What is the FM system? Do most schools have this? DD is just in elementary in a Title 1 school. Her class has only 18 kids, so is not too big.
UM, we aren't dealing with CAPD, but fwiw we have a friend who's dd has hearing loss and her teachers use the FM system in her classrooms. When you're advocating for your dd, if you have a documented need for something like an FM system, the school can't tell you they can't provide it because they don't have it at your dd's school - chances are good there is an FM system available in your school *district* and the school can get one and should be responsible for also training your dd's teachers how to use it.
The thing we've found is key in advocating for our 2e ds is being able to prove their is a need, and that the accommodation we're requesting is a typical accommodation for that special need (from what little I know about hearing, my understanding is the FM system is a typical accommodation). There are two routes to proving your child needs the accommodation - private professionals vs school testing. Sadly many of us have had the experience of school staff not offering up the correct set of tests, and also sometimes having a bias to show that kids don't need services or accommodations. That's why it's often helpful to have a private evaluation - the evaluation is almost always more thorough, you know the professional who is evaluating your child has the credentials that are needed depending on the child's challenges, and with a private professional you have a chance to ask questions that are relevant without worrying about bias influencing their answers. I apologize to any list members who are school staff who are reading this and think I am biased against school staff - I am not, really not. That's just been our very honest experience in our one school district, and it's an experience shared by friends of mine in other districts.
If you need to start with the school for an eval because you can't afford a private eval, absolutely start there. The school district is supposed to provide the evaluation, and you can request up front the type of testing your child needs. The school can state in return that your child doesn't need that testing, but they have to have a valid reason to disagree with your request.
One thing that really *really* helped us tremendously in advocating for our ds was having an advocate we could bounce questions off of - not just technical questions, but questions about our local school. For instance, if we were you, I could call up my advocate and ask for her honest opinion re would the school do an adequate series of tests, or would they try to get by with a bare minimum or try to fight our request for accommodations etc. Our advocate was able to advise on things like that, and then in turn give us the language we needed *locally* to make successful requests of the school.
Hang in there,
polarbear
