The Po Show

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Yesterday I went to a quickie CSE (Committee on Special Education) meeting. It was basically administrative, to change Matthew's IEP qualification.

Back in the spring, during the CSE Annual Review, the chairperson said that they wanted to change his IEP qualification from Autism (which was done back when we first came to the district in order for him to get services. We didn't care what they called him, as long as he got services, so his official designation as far as the district is concerned has been Autism) to Asperger's, since they felt that better reflected his level of functioning. We were so happy that they had agreed to his out-of-district transfer that we didn't care what the IEP said.

However, to go to his school, he has to have a designation of Emotional Disturbance on his IEP. Last summer, during the craziness of trying to find him a placement, and after we'd decided to send him to Clear View, I was told by the admissions director that that was a state requirement for them. She said that he had to have an Axis I diagnosis that supported that designation. So I had to get ahold of his psychiatrist, from CA, and fax her a release, and get her to fax the school a letter giving him an Axis I diagnosis of Impulse Control Disorder NOS (which certainly applies to him). The school was satisfied and I promptly forgot about it.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from the new chair of the out-of-district CSE, saying that Clear View wanted his IEP officially changed. I had sort of assumed it already had been, so I was surprised. But again, it seemed like a formality so I agreed to the scheduled meeting.

The meeting was short, and I ended up being the one arguing for the change in designation (but not really arguing, since the district chair didn't seem opposed to the change). I said that while Matthew could have a lot of designations, and Asperger's was his official diagnosis, Emotional Disturbance certainly was not an inappropriate designation as well, based on his Axis V score of 45, indicating a severe impairment in school functioning. The school psychologist at his old school (she is still his service coordinator since the public school is still his district home school) was in attendance and she backed me up by stating the difficulties with impulse control Matthew had demonstrated last year. Anyway, it was all approved and over with quickly.

Now I'm feeling kind of sad. Through all these years, from when he was five and we were working on getting him diagnosed for the first time, I've always said that I didn't care about him being labeled. I've said that they could call him a blueberry for all I cared, as long as someone helped him. Strangely, though, having his IEP qualification now listed as Emotional Disturbance somehow, well, disturbs me a little. It sounds so dire, like a big iron gate being slammed shut. Will this be a problem later in his life, trying to convince someone to give him a job, or accept him into a program, because he was once officially Emotionally Disturbed? Is it a label that will really matter? They're just words, and should not define him, but will they?