Waiver for Asperger’s

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Doc-mom

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My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s before the DSM-5 was published and the diagnosis was converted to high functioning autism. The initial diagnosis occurred when he was 5 years old. He received behavioral health services until he was 12 to help with sensory and social issues (and to help adjust when we PCSed or dad deployed, dad is active duty). At one point he was diagnosed with ADHD (which we always disagreed about) and briefly took concerta (he has been off all medication for 4 years).

Currently, he doesn’t show signs of autism or ADHD. He no longer has any sensory or social impairment, he graduated from HS with honors, has been working at the food court (same restaurant) for 2.5 years, and scored above an 80 on the ASVAB. He is also physically fit and highly motivated.

He is trying to get a waiver to enlist and it seems like they aren’t actually trying to review his information because we are always the ones reaching out to check on the process and see if anything additional is needed. At this point they have his complete medical records, academic records, and have needed him to resign paperwork twice because it had expired. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Doc-mom said:
My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s before the DSM-5 was published and the diagnosis was converted to high functioning autism. The initial diagnosis occurred when he was 5 years old. He received behavioral health services until he was 12 to help with sensory and social issues (and to help adjust when we PCSed or dad deployed, dad is active duty). At one point he was diagnosed with ADHD (which we always disagreed about) and briefly took concerta (he has been off all medication for 4 years).

Currently, he doesn’t show signs of autism or ADHD. He no longer has any sensory or social impairment, he graduated from HS with honors, has been working at the food court (same restaurant) for 2.5 years, and scored above an 80 on the ASVAB. He is also physically fit and highly motivated.

He is trying to get a waiver to enlist and it seems like they aren’t actually trying to review his information because we are always the ones reaching out to check on the process and see if anything additional is needed. At this point they have his complete medical records, academic records, and have needed him to resign paperwork twice because it had expired. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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The military medical accession bar is set very high, and uses this standard, which you may already be aware of:

The challenge is waiver policies differ across services, as well as between officer programs and enlistment paths. This is not arbitrary; it reflects the different operating environments, missions, responsibilities, gear and equipment, found across the armed services.

I applaud your son’s desire to serve. I suspect the waiver authority is at some remove from the local recruiter your son is dealing with.

I have no specific advice except to stick with it - but since waiver policies do differ, he may want to explore another service. I have no insight into which, if any, of the other services have a more generous waiver policy. That’s a question to get into right upfront.

And welcome new member of just over half an hour. Though this forum is focused primarily on officer pre-commissioning programs, the DoDMERB hurdle is common to all who wish to join the armed services.
 
Doc-mom said:
My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s before the DSM-5 was published and the diagnosis was converted to high functioning autism. The initial diagnosis occurred when he was 5 years old. He received behavioral health services until he was 12 to help with sensory and social issues (and to help adjust when we PCSed or dad deployed, dad is active duty). At one point he was diagnosed with ADHD (which we always disagreed about) and briefly took concerta (he has been off all medication for 4 years).

Currently, he doesn’t show signs of autism or ADHD. He no longer has any sensory or social impairment, he graduated from HS with honors, has been working at the food court (same restaurant) for 2.5 years, and on scored above an 80 on the ASVAB. He is also physically fit and highly motivated.

He is trying to get a waiver to enlist and it seems like they aren’t actually trying to review his information because we are always the ones reaching out to check on the process and see if anything additional is needed. At this point they have his complete medical records, academic records, and have needed him to resign paperwork twice because it had expired. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Which service is your DS trying to join and which MEPS did he get his physical exam?
 
Capt MJ said:
Though this forum is focused primarily on officer pre-commissioning programs, the DoDMERB hurdle is common to all who wish to join the armed services.
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Ma’am… for those who want to enlist, it’s the MEPS hurdle.

By reputation, the MEPS hurdle is tougher to get over than the DoDMERB hurdle even though they use the same standards (DODI 6130.03) for deciding who is medically qualified and who is not.
 
GoCubbies said:
Ma’am… for those who want to enlist, it’s the MEPS hurdle.

By reputation, the MEPS hurdle is tougher to get over than the DoDMERB hurdle even though they use the same standards (DODI 6130.03) for deciding who is medically qualified and who is not.
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Gosh, yes, I knew that, just conditioned to type “DoDMERB” in the DoDMERB forum, thank you. I should have used a more general term. Interestingly, as a Navy OCS candidate in the 20th C., I went to the MEPS in Raleigh, NC for my physical.
 
