Category: Special Education

Is the day care good for William?

Posted on by MICHELLE N

On Fri June 16, Ms. Nhu from AExceLearning called me right after she went to the Children’s World Preschool to see how William is doing there.  She told me that she’s concern about 2 safety issues:

One  is that William’s bed is right under the hanger; if that falls then it’ll be on top of William.  I drop William off at school every day and watch him running to his bed but didn’t notice that.  I knew his bed is right next to a table but didn’t notice the hanger is hanging above his bed from the other side of the bed.  So the next day after that conversation, instead of just watching him running to his bed from the door, I followed him and sat by his bed, now it’s very clearly to me that the hanger is really over his bed!  I felt really bad that I didn’t notice this before.  So I told Ms. Cheryl who was in the room at the time to move his bed up away from the hangar.

Second issue is that, about 5:0 PM everyday the children will be in the big room waiting for parents to pickup.  William just sits in the corner staring at his classroom door.  The bathroom is between the big room and his classroom; which means he sits right next to the bathroom; it’d not be too much of an issue if the teachers don’t clean the bathroom at that time.  But they do, they use Clorox to clean the bathroom everyday about 5:00 PM so William has been breathing that stuff everyday!  Ms. Nhu said that is not good for William so she asked if it’s ok for her to take William back to his classroom so that he doesn’t have to breath that stuff.  Mr. Gary said it’s ok as long as she tells the teachers that she’s watching William.

Today when I dropped William off at the daycare and had a little chat with Ms. Jennifer.  She told me how nice the ladies from AExceLearning  agency are, “she’s really nice that she took William to the back room (means William’s classroom)  and spend 30 minutes with him there”, “William loves to sit at this corner to stare at his classroom”.   Now that I know the exact location where my boy sits, I felt so sad just to imagine William sits there everyday and no one cares to pull him away from the corner that’s full of toxic smell!

I don’t blame the teachers at the daycare, they have to watch quite a few children and have to clean up at the end of the day; they already have their hands full so they don’t have time to care for an Autism boy.

For the first time, I really appreciate the presence  of the AExceLearning staffs at the day care to watch over William!

 

First Session with AExceLearning Center

Posted on by MICHELLE N
Ms.. Nhi & Nhu with William

Thursday evening at 5:45 PM at our house.

William had his first ABA session with AExceLearning center’s staffs for 2 hours.  Ms. Nhi (supervisor) and Nhu (administrative manager) came to work out a permanent schedule for William.  Then Nhu spent the rest of the time to make acquaintance with William while Ms. Nhi taking notes. At first W showed signs of not wanting to be near them like push them away or ran into the bed room and closed the door.  But eventually he stayed in the living room and sitting next to Ms. Nhu.  At some point he cried because Ms. Nhu would not give him the iPad before hearing he said “B”.  I came to comfort him, wiped out his tears; that calmed him down a bit and he started to say “B”.   Good boy!

Ms. Nhu also tried to teach him to do the sign “More” and “All Done” to express what he wants.

At the end of the session, Ms. Nhi said W has lots of potentials and skills.  That’s my boy, we’re proud of you, son!

More
All Done

With Caregiver Ms. Diana

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Saturday, a hot day.

Today we have a new caregiver named Diana; she’s young (19 years old) and I think I like her. She’s very clever by asking me if our last caregiver was someone I’m looking for.  I gave her my honest answer with hoping that she can keep that in mind while babysitting William.  I told her that Sarah is a nice lady but I hope she could be a little bit more involved by playing with William in the park instead of just either standing or sitting there watching him.  Williams looked so lonely playing alone.

 

Mile Square Park with Caregiver Sarah

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Saturday 9:00 AM.

Taking advantage of the RESPITE benefit from RCOC, we asked the GSG Service company to find a babysitter to help babysit William on Saturday for 4 hours.  We’re allowed to have 8 hours a month for RESPITE.  According to our service coordinator Kim Than, RCOC accounting department has not determined our share of cost yet so we’re not responsible for that.  Also, I want to apply for MediCal thru the Waiver Program so that’s why I need to use RESPITE at least once.

