School funding application rejected!!

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I got the news this morning that the funding application my sons school put in for him has been rejected.
I'm devastated, he needs an aid badly, his teachers are doing their best but its not enough. My son is 10 dx's are aspergers, ocd, adhd, gad and tourettes. He is falling behind and needs help. He is in grade 4 now without the help next year he will fall even further behind. He already repeated one year back when he was in grade two prior to his AS, ocd,gad and torettes dx. My sons school is also shattered by the news, we are still trying to find out why. An appeal will be launched but we need to know why. I'm told here in Australia its even harder in high school to get funding and virtually impossible if they haven't had funding in primary school. He is going to get lost in the system. Without funding now in primary Im worried that he wont get it in high school when he gets there and he wont then qualify for autism base room supports.
I just cant believe that a child in as much need with as many dx's as he has cant even get level 1 funding. Even level 1 isn't enough. I'm shell shocked.

If all else fails, go to the press,....governments hate it when people make waves and create lots of noise and usually act...politicians would hate to lose votes.

That sucks Aurea! We had our funding app and our appeal denied last year for both sons. It's like a punch to the gut. The reasons we were given is that our sons don't qualify because they aren't aggressive or cognitively delayed. We were told that we can't apply again unless we have new information (such as a new dx).

We are currently working with a psych and autism/education specialist (from outside of the school system), who are going to see what can be done.

Here the school is in complete control of the decisions on what is and isn't neeed. I am surprised that even with a very supportive school you can be rejected. The good thing is that you DO have the supportive school (so different from a few years ago!), but it is sad to hear that alone isn't enough.

Don't give up. I know its hard to keep fighting new battles, but you've got a lot of experience with that and I know you can eventually succeed.

Write to your MP or MLA....There is a possibility of a threat with an election due to recent happenings and well, anytime could be election time with the current minority government status of the federal government.Now is the time to make waves and get the press in a frenzy...politicians will do ANYTHING TO WIN OR KEEP VOTES....they might even allow your funding if it means saving or getting votes.Go public go to the press and force the govt to act.

Thanks for the support everyone.

I have written a 4 page letter to the person in charge of the dept. I haven't sent it yet. I sent it to my sons vp first. He has been fantastic, I wanted to give him a chance to read it and to know that I'm not going to let this drop and I wanted him to have an even better understanding of the impact this will have on my boy, now and in the future. He has asked that I hold off sending anything for the moment. He is still waiting to hear why the application was rejected, then we will definatly be launching an appeal. I think he was worried that a letter from an upset mum may jepodise our appeal. If I work out how to post a copy on here I will, then you all can tell me what you think. I will keep you posted on our progress.

cheers
aurea

ps, I'm not going to the local member yet, but I will if I have to.

Hi Aurea

I just read this after sending you a PM about something else.

This is awful and unfair, with so much going on. As you know our son has level 3 funding with DX's (Aspergers, ODD and ADD) which entitles him to an aid in school. Its been a disaster this term, but that's another story (as you know).

What helped in our application was:

1) a good paediatrician who got behind the cause, if you can get a behavioural paediatrician that's even better
2) diagnosis from a psychologist, we went through Glen Iris Psychology
3) in our case safety, DS was running away from school a lot
4) speech therapist, whom reported on the pragmatics which needs to be low for funding
5) we did hearing and sight tests to rule these out as the cause of the behavioural issues

This might sound odd, but on the assessment days help your son go into a bit of a meltdown so the professionals don't see them at their best. I don't mean overload, but you probably know a few little triggers to get some reactions, and hey if it helps the cause there should be no real harm done. I guess this is working the sytem and was suggested to us by other parents of Autie/Aspie children.

Wishing you the best, PM or call us

PS, this was an on-going battle since Prep (grade 5 now) and we finally got it this year.