More legal battles to fight, trying to get Arrowsmith

[kewpie]

This summer has been very interesting as I have been filing for hearing with our local regional center to fund the Arrowsmith program for middle ds only to be told to pursue the issue with DOR as RC's are the payer of last resort. UGH..so now I have to start over. Of course I have also heard that DOR is payer of last resort so a judge may end up telling both agencies what to do. Dealing with these agencies is a whole new ball game governed by different laws and I am getting schooled all over again. The process is supposed to be "user friendly" so lawyers are usually absent and its on me.
There are advocacy agencies i have been consulting with but its a pain because my kids are adults. They want the kids involved and the boys are content to let me do whatever is needed.
The problem is middle ds has high functioning Autism with APD and really bad Executive Functioning. His IQ ranges from 102-132 but after 4 years of college he is still unable to earn a 2 year degree due to his inability to produce a quality essay and get his work in. He is barely hanging on with a 2.0 GPA.
If he could get the Arrowsmith program to remediate his APD and EF, he could be a stellar student. I want them to pay as i am really tapped out but to my oldest son.

My baby, dd was originally diagnosed with ADHD-inattentive and fell apart in middle school. I now suspect, she did not have ADHD at all. or it was really mild. Meds made little or no difference. It was all EF that incapacitated her. One year in Arrowsmith and her EF diminished well enough for her to function in 9th public school with some RSP and extended time. 10th grade went better. In 11th grade she will be taking two AP classes. This kid was barely functioning in 7th grade and missed all of 8th grade academics to spend the year on Arrowsmith.

My oldest DS, flunked out of college and his certificate program due to his severe language disorders. LD's and EF. After two years of Arrowsmith, he went back to CC to try taking a class in child development this summer. It is a 4 week intense course, a semesters worth of reading material crammed into it. He got an 87 on his mid term and an A- on his paper. His final is tomorrow and i am pretty sure he will do well. He has also been working hard on his final project. (He was also diagnosed with ADHD inattentive and he used to take meds but it didn't seem to do much.) He is not taking any meds while taking this summer course. Did he really ever have ADHD? I wonder....

[healthy11]

Kewpie, it's so good to hear that your daughter is doing well, and that your eldest son is experiencing success in his new endeavor! How intensive were his two years of Arrowsmith? (Was it a full-time, year-round program? Are there specific locations for adult clients, vs. K-12th grade students?) Is there a website for those who want to find out more about Arrowsmith programs? I found www.arrowsmithschool.org/arrowsmithprogram/ but I'm not sure if it's what you'd recommend.

I do hope your middle son is also able to get what he needs in order to thrive, not just survive. For the benefit of others who are reading this discussion thread, and because different states use different acronyms, can you clarify what are DOR and RC's? I'm guessing Dept. of Rehabilitation and Rehab Centers? While I don't have personal experience dealing with those agencies, I know you're a very capable advocate, so if anyone can get through the process, you can! Hang in there!

[dw]

I hope you can get what you want.
I know many of us have our own "favorite" source of help, and I don't mean to put down Arrowsmith. It was the first thing I looked at after the goofy Davis dyslexia wallet extractor failed so miserably for my dd in 2007.

With regard to essay writing, such an important academic skill, my dd really learned the art and method of writing at Landmark college, after crashing in her second year of college at a state university. There are many AS students at LC, and it is geared for average to above average students.. It is also quite expensive but there is a lot of financial aid. Perhaps the summer program for visiting students or one semester focusing on writing might be worth considering.

[kewpie]

DW and Healthy,

DOR is Dept of Rehabilitaion
RC is Regional center. Here in Ca they are an agency that works with adults and children over their life time if they have autism or other developmental disabilities.

I agree the Davis thing is goofy. I had my oldest son do it and it didn't do anything for him.

Re Landmark, I have talked to the folks over there when they were here at the IDA conference and they are very interested in adding Arrowsmith to the Landmark curriculum.

Both my sons can only write when they are hand held with the right supports in spite of a lot of great tutoring thru their LD schools. My dd could write a narrative but not an essay to save her life.

Their learning profiles are different but the one thing they all have in common is a severe Executive Functioning Deficit.

My dd was not dyslexic or autistic but had speech delay as a toddler. Her speech caught up well by the age of 4 and things were OK until she hit middle school and seem to lose track of time, assignments, what to do , how to write a summary let alone expository writing, explain what she read etc... I had her do Visualization/verbalization and she got stuck at 60 hours and could not progress. Her room looked like a tornado hit it and she could not even begin to accomplish any tasks without tons of hand holding.
It took one year of Arrowsmith full time (6 exercises per day) to turn her around 360 degrees. (NO regular classes at all this year) She went back to school (yes, skipping a grade per se) and could advocate for herself, understand how and when to ask for accommodations, and write an 8 page research paper without any help at home and have a solid 3.+ GPA.

I started to realize then how horribly EF could impact a life.

My oldest son failed college and a vocational program and a job. His disabled students counselor kept complaining he did not ask for help in time. I now know his EF kept him from UNDERSTANDING when or if he was failing, so he did not ask for help because he was unaware of his situation. He also had a very severe language disorder (less than 10% total language abilities) processing disorder, dyslexia, short term memory issues, ADD and EF. EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING IS CRITICAL TO SUCCESS IN COLLEGE. Its the one disability colleges do not recognize or it would not be critical to success.

