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confused
| Wed, 09-21-2005 - 1:10pm |
Hi all,
Could someone explain to me what a TSS is and how I could get one. I'm new to all this and everytime I think I know everthing there is to know,big surprise I don't. I joined my local Autism support group which was very helpful but many parents have been dealing with the system much longer than I and I have to admit some of the terms they were using went right over my head. Right now Jake gets only 4 hours of therapy a week from E.I and I feel that is not enough and the scary part is when he turns 3 and the school district takes over I know he is not going to qualify for some of the stuff he gets now. We live in PA and Jake just qualified for medical assistance. Besides paying medical bills what can I use his access card for?
Thanks
Teresa
Could someone explain to me what a TSS is and how I could get one. I'm new to all this and everytime I think I know everthing there is to know,big surprise I don't. I joined my local Autism support group which was very helpful but many parents have been dealing with the system much longer than I and I have to admit some of the terms they were using went right over my head. Right now Jake gets only 4 hours of therapy a week from E.I and I feel that is not enough and the scary part is when he turns 3 and the school district takes over I know he is not going to qualify for some of the stuff he gets now. We live in PA and Jake just qualified for medical assistance. Besides paying medical bills what can I use his access card for?
Thanks
Teresa

Sorry Teresa,
I never heard of a TSS by that acronym.
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
What county in PA? I'm in Schuylkill - sort of northeastern PA.
I have heard the term TSS, it stands for Theraputic Staff Support, and the term is used in conjunction with wraparound services. My son was diagnosed with Aspergers at 4, (he's 6 now), so we started later than you. At that time, they did mention wraparound, but he didn't really qualify.
I found this link.. not sure if this will work..
www.phlp.org/New brochures 2004/Understanding Wrap April 2005.pdf
If not google TSS wraparound
what I'm not sure of is exactly who to call about it.. for us, it was a psychiartrist we saw who mentioned it. This link says you need a evaluation from a psychologist or psychiatrist to qualify. These services were also mentioned in our case by the IU (intermediate unit). In my county, most of the school districts contract with the IU for services for preschool(3-5) special needs kids.. so that's the group we started with. If you're already working with therapists, I would ask them.
Hope this helps..
Kate
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I live in lehigh County and we just moved here last year from Delaware County where Jake originally started early intervention. I really have a vague idea about what TSS is about. My kids are 14 months apart and my youngest has major sensory issues also so it's hard to give them both one and one attention and thats why I was thinking about a TSS.
Teresa
Tina,
Good to see other PA people on the board!
I had the same question as Teresa. I know that our school district stopped contracting with the IU for some school age special needs programs, but I hadn't heard of any not using the IU for preschool programs. But Lehigh is a little more progressive than Schuylkill, lol.
Hope those links helped. I just did google and yahoo searches and came up with a lot of links. I would ask your ped, or Jake's therapists.. they should be able to get you started. As I said, this psych we went to mentioned it, and in case up in the IEP Ryan has before Kindergarten, but we didn't qualify.
Kate
Kate(you are kinda far)
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Theresa,
I live in Southern Chester Co. and the way TSS has been explained to me is that it is a service that is provided by the County Medical Assistance. You need a diagnosis from an MD, and that's really all. Take that diagnosis and apply with Lehigh Co Medical Assistance Unit. Your son (?) automatically qualifies for MA becuase of his disability. (The Chester Co form was sort of annoying because they wanted to know all about our income which was complete irrelevant, but they have to ask it anyway.) Then it helps if you have the Early Intervention Unit or the Intermediate Unit recommend you for a TSS. I would contact your case worker with Early Intervention and see what she can do to get the ball rolling. But as it has been explained to me within the PA system, neither the EI nor the IU pays for the TSS, as it is a medical program paid for by the state and federal government. You may have to push and push for a bit to get the TSS outside of the classroom setting (which is where I've heard about it most, but I have heard of another mom, here in Chester Co PA, who had 10 hours of TSS a week for in home support to ABA therapy), and I would think that you would definitely be able to get it for home support if you pushed hard enough.
Good Luck! Let us know what happens1
Gemma
Mommy to Kiki (3) with ASD.