What's that they say about the squeaky wheel??

Well, this morning I said a prayer to God that He would tame my tongue b/c I was really ready to just let loose on someone when I remember that Jayden has been without service since April and we are quickly approaching the 4 month mark. 4 months he's been without services he needs for his development! I've called and have been getting promises that someone will call me asap with a start date. His services will start next week. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. But nothing happens. No one calls. And he still is not back in the system yet. Well they say he is, but he's just kinda hanging around. So, it really just pisses me off at this point b/c once he turns 3, he won't be able to get these services. He'll have to get them through the school system, which will be incredibly stressful for him since he hasn't had early intervention. So I called his case worker, who promised me that someone would call me YESTERDAY to give me his hours for therapy (no one called of course), but she didn't answer her phone and still hasn't returned my call. So I immediately called the board of childhood education. I had alreay been in touch with them before so when I told the lady who I was, I could hear the disgust in her voice when she found out that Jayden is STILL not getting services. She said "Let me make a phone call and I will call you right back." Then I PERSONALLY called the behavior analyst, who made a promise to me 3 weeks ago that she would call me in 1 week to set up something for Jayden's behavioral therapy, yet she never called. She answered the phone at the clinic. I told her I was calling about Jayden's services and of course she said "I was just gonna call you in a few minutes!" So she asked for the name and number of the lady from the special needs insurance coverage through Tricare so that she could find out what they need to complete to get paid for Jayden's services in case he needs more than 1 hour a week. And she said that she will start working with him next week. I'm not holding my breath b/c this has gotten ridiculous with all of these promises to call and start therapy yet nothing has happened yet!! I'm sick of it.

As I was hanging up with her, a call came in on the other line and it was the dept head from the board of education. She was pissed. First she apologized for what was going on then she told me to file a complaint. Of course I'll file one. She told me that first of all, even if they ran out of funds back in April, Jayden's services should not have been cancelled. There should have been another option for him to continue to get services. Instead, they just sat his paperwork aside. She recommended that we get a new case worker, so that's in the works right now. She then told me to look at his plan of action for early intervention. It only listed speech therapy as the services he rec'd which of course was not true. The OT was added in Jan and the plan should have been immediately updated and I should have gotten a copy of that legal document. She also told me that since Jayden has lost out on 4 months of therapy, they are obligated to make it all up, so she's sending a monitor out to the next evaluation to make sure that this is set up and that the plan of action is updated correctly. So there will be 2 monitors at the next eval b/c my mom is very pissed and will drive out here when they decide to come. And I do pray they are smart enough not to question my child's diagnosis with my mom in the house b/c oh boy will they see an explosion!! She is ready for action! The dept head asked me about getting Jayden prepared for the school system. I told her that after all of the trouble we've had with EI, there is no way I'm sending him to any school system here. She sighed and apologized greatly. It's not her fault, I know it. And I do know that the school systems could possibly be so much better at what they do, but this is my child's future at stake and I'm not willing to risk it. I just have no hope for the state of MS when it comes to helping kids with special needs.

So now, I search for my complaint form, wait on a call (that probably won't come through) from the behavior analyst, and wait for the call from the therapists to schedule the meeting to restart his therapy services. Since he's missed out on 4 months, I imagine our days will soon be consumed with make ups, but I won't even begin to sit back and relax until they are officially starting his services again. Their word is no longer trustworthy to me.