IEP Meeting

For those who asked to hear about the IEP meeting: 
Because of working extra hours this week and because of end-of-the-year events at our church's school, I haven't had much chance to think through the meeting.

1.  The people we met were very nice.  Even if Maggie doesn't become a student at the public school, they have offered different kinds of help and suggestions.   I was impressed!

2.  It sounds like Medicaid is available only if we sign her up for SSI.  We'll have to look into that.

3.  We learned that there is such a thing as "partial guardianship."  We'd been told that we should put Maggie under guardianship, but she seems too able for that.  And yet, there are things that both she and we think she needs protection from and help with.  Partial guardianship may be just the thing.  We'll have to look into it.

4.  She does not need to go to the public school in order to be eligible to receive services from the State.  I have been told repeatedly by people in the County and the State that eligibility is normally determined by teacher/counselor evaluations as to how the child struggles in school.  Well, I guess that's not going to apply to us now.  Maggie's testing showed her to be severely developmentally delayed in processing speed.  That means she thinks slowly and hears slowly and makes decisions slowly.  She tested so low on this that the representative from the State said Maggie would be "category 1" and go up near the top of the waiting list when we are ready to sign her up for help in finding a job.

There's still a lot to figure out.  But it's looking less likely that public school will become part of our lives later this year.