catch 22, transitioning from EI to district

[lucilleaustero]

Hi ladies.

My son will be 3 in August. He has been getting speech through the county EI since November. Got the call today to set up things so he can transition to the district.

I called the district CPSE and was told that I need to fill out a packet and have a medical form filled out by his pedi with a diagnosis on it, in order for them to schedule an eval through district.

I explained that he does not have a medical diagnosis, but that it is likely he will be diagnosed with apraxia when he turns three. They explained that he cannot be considered for district services without a diagnosis.

I called his pedi, who reiterated that he has no diagnosis to put down, as of right now. They said they would try to figure out what to put down, in the meantime, but that he would need to see a dev pedi and a pedi neurologist before being diagnosed with apraxia as it is a neurological condition and that that will not happen before he is three.

So, he cannot be diagnosed before three, but needs a diagnosis to be evaluated for district before he turns three. Dafuq?

Is this typical? 

[mrsbuttinski]

Doesn't sound typical or even legal.

Educational need drives services. Not dx. If his speech is unintelligible to teachers and peers which prevents him for accessing the preschool curriculum centered on learning to be a student in the classroom, socialize with peers appropriately and make his needs and ideas known to teachers, that's a pretty pressing need.

Normally, the Birth to 3 team will start the transition process for you about 3 months out. Speech and language delayed would be sufficient in my district.

[chickypoo2468]

Do they just need A diagnosis? Like, some people never get an official diagnosis. Could speech delay be considered a diagnosis? Right now O has "receptive-expressive language disorder" in his list but really he just can't speak yet and we have no idea how much he understands.
I feel like a lot of these diagnoses are just to make people understand without going into detail and they kind of pull them out of their butts sometimes.