A question about evals for special needs kiddos

[Ibbygirl]

Hi all. Just a quick question about the end of the year evals and how it works with special needs kiddos. Both of my kids are on the Autism spectrum. My dd has Asperger's and is highly functioning and doesn't really struggle too much academically but my son is severely Autistic and mostly non-verbal. He goes to the Autism cluster at the public school, but I am thinking of bringing him home to homeschool. For my dd, I don't have any issues with the end of the year evals but I'm just wondering how that would work with my son. The lady that does the evals for us every year does a portfolio evaluation and gives my dd a test and then gives me a pass/fail form to send into the school board. That's fine because my dd always passes but my son *fails* his grade level every year in ps because he's no where near the abilities of the gen. ed. population for his grade level. In spite of his being registered as a student in the Autism cluster I occasionally get letters from the school board about his grades and performance. The school always tells me just to disregard them since he's obviously in the Autism cluster and not in the gen. ed. population but I'm wondering if it would cause me a problem with the school board when I bring him home. I mean, if he continually *fails* every year and I have to report that to the school board won't that cause me problems with audits or what not??

 

I would really appreciate some advice from someone who's BDTD. Okay so my question turned out to not be so quick after all. lol I hope I made sense. Thank you so much to all who reply. :)

[Guest]

Every state law is frustratingly different. But in California, if you register as a private school or under a long-distance umbrella school, you are not accountable in any way to the local district. I chose Clonlara as an umbrella school largely because my Aspie daughter works at such varying levels and has such weird interests compared to the conventional academic program that there is no way the test would have anything but the vaguest relationship to what we do all year long (although this is less a concern as she has grown older). I wanted the freedom to work the way she learns best without worrying about potential school district intervention. So this might be one possibility to consider. I don't know whether you would still be eligible for district services (speech, OT, etc.) if you go this route; it would probably depend on your district and the particular people involved. Or you could go the insurance route.

[Ibbygirl]

Every state law is frustratingly different. But in California, if you register as a private school or under a long-distance umbrella school, you are not accountable in any way to the local district. I chose Clonlara as an umbrella school largely because my Aspie daughter works at such varying levels and has such weird interests compared to the conventional academic program that there is no way the test would have anything but the vaguest relationship to what we do all year long (although this is less a concern as she has grown older). I wanted the freedom to work the way she learns best without worrying about potential school district intervention. So this might be one possibility to consider. I don't know whether you would still be eligible for district services (speech, OT, etc.) if you go this route; it would probably depend on your district and the particular people involved. Or you could go the insurance route.

 

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your taking the time. :) I'm sure that I won't qualify for the district services, but they have been cutting them so much lately that my son is hardly getting anything anymore. I keep wondering if he would be better off at home. I wouldn't be bringing him home right away, but I just want to get all of my ducks in a row beforehand so I can be prepared. Thanks for your advice. :)