Transitioning from EI to pre-school - please help.

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Hi all!

My sons are almost 2.5 and will transition from Early Intervention to preschool in February. At this moment they each get 24 hours a week of various therapies. The town run preschool offers a 4 day program that is 2.5 hours a day. That means that they will go from 24 hours to only 10 hours a week. To me, this is unacceptable.

I am wondering if anyone has experience in this kind of situation. I think my sons need a full or at least exteded day of school. I know what I "think" doesn't matter. I need the correct language and experience with special ed law to convince them of this, right?

I have NO IDEA what to do net.

Any suggestions, besides a lawyer? Where can I learn the lingo? Thanks!

It depends upon your state. And even within each state it seems to me that different districts handle it differently. The district that I was in before was very stingy with services once a kid entered school, IMHO, but we moved to a different district and they didn't even do a formal evaluation. They just asked me which services I'd like her to have and they gave them to me, just because I asked and explained why I thought they were necessary.

Where I was when my daughter transitioned, she kept her same number of hours and those that were not used at school we kept using at home. That was for ABA/VB. She kept the same number of hours of PT/OT/ST until they were phased out. Those were given to her outside of school.

Also, I sent my daughter to a private preschool, which had extended hours. I paid for it myself, but it eventually allowed her therapist to be with her the whole day at school (we worked her up to a full day).

Where I live, they have 2.5 hour pre school, 4 hours and 6 hours. What do the kids teachers say? That is an extreme reduction in services, and unless they are doing remarkably well, I would fight it!

wright's law

This is a good link for learning the ins and outs of special ed law. I'm still pretty new at this but I think the key for you is to make the argument that they NEED to 24 hours a week and that cutting them back to 10 will not be meeting their needs. Put another way, someone decided that the level they are currently getting is what they need so ask the school to justify what has changed about their condition that would make it appropriate to drop from 24 hrs/wk to 10.

My son never had EI so we are pretty new to this. My son is 3 1/2 yo. He was approved for 12 month program in a special ed school, full day (from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm). It also comes with bus service and OT, PT, ST and Play Therapy. What I did was do a lot of exaggerating and pestering. After the evaluation, I told them that my son was steadily losing certain abilities and that he needed help desperately. We never did another evaluation so a lot of this was based on me talking to the district coordinator. I got her e-mail address and phone number and e-mailed or called her at least once a week. We had to do that to also get the special ed teacher who comes to our home for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. BTW, she has been a blessing!

My OB/GYN had been through the process before (she currently has a lawsuit pending) gave me a lot of advice and I am so happy that we did what we did because they seem to have a default setting of telling you no when you ask for anything.

Once he starts school he will be evaluated and then you will get an IEP. Ours included 4 hours a week of home ABA services.

There should be a transition plan done by the EI people. Talk to your case manager to get details. At a minimum, I think you want to hire an advocate (who might be an educational consultant instead of a lawyer) to help you fight for services in your first IEP meeting with the school district.

I think the problem will be that the state (EI) is only giving us 9 hours a week, the rest we are paying for privately. The only people that decided it was necessary was us, not the state. I jsut wonder how they can say that they need less than they are already getting.

Unfortunately, in that case, they could argue that they are actually giving you an hour more. It may not be just, but I bet it is what they will argue.

Is there a reason you are unable to continue your private therapies? So that the number of hours could stay even?

We are paying $8000 a month, so we were hoping that the public school would take over all the hours. We are pretty much blowing through our retirement funds to pay for the school and we want to try to make back that money as soon as we can. The school is also an hour away, it is difficult to get them to and from on top of taking care of my daughter and her school schedule.

Ouch!

I don't know if this will help or not, but have you tried having your therapists write letters describing your son's need and potential negative consequences if he does not receive therapy? It is best at this point that you begin attaching everything to negative educational outcomes. Because once they are out of EI, that's what they seem to care about.

For example, where I live once you are done with EI, you don't get services in the summer anymore, only during the school year (I don't know if that's how it works everywhere or not). However, by having my daughter's PT write a note explaining that if she did not have PT consistently over the summer that she would lose her gains and be at increased risk for injury at school due to her gait problems, we were able to get approval to continue all of her services over the summer.

What services that you now have are they denying? Were they denied to you in EI, or did you just decide to get extra?