Somewhat reluctantly, he did one year of Arrowsmith, part time (4 exercises per day) 5 days per week. After that YEAR, he got REALLY vested and went full time the next year 6 exercises per day, 5 days per week. In the fall, he is going back for 3 exercises per day, 5 days per week just to bring up some of the auditory skills and he is going back to CC part time with less anxiety and renewed hope.

My middle ds has seen how Arrowsmith has improved the lives of his siblings and now he is interested to going too.

my sons have both succeeded in LD schools but when the supports are taken away, they fail and/or struggle. The LD schools DID teach advocacy skills but without EF, the teaching does not stick. With Arrowsmith, they get gains that will last a life time and not keep then dependent of the supports around them. They can then compete in mainstream schools and jobs and they will not need me to keep them on track. My dd has been out of the Arrowsmith program for 2 years and she continues to make gains. She does not need her meds and her dependency on accommodations is reducing significantly.

[kewpie]

>Are there specific locations for adult clients, vs. K-12th grade students<
Yes. It depends on the center. The centers my children attended in Ca took both adults and children. Some schools that offer it, limit it to their student body only.

In Canada, the national Catholic school Board (in Canada, parents can choose if they want their tax dollars to go towards parochial or public schools) have adopted Arrowsmith into their formal curriculum. they have done trials with it and have noticed very good results.

The early results are coming out of research starting in 2012 and in is very promising. I have been immersed with it for 3 years now and i wish my children could have had this in elementary school, if so, I doubt very much if they would have had to attend LD schools at all, yet alone years of tutoring, IM, speech therapy. etc.

I would truly recommend this for a "gap year" past time for kids with LD's before attempting college.

[healthy11]

Kewpie, I hope you don't mind, but I've added Arrowsmith to the title of this discussion, so people who want to hear about it can more easily find this thread...

[kewpie]

That's fine Healthy.

[Mayleng]

Sending you good vibes in your fight. This program sounds promising.

[kewpie]

Mayleng,

It is so hard to wrap your head around a concept of actually remediating or lessening the impact of ( or even curing) a learning disability thru the use of a cognitive/program that people dismiss it without really investigating the idea. It is also hard for parents to wrap their minds around the fact that their is no traditional academics/classroom time involved. I was very hesitant but I ran out of options to help my daughter and it was fresh of the suicide of my son's friend who could trace back his learning difficulties to EF. Gifted, but could not get his work together on time, he was harangued by his teachers, classmates and counselors alike. He just couldn't take it anymore. My daughter wore her memorial t shirt with his picture on it every week. One day, while at an IEP, she sat there with the that tee shirt and he seemed to look at me and I knew she had to leave that school.

If more children got this program early in their academic years, then traditional schooling would be much more successful than it is now. We could cut down on depression, anxiety, therapy, suicide associated with school failure. My oldest son raves about how much his anxiety has lessened. The anxiety was basically paralyzing him and inhibiting him from taking small chances in his personal and academic life. No meds involved. I have heard him laugh more in the last year that I had in the previous 10. My daughters anxiety has all but evaporated and it was so high in 6th grade, that they gave her an IEP mostly based on her scores of depression anxiety.

LD's or the results of, cause an enormous amount of anxiety and depression. Once the LDs are gone or manageable, then mental health improves dramatically.

[Mayleng]

Kewpie, I am sadden to hear about your son's friend. And I am happy that this program has worked for your children. It is so difficult as you say to get people to accept this concept.

[kewpie]

Yesterday we had our hearing. It was nerve racking as I had to be the lawyer for my younger son. Luckily my husband was there to help sort thru the evidence documents as they were brought up. The local PTI also sent a social worker to be moral support. My oldest ds and my youngest, dd attended the hearing to testify about how Arrowsmith had changed their lives. My oldest ds broke down in tears about how much Arrowsmith has improved his abilities. I was proud of them.

The day was a huge learning experience overall. The other side was not as prepared as I thought they would be since this is likely a common occurrence for them.

When I filed for due process, they refused mediation so it sounded like they would be going after me with loaded guns. The judge had to reiterate to them several times "This is YOUR case" and can you point out the specific statue to which you are referring, only to get drawn out answers about "policies". They also pulled out some sort of chart about evidence proven techniques but there were no actual listed "programs" by name. So I am cautiously optimistic.

We have to meet again to discuss more vendorization issues. One of the arguments against giving my son the services is that the facility has not been vendorized but the plaintiff made no attempt to try. The facility has submitted paperwork only to have it lost. When the facility called to ask about getting vendorized, they were told that they cannot be vendorized unless a family asks for the services. Sounds like the run-around to me. Now I am waiting to hear when we continue..fun fun fun..

[kewpie]

I did get some good news.

My oldest DS who has been greatly impaired with triple deficit dyslexia, short term memory, EF issues and language disorder has made such tremendous strides with the Arrowsmith Program.
This summer he took a child development course at the local CC where they crammed a whole semesters worth of reading, papers and tests into 4 week course. He got an A.
This is the first academic college course he has gotten an A in. Simply amazing...

