Need advice on IEP

[Hrosenkrantz]

On the disability coding issue for a PANDAS IEP -- OHI (otherwise health impaired) is a possible code for the IEP.

[JoyBop]

Jferinga, thanks for all of that.

 

You bring up some great points. We will be qualifying him with "OHI" Other health impairments. We tried a 504 first but it is not touching him and he is no longer able to access the program. The teacher says he "wanders around the classroom when he is supposed to be working" "can complete class work with the one on one help of an adult" and "does not connect to daily routines in the class room". Basically, he is unable to function whether it be due to ADHD like symptoms, OCD, anxiety, or cognitive dysfunction, that is a very blurry line right now. He keeps it together emotionally in class but his ability to focus and accomplish anything independently is gone. His hand writing is now worse than it was in kindergarten (he is in 3rd grade now) and his math skills have vanished. He can hardly add or subtract and in a matter of only weeks, this ridiculous common core program has gone from + - to multiplication to division to square root in a matter of weeks and his head is SPINNING!! He is "getting in trouble" all throughout the school during those less structures environments, and the school has done nothing to support him or his poor classroom teacher who is left with 10 other student to tend to and no aide.

 

The school pyschologist tried to get away with just doing the executive functioning part of the testing and no educational testing but I strongly disagreed. We'll see how far the testing even gets with his short attention span. Im sure someone will be scribing for him if they dont want hint to completely fail the test.

 

I have hired our psychiatrist to help with the behavioral part of the plan as far as his ability to actually function in the classroom aside from his brain not functioning. What a mess!

 

We are hoping that they will make this all right, or we will have to request home tutoring. Thank goodness for the state law that any one who has to miss 14 days in a school year for medical reasons can have a doctor send a certified letter requesting home tutor.

[jferinga]

There are pro's and con's to what the school psychologist does. There should be an educational componenet to the evaluation which should include the basic battery of assessments from the, or extended battery, Woodcock Johnson III, or an equivalent. Keep in mind, if you do not have a formal diagnosis of a disability that fits into those defined by IDEA or fits as an "other health impairment" the school psychologist will assess and placement will be determined based on the disability identified by the psychologist. Schools, in my opinion, are not equipped to address the severity of behaviors I have read about and seen in our own child except by allowing breaks, flexibile grading, changes in environment, lessening the work load, etc. If you disagree with the school's evaluation and offer of FAPE you can always file for due process. If you file for due process you need to keep in mind that the goal is for educational progress. Educational progress can be documented in many different ways. I have a set of questions used by administrative law judges in California whcih I will email if I can find them. When educaitonal progress is not occuring typically a change in services or placement may be necessary. For example: more counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy, fewer class, or change of placement to a more restrictive setting. A more restrictive setting may be a non-public school (NPS) or a residential facility. You can also ask for Home Hospital. This is where a child is too sick to go to school and the school district will send a teacher to your home to help maintain learning. Side note: you may be able to get disability to care for your son due to the severity and focus on finding treatment.

 

I have mentioned PANDAS to many people. Most question how can an infection cause these sypmtoms, some do not believe it (including a couple of doctors), nurses who complain that people will not want more antibiotics, and those who say it makes sense. The issue we encountered was getting the doctors to prescribe antibiotics.

 

On a proactive note though. Use the school to document the decline in math and handwriting. Have the school "track" by tally sheets how often during the day he exhibits the specific behaviors. This data is useful when you determine the efficacy of any treatment from the doctor.

 

Our best support came from a child psychologist who was open and did her own research about PANDAS and PANS. She believes it to be possible and stated that treatment woudl be hard in an HMO setting since they are bound by policies. We just read the book Saving Sammy and are buying copies for the psychologist and pediatrician and are downloading YouTube videos that we feel are worth watching to give the doctors on disk to watch.

 

Feel free to email any questions.

[JoyBop]

Thanks jfaringa. You are very knowledgable! I may pm you with specific questions once we finally meet. My child has many diagnosis. They do accept the PANDAS diagnosis, but he also has the anxiety and OCD which already qualify him for emotionally disturbed and OHI. That is what his 504 had been under. But that was before the regression in skills. We had him tested privately last year and be score at or above grade average in just about everything and has a rather high IQ. The school will be running the full battery of tests now and in so curious to see how much he has declined or its its all focus, movement and behavioral.

 

I'm hoping they will handle this correctly or we will keep him at home. In our state our doctor can write a a letter if a child misses 14 days or more in a school year. My child has already missed more than that, so we are close to writing that letter. I would just rather keep him in school because there are so few places he will go anymore is hate to loose that.

 

I don't exactly trust this schools testing either so I'm prepared to get him tested privately if I need to.

 

 

Thank you so much for your expertise. They have to have it done within 30 school days. I already completed and dropped off two questionnaires that looked like emotional and adhd like checklists. If there is anything in particular you think I should have in my binder please let me know! I could use a secret weapon.

[jferinga]

PM me. What state are you in?