Each state has some leeway in how they interpret the federal regulations, but it seems to me that your son is *very* underserviced. Your doctor cannot automatically trump the school, but his/her recommendations should be considered at the meeting. -A written justification of 3-6 paragraphs or more will carry more weight than a scribbled recommendation on office letterhead. Detailed reports from the other therapists are a must as well. You have to build the case for justifying services. Your doctor is dead on about the school’s refusal to provide services over the summer. If a kid needs it, services don’t stop just because of summer vacation. The law is quite plain about this. Here in New York you’d have to prove that there would be substantial regression without therapy. If all else fails, threaten legal action–that usually causes schools to have an immediate attitude adjustment. It seems foolish on their part: In practical terms, their not addressing this issue now will cost a lot more in the future, whether ist be in increased services or legal expenses. I’m a firm believer in early intervention.

You have a few things going on that you may want to look into getting yourself an advocate to assist you with the services your child needs. This is not to say that you can’t advocate for yourself but it is always better to have someone there listening and clarifying things for you.

Issues:

1) A district cannot say that children only receive this amount. There is no such thing as a blanket amount of services. 60 minutes a week is 2 – 30 minute sessions a week which is not unrealistic. If the district does not have the staff to support this, then the district is responsible for finding the staff to support this. Put your request in writing to the CST with a note from the doctor. If you are saying that the school staff feels that your child needs additional therapy then the school staff should be discussing that with the CST at the IEP meeting. If it is your private therapist agreeing with the doctor, the therapist can write a letter of justification for additional services in school the school can take it under advisement but again do not have to follow through on the suggestion.

2) It has been my experience that doctors do not dictate what therapy is needed for the school setting. The doctor can suggest a specific amount of time and the school can take it under consideration but they do not have to follow the doctor’s suggestion. The schools responsibility to make sure the child can function within the school environment, improve and maintain skills. School is not a therapy center so school does not have to function by giving therapy daily. Insurance job is to maintain only.

3) ESY is not mandated. The rules of ESY are very specific and it is best to look to your state regulations. It is not enough to say that a child will regress without services. There are additional factors to consider and only your state regulations can tell you what they are. For instance, in my state we have to document students rate of learning, regression and ability to re-coup skills, documentation of behaviors concerns and if the child has alternative resources such as private therapy. A child can be denied ESY.

Forget about including it on IEP, if school district resources are limited you may not get additional time. I always made sure my sons got speech outside of school setting too. Speech therapy should be recommended by doctor, not the school. The two speech therapists can and should work together on the same goals though. What the doctor recommends for medical reasons can be different from what the school may say is an educational need! Keep that in mind. In my case, I would need an attorney to get my 2 special education students what they need and deserve! My current school district did not even review 2 out of state evaluations by UW CHDD, nor any other medical or school records! Past district, I never had a single problem with IEPs, but they recommended an outside speech therapy because of the particulars of my son’s disability.

Never assume the school district has your child’s best interest in mind. Only you, as a parent, can make sure your child’s needs are met! Either by forcing it with the IEP or getting a provider elsewhere.

Titanic, schools in Texas can legally discriminate! There is cap on number of special education students who are certain minorities. It is why some of the worst performing districts are here in TX. Some people here still do not want to educate minorities although the current year is 2007, not 1958. My family will not be here next year!

I believe they must because of the no child left behind law. A special ed student must get an equal education like everyone else. A school must provide speech because they teach education and it’s part of English. Plus schools can’t discriminate and they must help everything to be the best that they can. Well the doctor knows best. Just show them some evidence. I do agree that 60 isn’t enough and it should be once a week. When I was younger I had speech once a week or it might of been twice. It was definately 60 minutes each period. How are you suppost to learn when it’s once a month. You will forget some of it if it isn’t constantly applied. The school is saying everyone gets it once a month because they don’t want to pay additional money and they are lazy people. Don’t let them trick you. Provide evidence and contact someone outside the school that is good with special education and ask him/her. Plus get some evidence to outweigh their arguements.

I teach special ed. in Missouri and here if the primary diagnosis is a speech disability, the kids get WAY more speech services then your child is getting. Some of my students get 90 minutes per week at least and then I work closely with the speech teacher so I can help the child in the classroom as well. They can not legally tell you that your child can’t get the service because the therapist isn’t there, if your child has a primary diagnosis of a speech disability, they need to GET the therapist there.

A Dr can determine the amount of therapy your child needs, however, the school district looks at the advice and STILL goes by what is determined necessary by their own speech/language pathologists. If you feel like your child is NOT getting what he needs…then you’re heading in the right direction by reconvening on his IEP meeting. Also attend school dept meetings, and push for more special education services from your city.

The fact that the therapist is only at the school x hours a month has no bearing on how much Speech your son gets! They pretty much lost their case by telling you that. They need to provide your son the service based on his needs. I would get your doctor and private therapist to document his regression from on getting 60 minutes a month (which is ridiculous). Make your case by documenting his lack of progress and make them PROVE his progress. Is he moving toward meeting his speech goals? I would check out the IEP_Guide Yahoo Group. You will get lots of great answers there. Also, try www.reedmartin.com and www.wrightslaw.com.