Doc-mom said:
My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s before the DSM-5 was published and the diagnosis was converted to high functioning autism. The initial diagnosis occurred when he was 5 years old. He received behavioral health services until he was 12 to help with sensory and social issues (and to help adjust when we PCSed or dad deployed, dad is active duty). At one point he was diagnosed with ADHD (which we always disagreed about) and briefly took concerta (he has been off all medication for 4 years).

Currently, he doesn’t show signs of autism or ADHD. He no longer has any sensory or social impairment, he graduated from HS with honors, has been working at the food court (same restaurant) for 2.5 years, and scored above an 80 on the ASVAB. He is also physically fit and highly motivated.

He is trying to get a waiver to enlist and it seems like they aren’t actually trying to review his information because we are always the ones reaching out to check on the process and see if anything additional is needed. At this point they have his complete medical records, academic records, and have needed him to resign paperwork twice because it had expired. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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I spoke with a Career Counselor Master Chief friend of mine who mentioned a couple things.

If the only diagnosis was Aspergers, a waiver is fairly straight forward. ADHD is a bit more challenging. The unofficial cut off period for the Navy is 14 years of age since last medication. Not sure of the other branches of service.

He also recommended a site called www.operationmilitarykids.org. It isn't an official government website so you need to keep that in mind when reading their information. But in some ways, the website tries to replicate what the forums do here but from an enlisted point of view.

Hope it all works out.
 
GoCubbies said:
Which service is your DS trying to join and which MEPS did he get his physical exam?
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He is trying to enlist in the Army and he should have his physical next week or the following. The original date they requested for physical is this week (they asked on Friday) and because he is actually taking me for oral surgery the same day (my husband is TDY), he isn’t able to make that day work. MEPS station is in TX and they have had all his records since June.
 
Doc-mom said:
He is trying to enlist in the Army and he should have his physical next week or the following. The original date they requested for physical is this week (they asked on Friday) and because he is actually taking me for oral surgery the same day (my husband is TDY), he isn’t able to make that day work. MEPS station is in TX and they have had all his records since June.
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This could be reading into the scheduling of the physical a bit, but if they have had the medical history records since June and have asked to schedule a physical, then I believe they are at least considering the waiver. Otherwise they wouldn't bother scheduling the physical if the answer was a hard NO.
 
GWU PNS said:
This could be reading into the scheduling of the physical a bit, but if they have had the medical history records since June and have asked to schedule a physical, then I believe they are at least considering the waiver. Otherwise they wouldn't bother scheduling the physical if the answer was a hard NO.
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We are hoping that is the case.
 
Doc-mom said:
He is trying to enlist in the Army and he should have his physical next week or the following. The original date they requested for physical is this week (they asked on Friday) and because he is actually taking me for oral surgery the same day (my husband is TDY), he isn’t able to make that day work. MEPS station is in TX and they have had all his records since June.
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The Army has implemented a pre-screening procedure for its enlisted applicants. They look into the DoD's electronic health records (EHR) to see if there's anything in there that could be a DQ. The EHR review is to supplement the medical forms that the applicant completes because sometimes the kids forget things or willfully do not disclose.

This could be a reason why its taking longer for your DS.
 
GoCubbies said:
The Army has implemented a pre-screening procedure for its enlisted applicants. They look into the DoD's electronic health records (EHR) to see if there's anything in there that could be a DQ. The EHR review is to supplement the medical forms that the applicant completes because sometimes the kids forget things or willfully do not disclose.

This could be a reason why its taking longer for your DS.
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That may be the case although they mentioned with the new EHR they didn’t have everything, which is why we needed to provide his complete medical record (which we did). At first they only requested behavioral health and then expanded the request. They have had behavioral health records since April and complete medical records since early June. We are hoping that this means they are at least actively considering granting a waiver because otherwise, why would they waste the time?
 
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GWU PNS said:
I spoke with a Career Counselor Master Chief friend of mine who mentioned a couple things.

If the only diagnosis was Aspergers, a waiver is fairly straight forward. ADHD is a bit more challenging. The unofficial cut off period for the Navy is 14 years of age since last medication. Not sure of the other branches of service.

He also recommended a site called www.operationmilitarykids.org. It isn't an official government website so you need to keep that in mind when reading their information. But in some ways, the website tries to replicate what the forums do here but from an enlisted point of view.

Hope it all works out.
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what does he mean that a waiver is straight forward? does he mean it's easily denied or approved?
 
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