fighting for learning disabilities evaluation?

[6Acorns]

Hello,

I decided to contact the local school system to see if my 8 yearold dd might use speech services as visiting student (we are in NC). I have up-to-date evals that indicate language deficit, probably dyslexia. I have been advised that she needs speech therapy for language/narrative/expressive/auditory memory/ etc.  The system SLP says that her evals indicate that her issues are with reading and would need to be addressed with the reading resource teacher (which is not available to homeschoolers). Also, she would need to be evaluated through RTI (which can't happen as a homeschooler).

A friend has advised that Federal law upholds the right of a parent to request an eval INSTEAD of the response to intervention procedure and I could fight for my right to request an eval in lieu of RTI and that this is especially important given that my child is home-schooled and, thus, there is no opportunity to observe her response to intervention within the classroom. I am wondering if it is worth the fight? Any thoughts? Pros, cons, experiences? Thanks

the following exerpt is from link: http://www.decodingdyslexianc.org/?page_id=1152. 

 

Another regulation addressing initial evaluations in all situations also serves to emphasize that “either a parent or a public agency may initiate a request for an initial evaluation to determine if the child is a child with a disability” (see IDEA 2004, 34 C.F.R. § 300.301(b)). The United States Department of Education (ED) commentary accompanying the regulation indicates that the same timelines and procedures applicable to all initial evaluations would apply to evaluations involving students with potential LDs (see IDEA 2004 Consent for Initial Evaluations, 2006). The only exception to the regular timelines to complete evaluations is in situations where the school staff and parents mutually agree in writing to extend the timeline, ostensibly to allow additional time for interventions to proceed. The USED commentary also reminds us that interventions can be provided during the weeks while the evaluation is conducted, a point made in response to concerns that parents, by requesting evaluation, could “short-circuit” or opt out of the intervention process (and in the commentary, ED stated that “if parents request an evaluation and provide consent, the timeframe for evaluation begins and the information required in §300.309(b) must be collected (if it does not already exist) before the end of that period”; IDEA 2004 Consent for Initial Evaluations, 2006). In sum, however, the referral scheme under IDEA’s federal regulations respects the parent’s right to request an evaluation with no specialized exception for circumstances where the school is attempting high-quality research-based interventions.
Indeed, the current legal framework makes little concession to the expanding universe of regular education interventions available in an increasing number of public schools. Although schools can, technically, refuse to refer the student, they must then provide parents with written notice of refusal and notice of IDEA procedural safeguards (since parents must be informed that they can challenge the school’s refusal to evaluate the student). This course of action also creates the possibility that the school will face a failure-to-identify legal action challenging the refusal to evaluate. If the parents can prove that there are reasonable grounds to suspect disability and the need for special education services (admittedly not a high threshold), then the school will lose the case, will be ordered to evaluate the student, and will likely be liable for the parents’ attorneys’ fees.
Against this backdrop, one would think schools would be treading quite cautiously in addressing referral questions, particularly when faced with parents’ requests for evaluation. The emerging court cases, however, demonstrate otherwise. Unfortunately, some persistent and inaccurate notions may be at work in how schools observe child-find under IDEA in the modern RtI era.

 

Common RtI/Child-Find Misconceptions

The advent of RtI, together with the modernization of the SLD evaluation process, has given rise to some common notions and confusion spots that can lead schools awry in complying with child-find while also implementing RtI programs. Some of these misconceptions include the following:
 

·         RtI interventions are a mandatory prerequisite to LD evaluation

·         Intervention programs must be implemented for the entire period of instruction

·         In tiered intervention models, all tiers must be completed prior to referral

·         Data from RtI intervention programs is a mandatory part of an LD evaluation

The most entrenched misconception involves the need for RtI data as part of SLD evaluations. Although individual states may, if they wish, make the use of RtI data mandatory, the federal statute or regulations do not. Rather, the 2006 regulation allows for part of the evaluation to include a determination of whether a child responded to high-quality research-based interventions, but it does not require it (see IDEA 2004, 34 C.F.R. § 300.309(a)(2)(i); see also Memorandum to State Directors of Special Education, 2011; Alexandria Comm. Sch. Corp., 2010; and Meridian Sch. Dist., 2010. Indeed, from a practical standpoint, the regulation could not have possibly required such a determination, since many schools would have been unprepared to fully implement such intervention programs at that time. This is why the regulation also contains an option for an assessment-based determination based on patterns of strengths and weaknesses in assessment scores instead of the RtI determination option (see IDEA 2004, 34 C.F.R. §300.309(a)(2)(ii)).

