FAQ
Who Are We?
Who Do We Serve?
Can I Have My Child Diagnosed At CARD?
What Does CARD Do?
What Do Families Need to Do to Access CARD?
How Long Will You Stay Involved?
How Often Can We Call You?
Who Are We?
We are a community based program, which means our staff members travel to visit our constituents in their homes, schools or wherever assistance is needed. No services are provided in our offices at USF or FGCU campuses. The state of Florida is divided by counties into seven regions with CARD professionals serving each area (known as catchment areas). Because our program is funded by the Florida legislature, all of our services are free.
Who Do We Serve?
CARD serves children and adults of all levels of intellectual functioning who have autism spectrum disorder (including autism, Asperger's disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, Rett's disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified); an autistic-like disability (documented on an evaluation that describes the characteristics that are being considered "autistic-like" by the evaluator); a dual sensory impairment; or a sensory impairment with other disabilities. It is a requirement of the legislation that created CARD that we have documentation of a qualifying diagnosis in order for an individual to receive our services. For children aged 0 to 5 years, we accept a developmental disability diagnosis with documented evidence of autistic-like behaviors.
Any document from the following list of examples can be accepted as documented evidence of a qualifying diagnosis.
-
Most recent report written by a licensed mental or medical health professional (psychologist, psychiatrist, pediatrician, physician, neurologist, or a neuropsychologist)
-
Most recent report written by the school evaluation team (school psychologist, diagnostician)
-
Most recent multidisciplinary team report from an early intervention program
-
Most recent Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) - children 0 to 3 years of age
-
Most recent Individual Educational Plan (IEP) - individuals 3 years to 22 years of age if the IEP shows the child being served has autism.
If you do not have any of the above documents, you may contact the person and/or agency who conducted the evaluation and request a copy of the report. If the individual is in an early intervention program, the coordinator can provide you with a copy of the Individual Family Support Plan (IFSP). Likewise, the school in which the individual is enrolled can provide you with a copy of their most current IEP.
The following documents will not be accepted:
-
A diagnosis written on a prescription pad
-
Treatment notes from hospital or physician visits
Can I Have My Child Diagnosed At CARD?
No, CARD staff are not able to perform diagnostic evaluations, due to our legislative directives, but we will help families find qualified professionals if they are seeking a diagnosis.
It is not uncommon for parents to call us for information on where they can go for a diagnostic evaluation if they need one for their child and do not know where to start. FSU CARD does not do psychological or medical evaluations or make a diagnosis, but we can give you a list of practitioners who can. The diagnosis can be made by a physician, such as a pediatrician, psychiatrist or neurologist, or by a licensed psychologist. Often, the professional making the diagnosis will recommend that the parent call CARD.
What Does CARD Do?
CARD is here as your source of information for autism related questions. The level of service depends upon the need. Often, a phone consultation will be all that is needed to solve an autism related problem that your family may be experiencing or to answer a question that you may have. If you live within our catchment area (counties listed on our home page), you can call FSU CARD any time that you have a question that pertains to autism or related disability and one of our professional staff will try to respond to your question during a phone consultation. Most of the time questions can be answered within a day or two. Other times questions may require some research in order to provide answers and that may take longer. If it is determined that you may need more support than can be provided by written material or a phone call, then you will be asked to do an intake with us. (See FSU CARD Supports for additional information on services.)
When you call CARD, we will register you by placing you on our mailing list to receive our conference announcements, workshop flyers, and our newsletter. The mailing list is not shared with any other agency outside of CARD. If for some reason you would prefer not to be on our mailing list, you can advise us of that when you call.
What Do Families Need to Do to Access CARD?
Give us a call. We will ask for some preliminary information to be able to register you on our mailing list and to begin the intake process. This initial call to us usually takes 15 - 20 minutes over the phone and we will gather information and a history about the individual with autism. After your call, we will send an information packet to you which will include a release that you will need to sign and return to us. You will also need to provide us with a copy of an evaluation or IEP that can be used as proof of eligibility. Once eligibility has been determined a support specialist will be assigned to you and he or she will help determine the level of service that your family needs.
How Long Will You Stay Involved?
CARD is intended to be a short term service for most families, however, CARD is here as long as we are needed. We will work together to determine the level of services that are needed and the best method for providing them.
How Often Can We Call You?
You can call us as often as you need. We are here to be a source of information about autism and to provide answers to your questions.
What are some additional supports available by CARD that may impact my child, family, and community? Our support list reflects a wide range of support activities that can be provided to individuals, families and agencies. Some of these support activities are of short duration while others are more intensive, long-term approaches for helping to build the capacity of families and agencies.
If your child's difficulties are occurring at school, we ask that you sign and return to us an Authorization/Release of Information form. This form allows us to exchange information with the school. After we receive the signed form, we will contact your child's teacher or administrator at the school to discuss concerns related to your child and offer our support. Our goal is to establish a cooperative and supportive relationship with school staff. In order to foster this relationship, our policy is to enter a classroom or other facility only if the staff and family have invited us.
