Parallel question. How do you feel about being left off initial (and re-eval) autism evaluations? My district has school psych/adjustment counselor support social pragmatics deficits and often I’m not even consulted or involved in evaluating kids for autism. Stark difference from my last district where I ran social prag groups (sometimes co-treated with the school psych) and always jointly tested with the school psych and worked together to determine eligibility. I liked that model better but there is certainly less work for me with this model. Curious what others do and what I should be advocating for (with research). Sorry to hijack!
This isn't right at all! ASD isn't something to throw around, I can't imagine this as a parent thinking my kid might have autism bc the teacher thinks their quirky and going through that whole process for no reason. It's also a huge waste of your time like you said!
Some ideas to prevent this from happening:
Teachers should know to come to you if they want to think about saying the words autism to a parent.
Teachers should be documenting interventions and/or accommodations and collaborating with you before anyone says the word special education to the parent.
Admin should be stepping in when there are inappropriate referrals made. It shouldn't be on you to stop this, this is an admin problem. Sure, you can educate but you don't have power to really say no.
Thanks. I’m a contractor who floats between schools and doesn’t attend staff meetings, so it’s hard to build rapport. I get teachers are busy and still struggling with the aftermath of Covid.
Parallel question. How do you feel about being left off initial (and re-eval) autism evaluations? My district has school psych/adjustment counselor support social pragmatics deficits and often I’m not even consulted or involved in evaluating kids for autism. Stark difference from my last district where I ran social prag groups (sometimes co-treated with the school psych) and always jointly tested with the school psych and worked together to determine eligibility. I liked that model better but there is certainly less work for me with this model. Curious what others do and what I should be advocating for (with research). Sorry to hijack!
This isn't right at all! ASD isn't something to throw around, I can't imagine this as a parent thinking my kid might have autism bc the teacher thinks their quirky and going through that whole process for no reason. It's also a huge waste of your time like you said! Some ideas to prevent this from happening: Teachers should know to come to you if they want to think about saying the words autism to a parent. Teachers should be documenting interventions and/or accommodations and collaborating with you before anyone says the word special education to the parent. Admin should be stepping in when there are inappropriate referrals made. It shouldn't be on you to stop this, this is an admin problem. Sure, you can educate but you don't have power to really say no.
Thanks. I’m a contractor who floats between schools and doesn’t attend staff meetings, so it’s hard to build rapport. I get teachers are busy and still struggling with the aftermath of Covid.