回复：求助：有关北卡州自闭症的早期干预(Early Intervention Program)的相关规定

你有没有稿错？ 你是我听到第一个被要求自己付钱的。

1) Federal has a law called IDEA (individuals with Disabilities Education Act), which was passed in 70s, guarantee each kid with a disability should be provided with FREE Appropriate Public Education service. The funding for the program comes from both Federal and State. Basically you shouldn't be required to pay the service bill.

2) The act covers the kid from birth to 21. So if your kid is older than 3, he will be transfered to pre-school program, and the service will not be interrupted. The same thing happens when he is over than 5, he will be transfered to school age kid program, and will be handled by your school district.

3) His service arrangement, 1 hr of ST, DT & OT, sound like a standard start. If you ask my opinion, I would accept and see how it works. They will re-evaluate him after 6 months, if you are not satisfied with the result, you can always ask for more service at that time.

4) It would be very hard for your son to make big progress if you are not around most of the time. He needs you now possibly more than anything else. The reason for that is, the services itself are very limited. In most cases, the therapists train kids & parents at the same time, so the parents can "practice" it with their kids 24/7. It's like learning a instrument, without the "practice", the result won't be so good.

5) Last but not the least, don't read too much into your son's evaluation score. I have a daughter who has been mistaken as a low IQ, autistic kid when she was 4. She got a very high IQ score three years later and becomes a social butterfly. The score will DEFINITELY change after your son starts the service. The evaluation itself, has a lot of limitations. The evaluators themselves, pay a big role too. Plus, the age matters a lot. When the kids are young, the variance is very big. So, keep your hope up.