ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

Sometimes when children progress from preschool to school it is determined that they still need to be classified and receive special education services. Sometimes it is determined that they should be declassified. There is a defined process that is supposed to be followed. Patrick is a preschooler who has disabilities and if he enrolled in kindergarten last year he would have either continued his classification and received services OR continued his occupational therapy services in the school under a declassification plan for one year. Given his severity of delay he would have also been a likely participant in a summer readiness program designed to help support children's performance when they are struggling with key developmental skills. The goalposts have been moved again this year. Now there is no summer readiness program and there is no declassification plan. Part 200 regulations governing the special education program in NY State have not changed, and clearly state: (iii)

Cost accounting is boring, I understand, but I hope providers and families read this so that they can empower themselves to push back against the systematic dismantling of the NYS Early Intervention program. As previously blogged, NYS is engaging in a cost reporting process for the early intervention program. Cost accounting is a valid tool used by a business to establish actual cost for delivering goods or services. Unfortunately, the NYS government is going about this process in a backwards direction. Generally, the results of cost accounting projects are used to inform stakeholders about costs so that appropriate reimbursement rates can be set. However, in NYS, the rates to providers have ALREADY been cut 15% in the last year and an additional functional cut of 33% is proposed to begin on July 1 by back-door manipulation of the billing and coding system. Why then, is the NYS Department of Health engaging in an exercise of cost accounting when reimbursement cuts have already been