Sarah, a very young lady came to our house.  We asked if she’s ok to go to the Mile Square park; and she said ok.  So we took William and our bike, she drove her car and followed us.

At the park we let Sarah watched William played in the playground, Tim rode his bike around the park; and I walked around near the playground; partly I wanted to watch how Sarah took care of William.  She’s very nice but she just either stand or sit down to watch William playing; I hope that she could be more involved to play with William instead of just standing there watching.   I felt that William was so lonely running around while the other children have their parents instruct them to do this or that.

10:30 AM we left the park and returned home.  Sarah is starting to play with William, asking what he wants to do.  I let them play together while I prepared lunch for William.  Once lunch was ready, I gave William his ipad and asked him to come to the dining table as usual.  Sarah stayed in the living room and checked her phone.  I wish that she could come over and sit with us and talk; or she could offer to help feed William.  I waited for 20 minutes but she was still sitting there; no sign at all that she’d want to join us on the dining table.

She’s new; she just started with GSG company since Jan so that’s means only 4 months; which means she doesn’t have much experience.  I would not want to waste her time by letting her sitting there doing nothing while I fed William so I told her If she wants she can go. So she left after asking me to sigh her time sheet.

It’s nice to have someone watching William for a few hours so that I can do things that I need to do but I hope I can find someone that I can trust.

RCOC Vendor Application

Posted on by Moonie
A thick packet from RCOC for Vendor Application

As our service coordinator Kim Than said, in order for the RCOC to help pay for the day care fees we have to become a vendor to RCOC.  So yesterday I got a package from RCOC Accounting department; and so overwhelmed with all the paperwork that we need to fill out and sign.  But it’s ok; and I love the fact that they highlighted the items that we need to do.

Updates:

Mon 6/5/2017:  Haven’t heard from them for more than 2 weeks since I sent in the application so I asked our Service Corordinator Kim Than for contact info for accounting department.   Called Ms. Anhely Camacho but she did not picked up so I left a message asking her about  the status of our application.

Vendor Application checklist 1

Tues 6/6/2017:  it’s 1:00 PM and still haven’t heard from anyone so I called again.  This time Ms. Anhely Camacho picked up.  She said our application is on her stack to be sent out this week.  I asked if there’s any paperwork that I missed or does she need anything else from me; she said no “Otherwise I’d call/email you to let you know.. Your application is approved.”  She said she’d mail out the confirmation letter this week.

Vendor Application checklist 2

Fri 6/9/2017: I still have not received any mails from her! Hopefully we’ll get it soon.  This is important to us because the sooner we get it, the sooner we can get reimbursement for our William’s daycare expenses.  Even though it’s not a lot, but little helps along the way.

Vendor Application checklist 3

 

 

GSG Call Meeting

Posted on by Moonie

Per our service co-ordinator Kim Than, I called the GSG Support Services (on Friday) and scheduled a call with them today Tuesday at 10:30 AM.  They said the call would last for 45 minutes.  Not sure what’s the call is about, we’ll see!

Update: Basically they asked questions about how William acts, behaves, what he likes/dislike so things that a babysitter should know to make their job easier.  At the end of the call, David asked if I want to schedule for a babysitter anytime soon, because we should spend all the allowed hours before it expires so that RCOC will continue to approve for RESPITE.  Otherwise RCOC would think we don’t need it, they might reduce the hours.

For William we’re allowed to have 8 hours a month of RESPITE service so David suggested that we split that into 2 sessions because the minimum number of hours for a session is 3 hours.  So I went ahead and schedule for this Saturday for 4 hours but there’s a waiting list so I’d have to wait for their call to know if they can find available staff.  David said latest by Fri we’d have the answer.

What a Happy Day!

Posted on by Moonie
William was so happy to see me waiting for him after class at Mitchell

Yesterday i was feeling so down because I could not find any ABA Services providers that meet William’s schedule.  After class at Mitchell school and his nap at the daycare, he’s only available for 2 hours after 3:30 PM.

