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Sarah Birnbaum of New York Special Needs Support offers information, guidance, and educational advice to parents of children with special needs.
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Aug 7, 2012 · Sarah Birnbaum, 18, the only person who is known to have survived a jump from the bridge and returned, only to die on a second attempt.
- Bob Nickas
- Q: What Is Cpse? How Is It Different from Ei?
- Q: What Services Are Available in Cpse? What Are Not?
- Q: How Does The CPSE Process Get started?
- Q: What Happens in A CPSE Evaluation?
- Q: Where Does The CPSE Evaluation Happen?
- Q: What Happens After The CPSE Evaluations Are done?
- Q: Who Comes to This Meeting?
- Q: What Happens at The Meeting?
- Q: How Do I Get Ready For The CPSE Meeting? I’m Already hyperventilating.
- Q: How Do I Stay Sane During All this?
A: The biggest difference between Early Intervention and what lies beyond is the focus on education. EI, which goes from birth to 3, is a developmental model, concentrating on the home and community. The Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE), which takes over after EI, is all about how your child does in the classroom. This means you need...
A: Just as in EI, kids can receive the related services of speech therapy, physical therapy (PT) for gross motor delays, and occupational therapy (OT) to help with fine motor and sensory integration skills. Counseling, which is play therapy to help children work out their emotions, is also available. Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), a therapy mos...
A: At around 2.5 years old, your child is eligible to receive the “CPSE packet,” a voucher for a set of evaluations and a list of official CPSE evaluation sites. You call a site and schedule your child’s evaluations. Do some word-of-mouth research among other parents to help you choose one.
A: The two standard pieces are a social history, where you tell your child’s story to the case worker at the evaluation site, and a psychological evaluation of their cognitive skills. Beyond that, your child should be evaluated in every area they receive EI therapies. If they were recently approved for a new service, the site may want to use that E...
A: Whether it’s in your home or the evaluation site’s office, or remotely, your child will be tested in a calm, quiet place by a friendly adult working hard to engage them. But in this type of setting, the evaluators will probably see the best possible version of your child; if your child struggles more in a group, the reports may not tell the full...
A: Your case worker at the evaluation site will send the completed reports to you and to your CPSE administrator, who is assigned to you based on your school district and your child’s last name. The administrator will reach out to set up a meeting, in which a plan for your child will be discussed. While you wait for the admin to set a meeting date,...
A: You, the CPSE administrator, your EI service coordinator (who is mainly there to sign paperwork), the evaluation site case worker, and anyone you want for backup, such as an EI therapist. If you do enlist reinforcement, bring someone who not only knows your child well, but is also well-spoken and can help you advocate.
A: If your child qualifies for CPSE services, the CPSE admin will extend EI, recommend educational support and/or related services, and create an Individualized Educational Program (IEP) with appropriate goals. The IEP process is governed by federal special education law, and all of this must happen with your active input, called “meaningful partic...
A: Don’t panic; organize! Gather up your CPSE evaluations and any independent reports. Ask your current therapists to write letters of support for the services you want, and ask for those letters to be as specific and concrete as possible. Read through all the evaluations again, no matter how painful it is. (I used to hide them under the couch cush...
A: Make sure to take care of yourself. This is an emotionally draining process, and especially if you’re surrounded by families of typical kids, it can be lonely and isolating. Going to the playground caused me painful stabs of envy even on my best days, but if the subject turned to everyone’s preschool search, it was hard just to talk. I tried to ...
Sarah Birnbaum is a unique and incredibly knowledgeable guide for navigating the extremely complicated special-education system in New York City. She has tremendous all-round knowledge of the system and a massive network that encompasses all the different professionals involved.
I love reporting for public radio on topics including politics, international development, women's rights and education. I'm an experienced writer, reporter, editor and broadcaster. | Learn...
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Sarah Birnbaum began her career working for CBS News radio worldwide. In the course of her work, she produced nightly coverage of the war in Iraq, and reported live from Virginia Tech in the aftermath of the school shootings.
