Relieved!

Yesterday Reid met with a speech pathologist from the county school system to be evaluated. He's been receiving therapy for almost a year through, which is being paid for by our insurance. However, he is now at an age where he is eligible for care through the public schools and, therefor, Tricare will no longer pay for his therapy. Luckily, while we've been working on getting him referred to the schools, Tricare has continued to cover him. However, without an IEP from the school district, his care was going to end at the end of the month. I've been really worried about this, as he really does need the therapy. When the schools initially received the scores from his latest evaluation, they said he wasn't eligible, but asked us to bring him for evaluation "just in case" they could find a reason to qualify him. Well, he must tell well, because in real conversation, he clearly needs therapy, which the schools now agree to provide. So, I go in a few weeks to get his IEP set-up and then he'll start receiving therapy through the schools. The real kicker is, that since his speech delay is severe enough for the schools to label him "special needs", they'll also continue to provide coverage, so he'll also get to continue seeing his existing private speech therapist. I don't understand it...if he had had a mild to moderate delay, neither Tricare nor the school district would provide services, but since his delay is severe, they will BOTH provide coverage. Geesh! I'm just totally relieved that he's going to get the care he needs (at least for the next 12 months....then we get to do this all over again).