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Friday, December 23, 2011

Selective documentation, is it appropriate or ethical in education or medicine?

Has documentation become more about the person documenting than the person whom we are documenting about? As we were once again in the position to need to advocate for our oldest child, who has autism, this week. At some point I looked at all the documentation lying before me with great disgust. Lying before me lay documentation that completely backed up what the educational institution said happened, but having been present at the meetings that were documented I couldn't help but notice those documents in no way reflected what truly happened. My husband, Son and I all clearly remember our son being asked to sign the documentation as it was written because the program my son wanted wasn't in the computer yet. Of course, we were assured it would be corrected when the program became available in the computer. So it's just a thought, but wouldn't it have been more ethical and honest to have written that on the documentation instead of leaving it completely out? I also found it interesting that the program was indeed changed to the one he wanted to be in, but they had no documentation showing when or why that happened.

So here's my question: Are we all now so afraid of the "powers that be" that we are doing those we serve a major disservice by not documenting all sides of the story? Are we documenting just to avoid liability when we should be documenting the needs of the individual?

I absolutely agree that we all have a certain amount of minimum documentation that must be done and I also agree that we should document in such a way that your organization is not placed in a situation where they become liable. If we are now omitting information just to prevent our oranizations from being liable how can we possibly be meeting all the needs of those individuals that need our help. We must document their needs before we can address those or their needs just fall through the cracks.

In our case, the documentation could have just as easily stated that the program he had selected was not available in the computer, but it would be switched when that option came available. Instead it was stated in such a way that it appears he never asked about the only program in which he was interested. While we will regroup and get past this hurdle, I ask those of you who are working in education or health care and are responsible for documenting the needs of others to ask yourself, are you serving the individual with a need or are you only just protecting yourself and your organization? I know I, for one, will endevour to make sure the needs of those I serve are failrly represented as well as the needs of the organizations who employ me.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Autism and Higher Education

You would hope that when your adult child goes to college you wouldn't need to document every conversation to protect their rights, but maybe would should have done just that. The last several days have revealed a large number of inconsistencies in what we were told and what the realities really are.

Our oldest graduated last year from the Dallas Art Institute (DAI) with a degree in Graphic Arts. This was no small accomplishment for him. He then moved on to the Fort Worth Art Institute (FWAI) to major in Animation. Everything seemed to be rocking along pretty well until the second semester when we realized some of the funding we expected was going to come to an end. When we set funding up through DARS for this second leg of his journey, his counselour commented that his DARS funding would not carry him through all the way to Bachelors. We had received a note from his DARS counselour stating that a P.O. had been sent for the next semester about 8 weeks into the first 11 week semester, so when bill kept arriving for his second semester we thought it was the "normal" delay that always seemed to happen when DARS was involved in any payment. At some point, we got nervous and the oldest went down to check and make sure everything was in order. The Disability coordinator called DARS and was informed that last semester was the last semester they would pay. I called and was informed the same thing, so suddenly there was a balance to be paid we didn't expect. As I was trying to figure out how we needed to handle this, I was also informed by the FWAI that his student loan money would run out before he finished his degree. I thought this was rather strange, but we prepared to pay the balance in payments. Our portion in excess of the student loans and DARS funding was about $17,000.

At some point, our son decided to go ask for himself why the cost of this had increased so much more than we were led to believe. He was told it was because he changed majors. You see, when we enrolled him the animation program at FWAI was so new they didn't have it in the computer. They entered him in the system as a Graphic Designs major. As he signed all the paperwork they checked Graphic Designs major and told him, in our presence, we have to check something, so sign it like this and we'll change it when Animation becomes available in the computer. In retrospect, signing the paperwork as it was presented was a mistake that will cost of thousands of dollars. It seems that even in the staffs documentation of the conversations they wrote that he wanted to major in Graphic Design. There is not one place where it is documented that he wanted to major in Animation and all the staff flatly denies he ever told them he wanted to major in Animation.

At some point, his major was changed in the computer to Animation. At this point the number of credit that would transfer from DAI dropped to 56 of the 92 he had earned, but nobody bothered to tell him or us of the change in the number of credits, so now we know why the student loans will also run out. Sallie Mae only finances a certain number of credits. They had no documentation showing why his major was changed.

Today our son when to the DAI to check and see if he could get more credit by going back to there. They also said he would only get 56 credits towards Animation because he changed majors. It seems he was supposed to start with Graphic Arts and at some point change to Animation before he reached the Associates Degree instead of after he reached the Assocates Degree. It doesn't matter that we were led to believe he needed to complete the Associates degree.

The bright side of the day actually seemed to come by accident. As he was discussing that his ultimate goal was to draw comic book art. It seems that even though he was counseled at the DAI that the appropriate degree for this kinds of work is NOT Animation, it seems to actually be Graphic Arts. In addition he may already have enough eduation to successful obtain a comic book artist position.

My husband and I went to FWAI today and have a print out of all the courses needed to complete Animation. Tomorrow our son will go get a print out of what he needs to complete Graphic Arts. Over the weekend he will be making a decision about which direction to go. I've encouraged him to weigh all the information (credits needed, cost to complete, and his future goals) and pray about the situation.

When he was younger I used to document conversation with educationally staff when I unsure about their committment to the end goal. Today I'm wishing I had continued this practice when discussing his college educational goals.