"Outgrowing" austism: IEP vs. 504 Plan?

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As of his last visit with the developmental pediatrician, nine year old Eldest is no longer autistic. In the doctor's words, he's "outgrown" that diagnosis, and is now diagnosed with dysgraphia and semantic/pragmatic speech disorder.

Today, my Wife went in for his IEP meeting. And found that, because of this, he's no longer getting an IEP, but is now getting a "504 Plan". He's considered to have graduated from speech therapy, and thus will not be receiving it any longer, and will be getting a grand total of an hour of OT at school every month.

Which seems pretty much pointless, but still.

On the other hand, he's getting extra time for writing assignments, will be allowed to bring a keyboard to school when it becomes developmentally appropriate, and will be allowed to turn in homework that is either typed, or in his mother's handwriting. This doesn't take effect until next year, but happily his current teacher has been allowing all of this already.

We've been very happy with his teachers and with his school thus far, and there's been no cause for concern about how he's been treated and what accommodation have been made for him. But there's no guarantee that thing's aren't going to change -- I've been very worried that he's going to end up with a teacher who isn't as patient with Eldest as those he's had thus far.

If you've been through this sort of transition, have you experienced any problem with getting services? Or just having accommodations made for your child's limitations? Is there anything that we need to be watching out for?

It isn't possible to "Outgrow" Autism.

It's likely become more hidden; but it's definitely still there.

(Not saying this is BAD or anything xD.)

Have you signed any documents yet, other than indicating your wife attended the meeting? I wouldn't accept the discontinuation of the IEP. I think there is some way to sign acceptance of the OT service without accepting the rest of the document (actually I think if he is getting OT he is supposed to have an IEP just for that.) If you don't sign, I believe the IEP remains open. My concern is that organizational expectations go up in 4th and 5th grade, and you don't yet know how he will fare with the increased expectations. If the IEP is open, you can call a meeting and have it happen within 10 days -- if he no longer has an IEP, you're back at requesting a new evaluation, which takes 60 days.

Are you working with an advocate? If not, many will give you 1-2 hours free consultation. I would suggest doing that and getting some advice about your options.

No, I don't think that he's actually outgrown anything. It's just that he's old enough now for a more specific diagnosis than his previous one, of "PDD-NOS".

Which is really about as vague as you can get.

Nothing signed yet, I believe. And no, we haven't been working with an advocate -- I will look into that, as it certainly couldn't hurt.

Foreshadowing a couple of years....6th grade can be he11.

I will be upfront and say I do not think all kids on the spectrum need an IEP. My daughter most certainly does not. Not at this point in time. But all kids on the spectrum do need accommodations. It seems to me that some school districts accommodate without an IEP very well. Others do not. So part of my response to you is your level of comfort in being happy with the SD. My other thought is how hard will it be for you to get an IEP reinstated if he needs it in the future? My son functioned "OK" in 3rd/4th grade. No one could possibly call his functioning in 6th grade OK, and my understanding is that 7th, in all likelihood, will be worse and the higher up they get in school, the less likely teachers will be to simply give him the support he needs without some kind of documentation. I think they just don't know them well enough and instead of having a "classroom" full of kids, they teach potentially hundreds. Too hard to keep up on it all, I would imagine.

I probably wouldn't be worried about next year if I were you, but middle school will be here before you know it and I would make sure that no decisions that you make today will set you up for difficulty in a couple of years.

My concern would also be if his diagnosis involves semantic/pragmatic speech disorder, why they want to discontinue speech therapy. I know that it is possible to have a diagnosis and it not be "severe" enough an instance for educational therapy, but if I were you (and they hadn't already done it) I would want them to provide me a very detailed explanation for why he no longer qualifies for pragmatic speech.

The basic practical difference between an IEP and a 504 is that the IEP has "goals" built into it - which are basically like any other school subject where a student is supposed to reach a certain amount of learning and then be tested on it. 504 accommodations are just handed to them as needed.

There's more to it than that (an IEP indicates your child needs additional or specific education outside of the regular curriculum - they need to learn something specific (speech or OT) or need help learning in a specific way (dyslexia strategies,) a 504 means your child needs accommodations - e.g. glasses, preferential seating, a wheelchair-accessible classroom, breaks, etc.)

For practical purposes, ask yourself this: is your child capable of managing in school with the same amount of oversight as any other child, as long as he gets accommodations? Can he advocate for himself if the teacher refuses to give the accommodations? If not, a 504 probably isn't going to work for you.

We started with a 504. For one thing, the 504 was administrated only by the social worker, who didn't do a good job making sure the accommodations were understood by everyone. For another, the social worker was continually trying to talk DS out of getting his accommodations (we found this out because DS was freaking out all week, and we discovered she'd decided to bribe him with a toy if he didn't take a break all week - she never discussed this strategy with us.) and the whole thing was taken significantly less seriously.

