Advertisements
Let me tell you a little of my story first... I know it's a little long so bear with me. :)
My son has been diagnosed with pdd and he's been approved for a full day of preschool with speech and OT.
And we've run into some problems. Unfortunately he also has a severe peanut/tree-nut allergy which would lead to anaphylaxis if he were exposed.
So we made sure the school was aware and they had a nut free classroom and they had a form for parents and teachers with all the precautions they were supposed to take and we felt pretty good about it. They had his epi-pen and all the information. In the first 5 minutes of his first day the staff offered him a granola bar with peanuts which they set out on the table. This is while another staff member was telling my husband that they had it all under control and were going to check labels, etc etc. Thank goodness he also has a food aversion problem and he wasn't going to touch that!
So we pulled him out of school and made a 504 plan for him which is supposed to protect him and cover all possible eventualities, especially giving him an emergency plan for action if an exposure were to happen. Well the school district told us he couldn't have a 504 and an IEP at the same time. We had a meeting with preschool administrators and told them about our concerns and the need for the plan, 504 or Emergency health plan or whatever it might be called to help prevent or respond to an emergency. After my description of epi-pens and the importance of using it quickly for a potential exposure, one of the administrators asked me, "so you don't think it would be good to try benadryl first?" Hello, he could be passing out and going into anaphylactic shock and they would be thinking about benadryl?!! Anyhow it finally came out that the preschool refused to use any portion of the 504 plan and told us that their original page for parents and teachers was good enough to protect him. They claimed they could not have special plans for individual children and whatever is in effect is across the board for all the kids. Their unwillingness to address this prompted us to take him out for good.
There are no other preschools with an opening right now so he is going to get a special ed teacher, speech and OT at home. He will go on a waiting list for another preschool and might be able to go in the fall.
I am glad that he will receive something and I don't mind at all the parade of people coming through my house every day. The problem I have is this: supposedly intervening with him early is going to help. How is an education teacher 3 hours per week going to compare to a full day preschool, even when you take out snack, playground, nap, etc?
I don't want to send him back to the other preschool.
What would you do in this circumstance? Do I have any recourse? Thanks in advance for your help.
Like
Share
Hi Ocean- Have you thought about doing some ABA therapy in-home? This is something I used to do years ago while in college. The families hired college students and an ABA therapist trained them. The students did the therapy daily (even weekends), and parents were able to pay through the Medicaid waiver. Another option is to see if the preschool would be open to a doctor or nurse coming in and training them on allergy awareness.Finally, the IEP should cover everything. So the emergency plan should be in there, and posted in the classroom (with your permission), and in the office, etc. Anything that is in the 504 plan should go into the IEP, as the 504 is not the right document to use. You might want to get all that worked out regardless if he's at home or in a classroom setting. Natalie
Advertisements
Kara's right - the IEP should cover the emergency plan and anything else regarding K's education. The IEP is the "big dog" so to speak and the 504 is like the "chihuahua". [url=http://www.ed-center.com/504]504 Plan vs. IEP[/url] shows the differences between the two.On to your question. Personally I think being at home working with the therapists on his individual concerns and really getting that individual attention is a good thing. I think most kids who are behind at this age do better in an individual or low key setting until some of their challenges have been met. (In retrospect, I wish I'd known enough about EI when my youngest was a toddler.)Waiting another few months isn't going to hurt, imo and there are other ways to introduce the play setting to K without being in full preschool. Ask the therapists or doc offices in your area for any support groups they know of or call your local children's hospital. If you can meet up with a few moms with kids similar to K, they'll know all the ins & outs of your areas plus you'll hopefully have a playgroup for K.When you do find the right preschool for him, I agree you need to make sure his emergency plan is specific and that school was wrong when they told you they couldn't give him a "special plan". They are obviously not the right school though seeing that they didn't seem uhm...experienced enough in peanut allergies. K can't possibly be the first kid they've had and yet, offering a granola bar? Yikes.Hope you find another school soon and in the mean time, using the in home services will only help K so when you do get him in school, he'll be further along.
Thanks Natalie and Crick, I really appreciate the input.
I am going to have to ask the school district to put the emergency plan and all that into the IEP, which they seemed very reluctant to do. They just "noted the nut allergy" in 3 different areas of the IEP.
The therapists and teacher seem to be doing well with K at home crick so hopefully you are right about that. And I like that I can see everything that is going on, being the control freak that I am. :)
