I've already gone on record as hating email. That said, I think that once you have communicated clearly at the beginning of the year that you use it and the parent needs to check it, the onus is on them to do so. If you need to have the child call them at work, or have the nurse place a call to ask about an allergy, I would not hesitate to do so. With that said, I think there are better ways. Our kids' elementary school gave each child a special folder at the beginning of the year. Notices came home every Monday, without fail. Homework and work done at school went in it, too. Maybe teachers found some parents didn't pay attention to that either, I don't know. But it seemed to work pretty well. Sometimes it seems to me that people who are in the working world, or have been recently, in jobs that use email, have different habits and expectations than those who aren't and rarely use it. Email requires intentional thought and action from parents. It's not unreasonable to expect them to check it regularly. But if they aren't in the habit of doing so, expecting them to form a new habit may not be the most realistic way to get a response. The folder I mentioned was a new habit, too, but because it was in daily use for homework, it seemed pretty easy. While I would not hesitate to phone parents as needed, I would really hate to have them humiliated in a meeting or other public situation. You never really know the full story of what a person is dealing with. As a parent of a child with disabilities, I know my energy is limited. I know you know that, too. I try to do the right things, but sometimes I need to triage, and sometimes email does not meet the cut-off. A teacher may know my child has a disability, but does she also know if I'm looking after elderly parents, or the car broke down, or there are major family stresses that just defy description outside a therapist's office? Probably not. And the more stresses a parent is juggling, my guess is, the more likely they are to be a serial email offender. So I'd try to communicate, in a way which you can control, without judgement as much as possible. And, as a parent, I'd be really grateful for your patience and help.

Fingers firmly crossed. Good luck!

Hugs. It stinks, doesn't it?

I can see it, but I'm not the owner of the club, so I can't do anything either. :-(

I should go back to Zones of Regulation myself. I do know all these materials, I can use them. I just got hopeful, seeing a school where they can do all this stuff, you know? I would love to be able to send her to a school where they can do what she needs. But we may need to just keep plugging along. Anyway, we have all next year to see what our options really are. This is not a one-week decision, this is a spend-the-year-looking-at-options decision. I appreciate hearing everyone's ideas.

I think we're dealing with different cost-of-living environments. ?

PeterPan, thank you for the names of those tests. That's a good idea, and something we can do. Zones of Regulation makes her mad. Which is probably because it is hard. She gets it all on a superficial level, gets annoyed, doesn't want to engage with it. Deeper down, she needs it. I couldn't get our BCBA to keep going with it, back when we had funding for ABA. No hope of a behaviorist now, the local agencies require a level of services which is far beyond what we can pay for privately. Yes, I asked the autism school I toured the other day, and they were a bit coy about giving any definite information. It sounds like it may be that some localities have just decided to send kids there, rather than investing in the staffing locally. They said often it was all very amicable, everyone agrees that was what was best for the student, but sometimes it was a fight. They had not dealt with our county before.

Lecka, you're right about the school, of course. I'm not seriously fed up with them or anything, that's minor. We don't actually have any services, so no providers. Because, no funding. I know one parent with kids on the spectrum, but those kids are adopted and level 3, so for them, Medicaid covers everything. Editing to add that also, those kids' school experience is utterly different. They are sufficiently disabled that they are in special ed classrooms.

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Thanks

Thanks, everyone.

There certainly is a social group for politics! To get there, or to any of the other groups, go through (on a mobile device) the three lines in the upper right corner, then "browse", then "clubs". On a computer, I think there is a similar path. Once you get to the group you can request to join, or you can send Amira a message.

So, how does he like the liver? Editing to add that I *really* wish we had emojis, because I'm grinning. He sounds like he'll do great at college.

Lecka, that makes perfect sense. I do worry about whether, down the road, having this information might cause problems. Insurance issues, for example, might crop up. But right now, I can see that the medication path we're on may not be sustainable. When she's old enough, dd is very likely to refuse to use the meds. So an alternative has very strong appeal. We all just make the best choices we can and keep our fingers crossed.

No advice, just hugs. Your poor dd, and poor you, too. It hurts so much to watch our children hurt. I hope you can get accommodations that help.

He seems to be an administrator, I think? He posts in the Site News section of the forum, and seems to straighten things out for people.

I hope they will be able to tell us something useful. Obviously I don't know; I'm just hoping they can help with interpreting all the information and maybe we can pull out something useful. I'd love to be able to target medication more effectively, or better yet, get rid of some medication in favor of maybe some dietary supplements. We're hoping insurance will cover this with just a copayment. If they don't, the doctor said it would be about $350 at most. I figure if we end up having to pay, we'll ask a million questions and make the most of our consultation!

This format is so screwed up, but I can't seem to fix it. What's below is part of my answer, not lulubelle's quote. My dd's dev ped practices at a university hospital. When I asked her about possible benefits to genetic testing this spring, she said sure, that's standard of care for any new asd diagnosis now. Since we haven't already done it, she gave us a referral to the hospital genetics department. We'll get the testing done this summer, and have a consultation with them beforehand and get questions answered afterwards. I'm really curious to see what we might turn up. Anyway, that would be one possible route you could go.

If that's dumb, then I am too. I *would* have sent OneStep a message, since she started that group. Under the present circumstances, I suppose, send a message to OtherJohn? Maybe someone else knows a better way.

If we're talking about the same club, it does exist. I posted in it yesterday, but that is currently its only content. All the clubs seem to have lost all content from before the update. Most appear inactive. Clubs/groups which are private seem to be invisible unless you are currently listed as a member. Membership seems to have been unintentionally reduced in a bunch of clubs. If that has happened to you, you would not see the club at all. For instance, I can't see the Bible-believing Christians club which is being discussed in the chat board, because it's private and I'm not a member. But if you are supposed to be a member, you can contact admin or a moderator and get back in, I think. At least, that's what happened in another group I'm in. Whether there's going to be any ongoing activity in the club is a separate question. It's sad to see so little going on in groups which used to be reasonably busy. ?

Ah, okay, thanks.

I was going to try to send one as a test, but can't figure out how. But if that's what is happening, I'll try to send a message to the site administrators (always assuming I can figure that out).

at the bottom of the main forum page, where all the subforums are listed? With status updates? Is that what I'm seeing?