Autism Diagnosing

HFA/AS can be a very sticky widget when it comes to school accommodations. IEPs are designed to help students learn. When they're making great grades, it's nearly impossible to prove a deficit in their learning.
After 5 years of fighting in 2 states, my ds received a 504 plan and a Gifted IEP, but they were pretty worthless. We chose to homeschool and actually get his needs met.

As far as the diagnosis, schools are not legally permitted to make one. I would contact the nearest child development center (usually in university medical centers) and ask about their payment arrangements. Ds's full eval (with educational psychologists, developmental peds, occupational, physical, and speech therapists, and more) was billed at thousands and thousands of dollars, but I think we paid a total of $200-300 after insurance.

In the meantime, there's plenty to read up on that she can implement at home. There's no reason to just ignore it in the meantime.

She needs to go through her pediatrician and get a referral.

Just FYI... it is not the school's responsibility to obtain a diagnosis. It's the responsibility of the parent. If the child is progressing academically and is not having behavioral issues, it's not a "school problem". Things are not always as they appear and yes the child should be evaluated, but via his primary care physician making a referral to a neurologist. If they do not have insurance, then your friend needs to schedule an appointment with social services and see what insurance options and assessment options are available.

I am a special education administrator and was a school psychologist for many years.... it is not the school district's job to solve all of the problems and provide all of the answers. It is their job to accommodate (if necessary) and make sure that all children are learning. We are NOT social services and we are NOT medicaid managers.

I am not sure about cost, but The Child Study Center in Fort Worth would be a great location for further testing and additional resources for her.

She needs to get an advocate for him so she can appeal the school's decision. This website has a lot of information: http://topaa.org/advocates.html . I had to do this for my son, because the school argued that he may have autism medicallly but not educationally so they wanted to refuse to recognize his diagnosis. The truth is that the lack of social skills affects their education as they get older and more team projects are assigned. Also, the standard should be as performing as required, but is he performing up to his potential? If he tests as gifted, but onlly gets Cs, that is as required, but it is certainly not what he should be doing. The schools are going to say no whenever they can due to money. But there is the law, and the right to appeal their decision. Good luck!

Dr. Rios. ###-###-#### My insurance is covering testing for this type of behavior.

-Have your friend contact MHMR of Tarrant County they have offices in -Arlington. Go to www.mhmrtc.org and look up the ECI-Early Childhood Intervention department. The phone number to the main office is ###-###-####

God Bless