhite

Tue, Aug 11 2015, 10:02 pm

Thank you for the replies! I'm more interested in getting services that I feel will benefit my child, I'm just not sure if I do it first through the board of ed or if I get a private evaluation.
Octopus, why would you say the DOE would not give an autism diagnosis?
I was thinking more about ABA , speech and occupational therapy.In terms of grades and school work, dc(older than 5) does very well, I was thinking more of getting those services and keep dc in a regular classroom setting.
Seeker, do you know a good developmental specialist?

seeker

Tue, Aug 11 2015, 10:12 pm

I don't think the DOE gives ABA within regular school after 5. The medical insurance based programs might, though. Speech and OT are a possibility. I am not sure to what extent you can get a diagnosis from the DOE, in my experience they're more focused on just how is the kid performing in school. But in any case even if they do diagnose, you don't know who they're going to send to do the evaluation and if they're any good. But if you get your own evaluation and they give you a diagnosis and recommend services, you can use that to pressure the DOE to provide the services.

I have a name that might help you but please PM me because I want to give the full details and not in public.

amother

Copper

Tue, Aug 11 2015, 10:46 pm

octopus wrote:

The DOE does not give diagnoses. They put labels on children. Look, nothing is impossible, and each case is different. That's because it all depends on what kind of CSE supervisor you get. But from what I've been told directly from a CSE supervisor (and again, each supervisor is different) is that the DOE does not give autism diagnoses.

I want to just piggy back on this regarding the difficulty of getting an autism diagnosis... My daughter had a full scale evaluation by a hospital team, was given an ADOS assessment, and had the diagnosis of high functioning autism/ Even with all of the supporting documentation, I still had to be extremely pushy just to get the IEP team to put the autism classification on her IEP.