My son recently got a job at Amazon. Yesterday I got a call from one of his coworkers, who is also the mother of my son’s long time friend. She’s been watching over him since he started working there. Basically acting as his job coach.
Anyway, she’s telling me I need to obtain medical documentation showing my son is autistic (He was diagnosed since he was 3) and I need to find him a work coach (which will be provided by the state of Texas). Because she’s transferring to another job and won’t be able to look after him anymore.
I’m working on the job coach bit, but where do I go for medical documentation? Can I go to my General Practitioner and get her to write a doctor’s note? Shouldn’t there be documentation somewhere with in the admins of the state? He was in a state program all through out school. And that state program helped him get his first job.
You say he was diagnosed when he was 3, was it a formal medical diagnosis from a medical professional or an evaluation from a state program? My son was evaluated by the state & school district for an IEP, etc but we also decided to take him to a pediatric neurologist for a formal diagnosis in case we ever needed it for insurance purposes. If your son was formally diagnosed, even by a family practitioner, I would start there since I think most state documentation wouldn’t count as medical (though it couldn’t hurt and maybe whoever is in charge at his Amazon facility would accept it anyway)
If you can swing it, a visit to a neurologist for a formal medical diagnosis might be worth it in the long run. I don’t know how it works with adults but, in my son’s case, it was a basic office visit and evaluation and he was largely just signing off and agreeing with the school district’s findings. Gathering as much state/school information as possible before seeing a doctor may make it a pretty rote experience.
That’s good in that it should make things easier. I would start with contacting them. I only asked because I’ve known parents who had their children in an IEP for years and had the district evaluate and determine that their child was eligible but never received an actual medical diagnosis since they figured they had what they needed school-wise. Hopefully it’ll be as easy for you as getting the records from your doctor. Good luck to both of you.
I’m not aware of Texas or other law on the topic, but I would think the sole question is “What does Amazon require?”
I respect the efforts this co-worker made, but I’d suggest you look to Amazon policy to see what is required/offered. In many instances, a diagnosis by just about any medical professional is sufficient. And any historical medical/school records should be sufficient since, as we all know, you do not “grow out of” autism. I would not go to additional effort/expense without clear guidance.
I’d suspect the Texas Workforce Commission would be a useful source.
Yes, I called them before I started this thread. They said they’d have to get back to me. Then I started this thread bc I was sure it would take them a week to get back to me. turns out I was wrong. They just called me back and told me they are re-opening my son’s case.
So it turn’s out all this was handled with one simple phone call. (Whew!) Thanks for the input guys.