Dealing with my son's ABA therapists...

[DisneyMama409]

I finally decided to speak up and put in a complaint with his service coordinator today but she got distracted and said she would call me back but never got back to calling me back . I'm going to call her back tommorow morning.

This is the problem his IFSP says he should be getting 10 hours of ABA therapy a week. They assigned 2 therapists and at first I figured they would both do an hour a day for five days a week. They have never done that . At first (I wont say his real name ) Charlie tried harder to do his hours. He never did five! But if he would miss a day he would come on Saturday . His other therapist NEVER tried to even act like she was doing all the hours. She just shows up on Tuesday and works for Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday. I asked her about making up the days on Friday and Saturday and she said "I dont do Fridays or weekends that is my time to be with my family" Ummmm Ok ....?? Charlie was coming over Monday, Tuesday ,Wednesday and sometimes Thursday (rarely) But they are consistently getting more and more brazen with it. Charlie now comes Monday Tuesday Wednesday but sometimes he only comes twice a week. The woman now only comes twice a week! Sometimes she will skip a whole week and have me sign the papers for the time she did'nt do . Last week she did not show up at all. The week before that she showed up twice AND she showed up twice before that week as well. One day she called and said "Something came up I have to go somewhere" and the next day she left a message saying " I have jury duty " How convenient ... Yeah you have jury duty between the hour of 5:00 pm -6:00 pm . In fact she even said she lives less than 4 blocks away from me!! Yet she cant even do 5 hours a week! My issue with Charlie is I feel he can do the full 5 hours but he just does'nt want to. I think he feels 3 hours a week is plenty. They both have to do a session with thier boss in two weeks and they both handed me fake schedules . They told me tell their boss that is thier schedule when she comes to review them.

Charlie is on thin ice with me. I feel he yells alot during my ds's session . He also told me he would prefer that I not be there during the session because it distracts him. I agreed with that because I was distracting him but this past week I noticed that he looked a bit annoyed when I would walk by them or work in the kitchen so I can see what ds does during the session . At one point I left and came back and ds was crying. He was trying to get to me for comfort. I asked him what was wrong and Charlie looked annoyed and said "NO DONT COMFORT HIM " I grabbed DS anyway and gave him kisses. Charlie than said DS was crying because he wanted to play with a certain toy and he was trying to keep him on task. I was just annoyed that he told me no dont comfort my baby like i was really going to listen to him . I sat right there in the living room and watched the rest of the session and ds really did'nt like him . I dont think he is hurting ds or anything of that nature but Im still annoyed nevertheless. He is really starting to rub me the wrong way .

I dont want them to lose thier jobs because in general I think they are nice ppl but I feel like they are taking advantage of the fact that I havent really questioned thier schedules.

I was apprehensive about telling the coordinator because I went through this with dd a couple years ago. Her speech therapist was supposed to come twice a week for 30 minutes . She did that for a month or so but than decided once a week for 1 hour was more better for her. I told her OK. HOWEVER when she would come for her session she was only giving dd 40 minutes and sometimes less than that! I got sick of it very quickly and complained to my coordinator. She almost lost her job!! I was sitting in the session when the call came through and she was visibly upset and at the brink of tears. I was so upset having to sit there and watch her cry and get reprimanded. The following sessions went back to twice a week for 30 minutes but it was so tense that it became unbearable for the both of us and her attitude was funky. She wind up dropping the case . I live so far out that i know if i complain ill have to wait possibly months to get new therapists in thier place but i feel they are so corrupt and taking advantage . One part of me likes them but another part of me realizes they are here to do a job and are taking advantage by having me sign for hours that are not completed and they dont even try to make them up. I can understand busy lifestyles but they are getting so brazen with it lately that its like I know they are doing these crappy hours on purpose.