[Pen]

Did you submit a written request (= demand) for an evaluation?   They have ____ days to respond to a written request. 

If they want to provide Rti services that may give the help you want.  

I was able to use a concurrent public school/homeschool enrollment to get services. In a Different state. 

[6Acorns]

6 minutes ago, Pen said:

Did you submit a written request (= demand) for an evaluation?

not yet. Wondering how much a fight it will be, and if whatever I would get out of it would be worth the fight.  I know the services available in some states would certainly be worth the effort, in NC I'm not so sure. 😞

[Pen]

6 minutes ago, 6Acorns said:

not yet. Wondering how much a fight it will be, and if whatever I would get out of it would be worth the fight.  I know the services available in some states would certainly be worth the effort, in NC I'm not so sure. 😞

 

Don't pre-assume a big fight.  Find a sample letter and follow it as the first step.  

You can simultaneously be seeking other options and if you feel fight with public school gets to be too much you can stop any time you want.  

[PeterPan]

4 hours ago, 6Acorns said:

I decided to contact the local school system to see if my 8 yearold dd might use speech services as visiting student (we are in NC).

First off, you are muddling 2-3 issues that are separate legal questions.

1) Do you have a federal right to evals to identify disabilities affecting the student's ability to access their education, irrespective of whether the student is ps, private, homeschooled, etc.? Yes, this is federal law.

2) Does your state compel or allow your district to provide services? Answer is state law.

3) After going through the evaluation process, does the team recommend your dc receive an IEP or 504? This is a question the multi-disciplinary team decides together. Not one person, and not decided before evals.

4) What services can/will they offer you? Again, this goes back to state law and how your district interacts with state law.

So you need to go in order. You have someone making up stuff on the fly, because one they aren't a lawyer, two they aren't the county level SN coordinator (the top person, the person who gets fired when this is handled incorrectly), and three because they haven't worked with homeschoolers before.

So to solve it, YOU need to read and follow the law.

1) make a signed, dated, written request for evals. EVALS ARE NOT SERVICES, STOP ASKING FOR SERVICES. YOU ONLY ASK FOR EVALS.

2) hold them to the legal timeline for them responding and going through the process.

3) See what conclusions the team draws about eligibility for a 504/IEP.

4) At that point they decide whether state law requires or allows them to spend the EXTRA funding to write a 504/IEP and then whether they offer services. It sounds like in your case they are, but I haven't checked NC law to know.

5) RTI is to be completed WITHIN the evaluation timeline, and this should all be contained in the timeline charts your state dept of ed can provide. The ONLY thing that will hold water with them (besides lawyers) is citing your state dept of ed. So get on their site, get the answers, email them the snipped sections and the links. Things will start happening at that point.

***As a homeschooler, you have ways to DEMONSTRATE THAT YOU HAVE DONE RTI. RTI is a way to show the difficulty is not due to a lack of instruction. In our case, I went in with multiple levels of Barton and showed that he continued to have difficulty (per their testing) despite Tier 3 instruction. Other people I know have demonstrated RTI by having their dc complete a number of weeks of tutoring with a qualified reading specialist. 

You do NOT have to allow them to observe you teaching, even if they ask to. Instead, tell them they may observe the TUTOR working with your dc. That way they're not evaluating YOUR TEACHING. It's not about you, so don't let it be.

5 hours ago, 6Acorns said:

observe her response to intervention within the classroom.

No, RTI is not about the location of the intervention. Intervention in the ps is tiered (1-3), so RTI starts at the lowest level of intervention (tier 1) and goes up. It's about the explicitness of the materials being used and whether they were intervention level. So Barton is accepted in various states as a tier 3 intervention. When they saw my Barton manuals, it was clear to them it was a tier 3 intervention. Using a qualified/certified tutor, again, is going to get you this higher tier of intervention. You can google tiers dyslexia intervention and see some lists of materials. Depending on what you've done, you may already be able to demonstrate that you've done the equivalent of RTI.