[healthy11]

Kewpie, thank you for sharing your son's good news! Is he thinking about going to college full time this fall, or ?

[Mayleng]

Yay! that is wonderful Kewpie. You must be so proud of your son. I hope the rest of the case goes smoothly for you.

[kewpie]

My oldest ds is going to split his time between a part time Arrowsmith program and classes at the community college. He has also been offered a part time job assisting the Arrowsmith teacher. It will be a new challenge for him to handle juggling these 3 things but I believe he is now capable of doing it. He just needs to realize that he will be able to handle it. It will be a long road to build his confidence back up.

It looks like the hearing will reconvene on Friday. I can't wait for it to be over. Its been hanging over my head like a guillotine for a couple of months and I want it done.

[kewpie]

The hearing wrapped up on Friday. I am hopeful, but the decision could go either way. The judge complimented both sides on their presentation, saying it was one of the best prepared cases he had worked with. My brain was so fried, I could barely function all weekend.

To add to the stress last week:
1) SSA sent a threatening letter to me (I am his rep payee) saying I did not come in to see them after they send me the "first letter" of which I never received. I called them and have to go in this week.

2) The community college (for some reason or another) dropped my oldest son from all the classes, he had registered for. Luckily, the classes were still open and his DSPS counselor re-enrolled him.

3) My sister sent me angry emails because i was unable to attend my nieces'out of state wedding this coming Friday and that my priorities are screwed up and things like court are no excuse. Parents who have perfect kids just don't get the emotional, financial and gobs of time having kids with LD's or autism (I have 3, no less) take up. Sigh, I try to explain but she really doesn't care. I was just there for 3 days last moth for the shower but I guess that doesn't count.

[healthy11]

Sorry to hear that you're having to deal with so many headaches at once. Hopefully, the worst is over, and you'll get good news soon.

On a separate note, since you're in CA, can you take a quick look at millermom.proboards.com/thread/14170/baffled-case-managers-advice-california Thanks!

[Mayleng]

Hugs! Kewpie. I feel for you. Wish your sister would at least understand what you have gone thru' and still going thru'. For what it is worth, we here totally understand and hope for a successful outcome for all your kids. They are definitely MORE important than a wedding. Your sister should be getting her priorities straight.

[kewpie]

Thanks Meyleng! I did check with my niece to send my apologies and best wishes. She was gracious and understanding. She would be mortified if she knew how her mother was behaving.

[kewpie]

Not the decision I was hoping for.

Basically the judge can't force the regional center to vendorize the Arrowsmith program as it does not fit in their scope of services.

However, the regional center has vendorized another local facility (that offers Arrowsmith) for other services.

The judge ordered an IPP meeting (their version of an IEP) with 20 days because GGRC did not offer anything comparable to ds.

The only thing that I can find is comparable is CIP (College Internship Program which comes with a hefty price tag (about double the Arrowsmith tuition) I am looking for a service that can insure ds success in college so he won't be hampered by Executive function deficits.

This should be interesting.

In the mean time, the state Dept of Rehab is visiting the Arrowsmith program, so lets hope for the best. Maybe we will get funding that way.

[healthy11]

I'm sorry to hear that your initial request wasn't granted, but I do hope your younger son can get the help he needs to be successful. (Forgive my confusion, but the acronyms and terminology and procedures are vastly different from state to state; is the CIP program available through the IPP process, prior to his high school graduation? Wouldn't your son only be eligible for Dept. of Rehab services after graduation? (including the Arrowsmith program,, if they visit and approve it.)

[kewpie]

>is the CIP program available through the IPP process, prior to his high school graduation?<
No CIP (college Internship Program) is a program designed to assist students with disabilities thru college and help them develop study and life skills while doing so. The tuition is extremely pricey and does not include room and board or college tuition.
cipworldwide.org/


Wouldn't your son only be eligible for Dept. of Rehab services after graduation? (including the Arrowsmith program,, if they visit and approve it.)

Not quite. DS is eligible for Regional Center services too. In Ca, RC or Regional Centers, offer services to individuals with developmental disabilities over their lifetime. www.dds.ca.gov/RC/RCList.cfm
Regional Centers also serve very young children (under age 3) with disabilities such as speech delay, etc. When the children reach age 3, they are transferred to the school district for all services UNLESS they are diagnosed with a developmental disability at which time they can receive services from both the school district and the regional center. California was the first state I believe, to set up such an organization. Since ds was diagnosed with ASD late, he did not become a regional center client until his teens.

[Mayleng]

Bummer Kewpie. I was praying for a good outcome. Hoping the State Rehab can offer your son Arrowsmith.

[kewpie]

I can only hope there is a slight possibility that the regional center may decide at the IPP that they may not want to be on the hook for a program that costs 3 x as much as Arrowsmith and relent.

We have not been contacted to schedule the IPP yet.

I think the judge was a bit irritated that the other side had not offered anything at all.

[healthy11]

If the judge was irritated that the other side hadn't offered anything, I'm surprised he didn't rule in your favor?