 

[Mdoyle07]

You did the right thing by calling the coordinator. They determined the services your ds needs and put that in his IFSP, which is a legal document. the unpredictability of the schedule must be confusing for ds as well as you. If the therapists ask you to sign their time cards again stating that they worked the 5 hours, DON'T! They need to provide the services they said they would. Keep calling their coordinator until this is resolved. Early intervention is a critical component of child development that a team of people has decided your ds needs. Don't be afraid of what their consequences are. If you're unhappy with them ask that new therapists be assigned immediately as your ds progress is being impacted by their lack of consistency and services. With the IFSP in place they would need to assign other therapists to provide services. I'm sorry you have to go through this. I had excellent experiences with early intervention services in the past and am a special education teacher. It really makes me mad that people think they can get away with things like this.

 

[blondietink]

I agree that you should not sign those timesheets! I would also call the supervisor and complain that the therapists have not been following the stated schedule. If necessary, write everything down and submit to the supervisor. What they are doing is considered fraud and gives all therapists a bad name. Do not stand for this incompetance! If the coordinator cannot or will ot take this issue up, go over her head. She should not be reprimanded for simplay stating what is happening.

 

[DisneyMama409]

I'm going to call the coordinator again this morning to tell her of the problem. When I called yesterday she said she would call me back in about 5 minutes but never got back to calling me. She usually calls alot so It must've been a fluke. When I finally got the courage to actually complain it got intercepted! It took me so long to decide to call them out on it and she just did'nt let me get to it . I'm going to tell her EVERYTHING today though . I did'nt want them to lose thier jobs but what they were doing was very sloppy. They just kept giving my ds less and less time and than show up with no explanation at all ! That's so brazen it's like they think I'm stupid like I dont know my ds is supposed to get 10 hours and they can show up when they want! I'm glad that I'm finally going to get to the bottom of this today so they dont try it with the next case they take on and Im almost POSITIVE they are doing this with other parents as well. I was in the room when Charlie was on the phone with someone and he said "But she's fine with the schedule so why does it matter" before he walked into the hallway. I knew just by hearing those words that his supervisor found out that he's cheating some other kid of time and a parent complained. I figured he was getting reprimanded and things would get better but nope...each week they steadily came less and less. Ill update everyone when I tell my coordinator. Ill call her at around 11:00 am because ds speech teacher comes at 10:00 am. She is the ONLY therapist that always come and does all her days and hours!

 

[WheeledTraveler]

Definitely complain. I would also write a written complaint and send it registered mail (so you know it got there). And don't sign any of their timesheets for hours they didn't do as they don't deserve to be paid for them (not to mention it may be fraud).

I know you say they're nice people, but they're obviously not very nice with how they're not doing their jobs with regards to your son. Personally, I'd stop worrying about their losing their jobs because if they don't want to do them properly, they don't deserve them.

I know what I'm saying is harsh, but if they aren't doing their jobs for your son, they probably aren't for any of the kids they work with and that's not fair to anyone. I know ABA therapists who are struggling to find jobs so I suspect there are plenty of good therapists out there who would happily do the job these two aren't.

Good luck!

 

[cogero]

Oh definately compain to your service coordinator and do not sign time sheets for when they are not there for sessions they do not complete.

so sorry you are dealing with this

 

[DisneyMama409]

Hi you guys thanx for your responses. Unfortunately I have not been able to get ahold of my service coordinator so I cant provide an update. I've been calling all day . I even called her cell phone. I may go over her head and call her agency and inform them of the problem if I can't get ahold of her by 4:00 pm . Today the woman is scheduled to work with ds and im curious if she is going to call or show up after missing last week completly . She will no doubt show up with a bunch of papers for me to sign and i'm not giving her the chance. I want to be able to hurry up and put my complaint in so it's documented and they can get in trouble. I am no longer worried about them losing thier jobs as they do not worry about giving my son his required hours of therapy.