5 hours ago, 6Acorns said:

I have up-to-date evals that indicate language deficit, probably dyslexia. I have been advised that she needs speech therapy for language/narrative/expressive/auditory memory/ etc.  The system SLP says that her evals indicate that her issues are with reading and would need to be addressed with the reading resource teacher (which is not available to homeschoolers). Also, she would need to be evaluated through RTI (which can't happen as a homeschooler).

This is not making sense to me. You have private evals showing a narrative language deficit, but your ps SLP did NOT run a narrative language tool or do dynamic assessment of narrative language, so she's not going to qualify under narrative language? Total punt. Odds are, you signed a paper that allowed this. THIS is where the ps system makes you spit and you're not going to like it when you realize. The ps, at least in our state, has you sign a legally binding form that lists the EXTENT of what they're going to eval. I don't want to get really rude on this, but it's really aggravating. They are NOT going to do the extent of what should be done. I fought them on language for YEARS. I paid for private evals and they finally accepted mine. It was ugly, ugly, ugly.

Remind me why you're bothering??? As the SLP said, reading is handled by their (likely not OG trained) reading intervention specialist. It's a person who does nothing but that, and the person may be shockingly ill-prepared to provide the time of intervention you think you're looking for. Yes narrative language goals would be handled both by the SLP and woven in with reading intervention goals, yes. Probably also writing goals. But think what we just said. By not doing the testing, not enrolling, they're just giving you the blow-off and only writing goals for a little bit, the decoding. Saves them time, gets you off their back.

You can do the narrative language intervention yourself. Super easy. Like of all the things you'll probably ever do for intervention, narrative language will be the easiest. Here's the jist. https://mindwingconcepts.com/pages/methodology  Their youtube videos are super helpful too.

You don't need these overworked ps people. Seriously. Our ps SLP is a really diligent, hard working woman, but the funding she gets is just not enough. She intervenes with a $10 TPT packet. Seriously. While I'm using top of the line, evidence based materials that weave together syntax, social thinking, go through all the developmental stages, etc. That's not even worth my time to show up at the ps once a week for 15 minutes to get what they can provide vs. what I can do.

And some of these other things, same gig. If you can get your insurance to cover private SLP under language disability, that would be the way. And do what you can at home. 

Here's the joke. My ds has a very thick IEP. I've fought the fight, brought in lawyers, and he has so many goals it would make your hair curl. The link of his actual SLP hours per week the school commits to give him per week in his IEP? I think it was like 15 minutes of speech therapy a week. That's apraxia, narrative language deficits, and no original speech till a couple years ago. 

So if you want it done, you might find it more effective to do it yourself.

[kbutton]

16 hours ago, 6Acorns said:

I decided to contact the local school system to see if my 8 yearold dd might use speech services as visiting student (we are in NC). I have up-to-date evals that indicate language deficit, probably dyslexia. I have been advised that she needs speech therapy for language/narrative/expressive/auditory memory/ etc.  The system SLP says that her evals indicate that her issues are with reading and would need to be addressed with the reading resource teacher (which is not available to homeschoolers). Also, she would need to be evaluated through RTI (which can't happen as a homeschooler).

So, they are telling you what they will do vs. what your daughter needs even though they are saying it the other way. She needs what you were told she needs by the evals. They don't happen to provide it that way at school. This book gives you some tools for how to get in front of the needs vs. willing to provide problem: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-the-school-says-no-how-to-get-the-yes-vaughn-lauer/1115230636?ean=9780857006646  They could be trying to shoehorn it into a "disability category," and your state doesn't categorize things the way it's phrased in your evaluations--this could be a miscommunication, lack of interest in finding the appropriate category, or just plain unwillingness to put any effort into something that's not for one of their own students.

What are you entitled to in NC as a homeschooler? It sounds like you can get therapy services vs. academic services, and they are pigeonholing this as academic so they don't have to do it. 

If you didn't submit a written request, sign papers, attend a team meeting, and sign papers saying she's rejected for an IEP/504, then you absolutely can work on this. If you did all that, it could get ugly. 

