There is a child and family we served recently. The child was born with some significant challenges. The mom and dad were tortured by the nagging question of what more they could do. They did all that they could think of, and then some. Verbal Behavior Institute (VBI) was called in by the family, through friends – as we have a solid reputation for quality (even our detractors admit we do what we do well. They just wish we would do it elsewhere so there was no standard for comparison.). After a couple of weeks, the family informed us they wanted to retain a lawyer to assist them in suing their district to obtain truly individualized services for their son. We did not comment on their decision. We do not comment on what parents want to do; other than to speak about what we, as educators can do to help the child. We agreed we would write a course of treatment and education for their purposes, consistent with the work we were and planned to do, irrespective of the planned litigation.
After more than a few discussions with the family over the course of months it became readily apparent to me as the BCBA and administrator on the case, the stress of litigation was going to be added stress on this family who already had much on their plate. After internal discussions at VBI among staff, we made a decision to try to help the family and their district to resolve this matter; without the added stress court, depositions, discovery and all of the nuances that suck the time and energy out of the people. [Read more…] about Helping a family deal with litigation stress