 

[woodkins]

Just so you know, not only is their fudging their time sheets improper, it is theft from a govt agency.
When my dd was 4 she had a SEIT in her preschool and the therapist was not showing up when she was supposed to etc. She had me sign a document authorizing my dd's teacher to sign the time sheets as she would arrive at school 45 mins after it began and leave 45 mins before ending so I would not be able to actually verify if she was there doing her job or not. It turns out that she was not having the teacher sign the sheets, but rather was forging my name on her time sheets. We found out because my dd was mentioning that the aide had not been there for a few days and when I asked the teacher for the time sheet she had no idea what I was talking about. I called the agency to get a copy and when they faxed it to me the sheet not only said she had been there all week, but that she was also there on days that the school was closed and when we were in WDW, all signed with my name.

Long story short, she had been doing this with almost all of her clients and was brought up on criminal charges (and ultimately convicted) of forgery and theft. EI services are paid through the county/state so the police took it very seriously. The detectives came to our house took statements etc.

 

[DisneyMama409]

Hi you guys I have an update! My coordinator called me back this morning and told me she'd like to meet to do his 18 month review and she would come by today at around 2:30 pm . However she called me at 3:00 pm to say she could'nt make it but I could tell her the problem with the therapists. I told her everything! I told her they both need to be changed and they are frauding the system and he's never gotten 10 hours he only been getting 5 on most weeks! I went into detail about everything and about how they gave me fake time sheet and fake schedules etc.She is nothing like my old coordinator for dd . When I told my old coordinator that her speech teacher was skimping out on 20 minutes she was LIVID!! I tell this one they've been skimping on hours and she was like hmmm ok we'll change them. I hope she tells thier agency supervisor so they can light into thier butts . If they get away with this without being reprimanded than I will be very upset. Im happy the coordinator is coming over tommorow so we can get started on assigning ds new therapists ! Im excited for ds to get decent truthful people working with him. I should have said something a LONG time ago so in that aspect Im disappointed in myself. You have to really remind yourself that these ppl are not your friends they may talk to you and you may get friendly but at the end of the day they are there to a job and most likely could give a crap about you as long as they get thier paycheck. Atleast that's the way that I see it because if they truly cared for the kids they are working with than they would've been giving my son his required hours instead of showing up at thier convenience .

 

[blondietink]

It sounds to me like the coordinator is not taking your information too seriously because she is just offering to change therapists. While this might solve your immediate problem, it ultimatley lets these people ripping off the system get away with it. If she does not file file a formal complaint on yourr behalf, I would go above her head. Bottom line is that these are my tax dollars being wasted when they are supposed to be helping disabled children. Keep strong!

 

[woodkins]

Hi you guys I have an update! My coordinator called me back this morning and told me she'd like to meet to do his 18 month review and she would come by today at around 2:30 pm . However she called me at 3:00 pm to say she could'nt make it but I could tell her the problem with the therapists. I told her everything! I told her they both need to be changed and they are frauding the system and he's never gotten 10 hours he only been getting 5 on most weeks! I went into detail about everything and about how they gave me fake time sheet and fake schedules etc.She is nothing like my old coordinator for dd . When I told my old coordinator that her speech teacher was skimping out on 20 minutes she was LIVID!! I tell this one they've been skimping on hours and she was like hmmm ok we'll change them. I hope she tells thier agency supervisor so they can light into thier butts . If they get away with this without being reprimanded than I will be very upset. Im happy the coordinator is coming over tommorow so we can get started on assigning ds new therapists ! Im excited for ds to get decent truthful people working with him. I should have said something a LONG time ago so in that aspect Im disappointed in myself. You have to really remind yourself that these ppl are not your friends they may talk to you and you may get friendly but at the end of the day they are there to a job and most likely could give a crap about you as long as they get thier paycheck. Atleast that's the way that I see it because if they truly cared for the kids they are working with than they would've been giving my son his required hours instead of showing up at thier convenience .

If they are asking you to sign off on time sheets that are not accurate and you sign them you are considered an accomplice to the theft. I would call the agency immediately and let them know what their employees are doing. They are not only stealing from your son, but from the agency and if the agency is submitting those time sheets as proof of services then they could also end up in trouble as they are the ones collecting the money from the county.

 

[blondietink]

Any updates on how the complaint has been handled?