Nikki Scott-Despaigne Apr 14, 2015:

A computer stops working and needs replacing, braille lessons become essential, speech therapy, whatever etc. Financing that requires approval by the MDPH for funds to be made available. It takes around 2 months for an application to be dealt with. If a particular need arises late in the school year, there may simply be no more funding available to meet the particular need. The family will have to wait, or cover the cost itself.

The MDPH also has administrative responsibility for approving special needs estbalishments, schools and classes. The MDPH then consiers applications for places in those estbalishments, juggling with a list of impossible priorities to assess who should get the place.

Nikki Scott-Despaigne Apr 13, 2015:

A commission of the MDPH determines if an person qualifies as "handicapped" (reconnaissance de handicap) and assesses the level (taux de handicap en %), criteria which determine entitlement to financial benefits and other types of support.

An example, from personal experience. I've 4 years experience in SEN and classroom support. That invovles meetings with ordinary and specialized teachers, school doctors, nurses and psychologists, educators, social workers and adminsitrators and, last but not least, the child concerned and his/her parents. At those meetings, the MDPH has already certified the child as having a disability. At that time, or at any time thereafter, the individual, here a pupil (and thus his parents) may make applications for equipment, material and/or physical help. They had applied for SEN or secretarial help for note-taking during lessons, for example. That was me, AVS (auxiliaire de vie scolaire). Meetings take place according to need, but at least once a year. Classroom support needs to be monitored and assessed to keep up with changing needs. Sometimes and AVS is no longer needed. A previous application may have been refused and a new one is made.