2018 and 2019 Therapy Changes

In January 2018, Kevin received the Jon Peterson Scholarship (JPS) which provides funds through the Ohio Department of Education to use towards private therapy providers. But in order to apply for JPS you need an Individualized Education Program (IEP) through your school district. To get an IEP an Evaluation Team Report (ETR) is needed to diagnose and qualify your child for an IEP. The amount of the scholarship is based on the disability identified on the ETR.

The year before, I was receiving helpful advice from other homeschooling special needs mom's that we should take advantage of the funds offered through the JPS for Kevin's therapy services including music therapy. I was apprehensive and dreaded the thought of going through the process...I never heard a parent positively comment on going through the IEP process. But I decided it might be worth it, due to the fact that we are using traditional therapy (PT, OT, SLP) services and our therapy coverage is limited with health insurance. I made the first phone call to the school in August while Kevin was in in-patient rehab at the hospital. Once the process got started we were fortunately able to use Kevin's evaluation and discharge records from the hospital as useful information to give the school for their necessary information needed. This helped tremendously saving time on both our parts.

I am still homeschooling Kevin but use the scholarship money to pay for private therapy services at KidsLink. Unfortunately children's hospital where Kevin has been receiving therapy was not an approved provider under the scholarship.

This whole process was very time consuming: gathering reports, filling out reports, contacting and answering emails, arranging meetings at the house, and then finally the ETR and IEP meetings. I had to visit several of the approved therapy providers to decide who we would use for our services. I was open to exploring what our school district had to offer Kevin while we were in this whole process but I still feel like homeschooling is the best decision at this time for Kevin. As homeschoolers our life is anything but dull. It's a full schedule year round and full of interaction. I like being able to use the scholarship with our new therapy provider and we continue to receive our limited therapy services with children's hospital.

We started weekly sessions for PT, OT, and SLP with KidsLink our new therapy provider through the JPS in January 2018. We continued to see our PT and SLP therapists at children's hospital every other week for a extra therapy, the therapists collaborate and work together. In October 2018, we added Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA )therapy under the scholarship therapy provider. If I'm being honest...I'm still not sure about this therapy but I'm learning and keeping an open mind and giving it time.

I'm so grateful that we went through this process last year of adding the extra therapy provider because in January 2019 our health insurance changed and it is too expensive for Kevin to continue his therapy services at the hospital. I'm not happy about leaving these wonderful therapists. It's hard to let go of the people you have been working with...especially when Kevin has been making progress. I'm so thankful that we are happy with our other new therapists under the JPS.

Kevin using my phone to entertain himself during one of the many meetings.
I think he made a few silent phone calls during that time to some of the family.