Moms of HFA kids in California- have you sought ABA or RDI through Regional Center?

[ericswifey27]

This is copied from a post elsewhere. I just am so exhausted from trying to get what my son needs and I keep hitting brick walls. Maybe someone has been there/done that and has the magical code words I am lacking...

I had a meeting last Monday and asked my intake caseworker (about adding goals- the ones he made up were not sufficient). I told him I wanted to add goals for building social skills and functional language skills (like greeting me when I come home from work, offering assistance to his brother instead of just ripping a toy from his hands to "fix" it etc. His response was "That is speech therapy, we don't pay for that. You have to get it through your school district or medical insurance" (Then I said, well I know some parents that are getting similar functional language skills worked on through ABA or RDI in home. "We don't pay for that, atleast not anymore, they must have cases that began before that budget cut" "By law we can't pay for social skills groups either. You can use respite hours, but based on J's needs, you will probably get only a fraction of the amount needed, which is usually a 2-3 day/wk minimum." He also expressed surprise that I haven't applied for medicaid or ssi, but I have no clue where to start, which I told him. His advice consisted of giving me a "directory" of services (not free!) that he already gave me at an earlier meeting a month prior. I'm glad we're so memorable

Did you have to hire a lawyer, or was it just given to you? Not that I have any $ to pursue this but who knows? Feeling grumpy!

[ericswifey27]

oh and if your answer is yes, was this before the lanterman act that just started in Jan. of this year I think.

[ericswifey27]

I know the question "limits" the audience. I wonder if I should post it in the regional area instead of special needs??

[Nosebite]

My son (ASD) receives Floortime through (Lanterman) Regional Center. He has been receiving it for 1 1/2 years. It does seem like they are trying to phase it out.

[cchrissyy]

what RC is doing the floortime? LA area? I just ask because ours won't do it, so we got our floortime home program through the school. but I've heard that in so-cal there are RCs that will do floortime. When the school has tried to lower his hours, and call it more social (or life skills) than educational, I did push RC to come on board, and they really wouldn't. they offered ABA hours, and we refused.

to the OP, regional center clients do have a right to medi-cal but it is the caseworkers job to put you through, it's not something you apply for on your own. there is an eligability waiver program and the RC grants the waivers and sends that to medi-cal for you. at that point, medi-cal may send you some paperwork directly to finish the process, but you do NOT have ot fill out any family or financial info, since it's RC waiver program medi-cal for just the child. (exception - if the child had their own incomes and assets, you would put that down)


realistically, when it comes to regional centers in the current environment, it is hard to get the services you mentioned, and easier if you set your sights on respite pay or childcare hours, the free medi-cal program, or smaller costs like adaptive equipment, diapers, or short term behavioral consults.

[ericswifey27]

Originally Posted by cchrissyy

what RC is doing the floortime? LA area? I just ask because ours won't do it, so we got our floortime home program through the school. but I've heard that in so-cal there are RCs that will do floortime. When the school has tried to lower his hours, and call it more social (or life skills) than educational, I did push RC to come on board, and they really wouldn't. they offered ABA hours, and we refused.

to the OP, regional center clients do have a right to medi-cal but it is the caseworkers job to put you through, it's not something you apply for on your own. there is an eligability waiver program and the RC grants the waivers and sends that to medi-cal for you. at that point, medi-cal may send you some paperwork directly to finish the process, but you do NOT have ot fill out any family or financial info, since it's RC waiver program medi-cal for just the child. (exception - if the child had their own incomes and assets, you would put that down)


realistically, when it comes to regional centers in the current environment, it is hard to get the services you mentioned, and easier if you set your sights on respite pay or childcare hours, the free medi-cal program, or smaller costs like adaptive equipment, diapers, or short term behavioral consults.

Thank you, that's very detailed info
I have a lot to ask my intake caseworker- we just had a meeting and he seemed surprised I hadn't applied for medi-cal, but you are saying THEY should be doing that for me at RC argh so confused. I was just assigned this intake caseworker last month, and the IPP is being written up and I will be assigned another permanent caseworker, so perhaps this is the person to ask about Medi-Cal.

The intake caseworker said that since my son is only 6 and due to our work schedule ( I work day, DH works nights (well days too if you count all the errands for work) he only qualifies for 8 hours a month of respite. There is a wonderful social skills program that qualifies as respite- but it is a minimum of 16 hours a month- 1x week, for 4 hours. So we don't even qualify for that. We will qualify for behavioral consults, but honestly what my child needs is to build language skills for social communication. He is very verbal but cannot maintain a conversation, make eye contact when greeting/saying goodbye... he is starting to occassionally notice me when I come home and sometimes share information which is exciting If RC could help me implement my own program in the afternoons I would do it...

Re: adaptive equipment- have you found RC will fund things like card readers, PECS applications, lamination, books on Autism?

[cchrissyy]

ack, I wish you had a better caseworker! you may need to get a bit more feisty to get what they should be giving you. Or maybe it's because you're still at the intake step.

for instance, my boy is 7.5 and we get 30 hours a month respite, just down this year from budget cuts after several years of 40/month. respite is not suposed to account for work time, and it doens't matter if one or both parents are available at whatever time. you can use it for *anything* you want to do, other than dealing with your child or going to work.

money for caring for the child while you work is called daycare/childcare. the regional centers can do this in 2 ways - you could use an actual RC vendor childcare provider, or you can use a regular provider and the RC will pay to reimburse whatever "extra" cost your kid has to attend. it's like $8 a hour an is meant, for example, to reimburse what pay an aide to attend a mainstream afterschool program with your child. Anyways, in adition to repsite we get 75 hours per month of that service, more in the summer. (same thing - mainstream summer camp, and RC chips in that $8/hr to cover his assistance). Childcare money DOES require going over your work hours and spouses work hours and commutes and figuring your alotment based on the gaps. I am only going into this really to show that none of this applies to *respite*, they have no business asking you if you work and if so, what hours, when talking about repsite.

Also, repsite is negotiable. the case worker is trained to offer a reasonable but lesser quantity to start, and then to raise it when you say you need more. If you have special circumstances, say so, it gives your worker the justification to tell their supervisor why they should aprove an increase. We got our upped in a couple steps until it was 40/month with things such as : baby in the home, multiple children, parental illness, want time to add marital counceling, etc.

on the medi-cal thing, once your kid is an official RC client and you have your caseworker (I thought I saw you were in intake, sorry if this was already done!) then ask her to process a medi-cal waiver. in my kid's case, she said she doubted he was severe enough to qualify. but I said ok, let's just apply and see. she passed his file to the RC department or team who aproves the waivers, and they did come back with aproval. I know I said the rest of the process above, I just thought it might help if I added detail to how the process is suposed ot begin, and that it's OK to push the caseworker a bit we do have good family health insurance, but my boy's medi-cal is still nice for covering all his copays, perscriptions, and deductables.

re: adaptive, in our case they were offering special carseats and harness stuff. we didn't need PECs or communication devices, but I know they can do that, as well as wheelchairs and such. here's a list of services, FYI www.rceb.org/about/services.html

moving forward, my best advice is to find local parent groups for advice. I have several yahoo groups that have been so valuable for advice and just hearing what other people are getting from schools and regional centers and how they got it, and of course local events. knowledge is power

such as these yahoo groups - autisminterventionbayarea rc_moms eastbayautism