A week ago I called Morning Star ABA services, talked to a lady named Amanda and sent her our insurance info.  She said she would call back but did not received any thing from her so I emailed her asking for status.  She said with William’s schedule it’s hard to find available staffs.   Then yesterday I called several providers from the list that HealthNet rep sent me:  Bloom Behavorial Health Inc said they have a 3 months waiting list, some providers didn’t answers (Behavior Support Svc, Creative Solution for Hope) . Finally I reached down to the bottom of the list: AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training.  A nice lady named To Nhu Le answered, and it turned out she’s Vietnamese.  So later in the day she sent me more info about her agency and requested that I sent her our insurance and the report from RCOC.

He loves this stamp

Today I sent what To Nhu Le from AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training requested, and soon she replied that she already verified William qualification with HealthNet and that we don’t have to pay co-pay or deductibles; and that she sent in the authorization request and waiting for the answer from HealthNet.

In the mean time, I also emailed Mrs. Annette Glass from Healthnet (who sent me the providers list in the first place) and telling her that the provider AExceLearning Behaviorial Education Support and Training has staffs available for William’s schedule and that they were waiting for authorization approval.

Few minutes later, got an email from Mrs. Annette, she said she talked to To Nhu Le and authorized 8 hour assessment effective today!  I’m so happy that things turn out pretty good.  I’d never expect that Mrs. Annette would act so fast!

Not just that, around noon our service co-odinator Kim Than called, saying that we got approved for Day Care.  Even though the amount is not much but it’s better than nothing.  She also encouraged me to call the RESPITE agency to schedule for at least 1 time; which will help in the process of requesting Medical for William.  Once William get approved for Medical then RCOC will cover all the RESPITE fees so we don’t have to pay anything.

This really relieves the financial burden that I’ve been feeling ever since William was diagnosed with Autism.  If we have Medical we’d not have to worry about the lack of money to pay for Insurance co-pay and deductibles for doctor visits (and my boy is sick so often!).

 

Sent the Report to HealthNet

Posted on by Moonie

I stopped by the Post Office today after dropping William off at the Children World Preschool to send the form and the report to HealthNet insurance company to start the process of receiving ABA services from them.  This is the report that Dr. Kyle from RCOC prepared after our meeting.

The package is supposed to arrive on Friday.  I’m expecting a phone call from them next week to go over the process of how William will get the ABA benefits.

 

Meeting with Service Coordinator from RCOC

Posted on by Moonie
Kim Than’ card

Monday 4/3/2017 9:00 AM.  Had an appointment with Kim Than, our new service coordinator from Regional Center of OC; Thuy-Nhi Vo, Early Start Service Coordinator was our service coordinator but she only takes care of cases for children that age from 3 years old or less.  That’s why our case is transferred to Kim Than.  She came to our home as agreed; a very nice & young lady.  She asked us a few questions about William (when he throws tantrum, what he does when he’s mad, how’s his health, his eating. etc).  Then she went over the services that RCOC can offer:  ABA services, Respite and Daycare.

ABA services annual fee

ABA: RCOC only covers the ABA service expenses if our health insurance does not cover; they can also help to cover the copay.  We need to pay an annual fee depends on the family income, max amount is $200.00.

 

 

 

 

Respite & Daycare sharing cost

 

Respite: RCOC will help to pay the expenses for someone to babysit William; but we have to share the cost depending on the family income.

Daycare: same as Respite, RCOC will help to pay the tuition fee; but we have to share the cost depending on the family income.  RCOC will pay only $8.75/hour, we have to pay the difference plus the shared cost.

The meeting lasted for about 40 minutes.

So what we need to do:

  • Call the Insurance company to find out if our policy covers the ABA services for William
  • Send the pay stubs to RCOC so that they can determine the share of cost that we’re responsible for.
  • Also send RCOC a letter from my employment stating that I’m working there currently.