So I sent out another e-mail to my contact at the agency for Michael's speech...and I amped up the desperate tone a bit. I Cc'd anyone and everyone whose e-mail address was found on their website. The problem with all of your advice to just speak to another supervisor, or to go to their boss...is that I have no idea who any of those people are. I have one phone number and one e-mail address.
Anyhoo, I'm pretty sure my e-mail must have sounded like my next step was to visit their offices with a pipe bomb or something. I sent the e-mail at 6:30 am.
At 7:05, I got an e-mail response from one of the people I'd Cc'd. She said, "I can tell you are frustrated. I am not involved with pre-school speech, but I'll make sure this e-mail is forwarded to the appropriate person. If you have any additional problems, feel free to contact me again." See? I must have sounded like I was going postal...she doesn't even deal with this issue and she was trying to talk me down ;)
At 8:15, I got a phone call from a man who is the scheduling coordinator for speech services. He gave me the name of the speech therapist who would be calling me. If she hasn't called me by Friday (tomorrow), he instructed me to call him back. Of course, he only works on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. He also sounded a little snarky when he said that according to Michael's paperwork, "We seem to owe Michael 2 1/2 hours of missed therapy time. That will be made up during -sigh- our vacation." I mentioned that I wasn't so worried about making up time, just about starting at all. He said, "No, no, we owe you this time so it WILL be made up." Like I'm the difficult one here.
-sigh- It is Thursday afternoon and I haven't heard from the speech therapist yet. I also forgot to ask where she is located. Hopefully she is closer than 30 minutes away. If she ever calls me in the first place. I have a feeling that this supervisor man and I will be getting to know each other better. Oh! And! While I was picking Lily up from school, my original contact left me a phone message telling me that she's been trying to get a hold of people to find out about scheduling a therapist for Michael. So she is apparently not in the loop that this other guy already contacted me.
Whatever. This is so incredibly awful. I am so grateful that Michael is not severely disabled. Because Lord knows what kind of hoops I'd have to jump through to get occupation AND physical AND speech therapies. Ridiculous.
6 comments:
The squeaky (and sometimes bitchy) wheel gets the grease. It is a pain to be a pain but sometimes that is what it takes. Good luck (and god help 'em if you have to really get pissed off!).
Ugh, that IS awful. In my experience, every county is run drastically differently, and sometimes the larger counties are much slower and less organized, unfortunately. The county I worked for was incredible, but the one I live in is awful. But I'm glad that they seem to realize that they could be in some legal trouble if they don't get their act together. For the love!
Oh wow- my hope is that once you get the speech therapist scheduled, everything settles down & Michael really benefits from the services. Such a struggle and it really shouldn't be!!
I'm sorry you are having such a horrible time. If I lived closer I would provide his therapy. If it makes you feel any better, I think this might be typical for this, no matter what part of the country you live in. I get students from this program when they become school age and the people that run it make me batty.
Ok, wait. Isn't Michael 3 now? If so, he is considered school age and should be eligible for services at your neighborhood school. I can provide you with the law that says that if you like.
I'm sorry this has been such a mess and isn't clear. Um, this probably isn't helpful, but our county has a parent advocate program - people who have already navigated the system and are ready to help you do it - do you have anything like that?
It DOES make you thankful that you are only dealing with one little issue, doesn't it? And it is probably an issue that will be put to rest before he's in kindergarten. I hope you do get some results/responses now.
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