BTW, sometimes the private report recommendations don't use language that plays nicely with public school mentality. Sometimes the evaluator will rephrase things in lingo that will help open the door. If you pursue things, you might see what in your report is compelling by word choice and what is easily dismissed by word choice.

In my state, it's worth a fight to get services because we have a state scholarship program. If we didn't have that, I would still want a 504 or IEP as a paper trail for accommodations for testing or to demonstrate that my teaching at home is tailored to a disability if we didn't have the scholarship--frankly, I would not necessarily be able to work on all of these issues myself, and I would have to be doing serious remedial work with my son in some areas and need to be able to justify that.

Is intervening yourself with the right materials possible? Yes. Is it as easy as Peter Pan says? Maybe. I would not be able to do it with narrative language. I found appropriate materials for working on it and sold them to his SLP and tutors as the way to go. I understand what they are doing and why with him. Actually doing it is another story. I get the big picture, but I am NOT A THERAPIST. I stink at breaking it down into pieces black and white enough for him to understand--my brain is not wired that way. I mostly just try to use the narrative tools and end up concluding that most of the writing in the world is more disorganized than it should be. 🙂 

[Storygirl]

I am agreeing with the other responses.

First, the school has to evaluate her to see if she qualifies as having a disability by the school's definitions. They don't have to accept the outside evaluations, although they are required by law to consider them. So first is the evaluation process, which YES they are required to do under the Child Find law of IDEA, if a disability is suspected. You need to request that they evaluate in writing.

Secondly, in some states (like mine), the schools are not required to offer services to homeschoolers, even if they have had evaluations and are found to have a disability. They have to evaluate, but they don't have to offer them any help. You will need to research to see what is legal in your area. In our state, schools can offer services to homeschoolers, even though they are not required to, so it actually varies by school district. Check your state laws or contact your state department of education to ask for guidance.

Thirdly, as PeterPan pointed out, the time that schools will allow for an SLP to work with a student with disability are short. DS15 has SLP services in his IEP. He has a long list of communication needs that the school acknowledges. However, he only sees the SLP once a week for about half of a class period. About 20 minutes a week.

That is pretty typical. For intensive intervention, students need to get help privately, even if they are enrolled in school.

So is it worth the effort to get help from your school? Maybe, maybe not. If you think she may enroll in school one day, it can be helpful to establish a relationship with them. Some people use the schools, because they cannot afford private evaluations. Since you already have private evaluations, the tests that the school would run will be of limited help to you, unless you choose either to enroll or to use the small amount of services they will offer you.

 

[Storygirl]

DD14 is dyslexic. First we homeschooled, then she was enrolled in a private Christian school, then she attended a private dyslexia school for three years, and now she is in public school with an IEP.

For the dyslexia, what helped her was tutoring by a Orton-Gillingham trained teacher. Then her dyslexia school also used OG intervention. The regular help from a reading teacher at school would not have been sufficient for her.

Some public schools do have OG trained reading specialists, by the way. You would need to ask if the reading specialist at your public schools is an OG tutor or not. Even if he/she is, an appropriate level of intervention for dyslexia for your child's age would be around two one-hour sessions per week. The public school is not going to provide that to a homeschooler. They will likely not provide that to their enrolled students.

The language issues that you list may be related to the dyslexia, but they are a separate thing that not all dyslexic students deal with. So the OG tutor would not address them, and, yes, you would need to see an SLP for that intervention.

The school addresses reading issues with a reading specialist teacher and language issues with an SLP. The person you talked to at the school was not understanding that your child has BOTH needs. If you decide to request evaluations from the public school, be sure to indicate in your request that she has needs for LANGUAGE intervention from an SLP in addition to reading intervention for the dyslexia. When they run the evaluation, she should undergo testing for both reading (the school psychologist runs this testing) and language issues (the school SLP should run the language testing). Make sure that everyone on the team agrees to do both kinds of testing.

The testing that the school does will likely not be as thorough as the testing you may already have done. But most schools will run their own tests and not just accept those from outside sources. Don't make the mistake of thinking that they will take the testing results that you already have and just say "oh, I see, let's address these things." Nope. They want to make their own determinations. They can use the reports that you provide as data or as proof that their testing is needed. But they will make the decisions based on their own testing.