However, both are legal agreements between a parent and the school, so it's kind of a toss-up. We have our IEP review on Thursday, I have a feeling they are going to try to bump us down to a 504, and if they can assure me that there will be executive function and speech goals I may go along with it because DS is doing so well - but he will be going into 7th grade. In 5th grade, we did lawyer up because they were talking about taking away the IEP just before the middle school transition. I don't want to waste services if DS doesn't need them...but I want to be darn sure he gets what he needs. It's tough.

That's the tough part. Eldest's teacher right now, she loves him. He's her favorite, or so I'm told. But even *she* is starting to get exasperated with him. He's impulsive, and a little disruptive, and he KEEPS CALLING OUT, and he will -- I say this as someone who lives with him, and loves him very much -- he will drive you crazy after a while, because he possesses neither an off button or a volume control.

As to the pragmatic speech...he falls more on the social end of it than on the actual speech, so I can kind of understand where they're coming from. It's the dysgraphia that's causing the biggest problems. Reading Comprehension is suffering right now, even though his actual comprehension is fine. Writing down his answers, though, is such a chore that he just wants to get it down as quickly as possible, so he writes really brief answers and doesn't put any effort into it.

You are right - this is exactly the problem. I am OK with the change, as long as they don't start attributing his frustrating behaviors to anything other than his neurology. Problem is, I need a legal document to make sure that one jerk teacher (which we haven't really had yet) doesn't decide he is deliberately being a pain in the butt.

So, I'm with you. Wish I had a definitive answer.

Rolzup, my son has no other issues with speech other than pragmatic and he still gets speech. Of course it depends on how severe they are. My son's school is really into "courtesy speech" which I see as the least of his issues, but they actually gave him more speech for specifically that purpose, in addition to the speech for his other pragmatic issues. Just because his pragmatic issues aren't bothering THEM is not a reason not to have it. If he needs it to relate to peers, it is still a need.

That was SO my son from pre-k through 2nd grade. Part of 3rd too. I hope your son follows my son's path...he is no longer impulsive and disruptive at school. His behavior no longer drives his teachers crazy anymore, either, but his disorganization does!

Hopefully your wife didn't sign the paperwork. He does still qualify for an IEP with the new diagnoses. Keep in mind this is coming from someone who has had to fight tooth and nail for my dd, so I admit to being biased.

Under an IEP there are real, serious legal consequences if a school does not follow through. In my experience if a school can avoid using one, they will. A 504 is easy for a school, it costs them nothing, and it's extremely hard to take action if the accomodations are not enforced. And to echo a previous poster, middle school brings a whole new set of expectations to the table, as far as kids being expected to be self sufficient and organized.

Just as a sidebar, the school cannot require him to cart a keyboard back and forth, they are required to provide one for him in the school setting if it's part of his accomodations..of course if you offer to provide it, they'll jump on that, again, a matter of dollars and cents.

I would seriously consider fighting to keep the IEP, and the speech. It can be hard to get one to begin with, and in our district it would be very difficult to get one reinstated. Good luck no matter what you decide

Just to update that sometimes things DO go well: I went into our meeting afraid they were going to take away the IEP - but they kept it for the functional goals only. The teacher said that if she wrote goals for him in math, she'd have to be using the state standards for the grade - in other words, he's at grade level.

He's also improved significantly in executive functioning (how, I have no idea - that one is all him!) but they are keeping goals for that as I did note that while he's using the tools we gave him and doing well with them, anytime there is something unusual things fall apart. They concurred that he still needed support.

They also got rid of his behavior plan - because he has had ZERO 'behavior' this year. They said it will stay in the notes, and we can add it back in if it becomes necessary, but there is no need for it now. Phew!

All in all, it was a great meeting and I felt like my son is finally getting the support he needs in school.

That is great, Momsparky!

Stupid comment: We had a BIP well before we actually needed one (which yeah, we obviously do now)supposedly to give our son protections in case he did have behavioral issues. It just had very minor things in it, for the sake of having one. Was that B.S? Does you son still have disability behavioral protections with only an IEP, just in case new issues arise?

(Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, or anything, just making sure you are covered just in case, and I am curious if I was given erroneous information.)

Yes, they assured me that he's still covered and it is still in there. It just isn't formally a part of his IEP.

It freaks me out a little bit, too - but truthfully the BIP was there more for the school and less for him, so if they need it, it will be in THEIR best interest to put it back.

Also, we've been through A LOT this year - including onset of puberty - if we were going to go backwards with behavior, there were several opportunities for him to lose it violently and he hasn't. I think they are right - we don't need it.