Pretty sure that I have made a big and costly mistake!  Can you help me fix it?!

So, this McKay Scholarship is all tricky and complex!  There are all these rules and processes and no real human to walk you thru the system.  It’s one thing to just file intent and fill out some private school paperwork and move on from public school verse really taking this serious like a business.  If McKay is the dollar amount awarded for years to your special needs child you want to make sure you get the most money.  Have you seen how much private school is?  Don’t even get me started on the dollars that enter the school for special education students that are not being used accordingly for the student and student services.

So, I filed intent in March to find out my matrix score.  I did this because I thought it was the only way to have a matrix created and to find out your score.  Then, I studied and gave copies to my doctor to review.  When looking at the matrix my child was at the highest end point for the 252 score.  After going to the IEP Advocate meetings, reading their training’s and looking over his rubric I realized that we could in fact improve his matrix score.  So, I jumped on an end of year meeting and observation of kindergarten.  I thought I was doing everything right. I was even ready to hire the private IEP Advocate but was talked out of it by my doctor.

We had the meeting (in mid May) and numerous services were added to his IEP.  Those changes, according to the rubric, should be enough to bring him up to the next level 253. Obviously, I want to score higher because the money payout is higher and I’m a broke autism mom.  I log in to the system and his value is still the same.

Now June and his matrix was never updated and everyone is unavailable.  I have to email and call the district to get someone to pay attention to my request.  The district has an obligation to update and submit the matrix scores to the state.  So, the state cannot increase my son’s value if they don’t know his matrix has changed.  If you read the website a lot they tell you that changing your IEP will change your scholarship amount.  They don’t talk about it going up they only talk about it going down.  However, when you talk to an advocate they will tell you that they have been able to get matrix scores up.  I called and talked to the district employee and she told me how far of a jump it is from a 252 to a 253.  I tried to explain to her that it still needed to be done and reviewed because several services were added to his IEP.  She wasn’t very hopeful for me and seemed more annoyed than anything else.  I even said my advocate told me to ask for the updated matrix score and to get a copy.  She didn’t like that either and tried to say that they don’t do that.  I told her I already have the original copy and know that I can get a new copy too.

So, my intent is filed but what will be Max’s matrix score? Did I just lose several thousand dollars by filing for intent too soon? Now what do I do?

Still learning through my mistakes,