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Just a quick question for those of you with older kids. I have 5 children and have almost all of them cored, had some sort of services at one time or another. I am in the process of cleaning out all my paper work and realized I still have all the evals, ect saved. Now my oldest is 27 and my youngest 2 are jr.s in high school. My youngest(twin) has the most lerning problems and I have paper from preschool...How long should I keep it? One part of me says there really is no need to keep and another hesitates...its alot of paper! Any ideas...what have you done with old evals and comments from every teacher?
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I have a filing cabinet drawer FULL of one child's evals and reports because the kid has basically grown up in RTC. His prognosis hasn't really changed from the moment we met and now, as an adult, I think it's time for me to throw it all away. Our relationship is very minimal.
On the other hand, we have very young children with evals and such...just starting out. I have no idea exactly where they'll 'be'---service wise in the next few years. Those things I AM keeping. You never know when someone will ask, 'what was the dx back then', KWIM?
For your older ones, think I'd make sure I had one piece of paperwork that described their dx' and meds for the most part. I'd throw the rest away.
For the younger, same thing (as so many reports are redundant, or at least this is what we've found).......and continue to keep the bulk until they're grown as well.
Sincerely,
Linny
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Thanks Linny, Good idea to sift through and decide what is important to keep and not. I was thinking of just giving the oldest all his stuff but he lives in a small apartment with not much room.... I did thow out the one eval that said my oldest was of " low average intelligance"...as its not something he needs to see as he is working on his 2nd masters and thinking about PHD.....:love:
I make a habit of obtaining all my medical records whenever possible & then obsessively hang on to them, perhaps a combination of OCD and my "need" for identity. It's been extremely helpful to go back over them for info on meds & such, and looking back on case notes is a reminder of how far I've come recovery wise. I've also been able to utilize some of the information to prove a pattern of destablization after services are cut & get insurance to continue treatment even though I am technically "recovered". I'm thinking of writing a book 'some day' so I figure it may come in handy then!
I digitize my records after they're a year or so old & save them in an online hard drive, then I don't have the paperwork to store. It's a bit of a hassle to copy it all in, but worth it in the long run, at least for me.
Honestly--I like reading the reports that say I have low intellegence, some of them I read through & can't stop laughing at how grossly inaccurate they are!
If college is an option at any point in the future, it is probably a good idea to hang onto as much as possible. I've got a learning disability (Dyscalculia) and I was never formally diagnosed in school so I needed to have an official diagnosis done by an educational psychologist.I only had records going back a year, so I had to write to my high school and request a letter from the guidance counselor. She outlined everything that they did to help me and listed the special education classes that I took.If accommodations are needed, its important to contact the potential college's office of disability services and ask what they need as proof. This same information also applies to most other types of disabilities.I hope this helped!