What is the school's responsibility?

I can’t remember the exact code, but check into the Americans with Disabilities Act (you can find it online), as well as with your state’s board of education (not your local one). If your child has ADD/ADHD, get in touch with one of the local support groups. Most groups are more than happy to let schools know where they are failing children.

I, too, hate fighting the public school system constantly, but since I’ve been doing it since 1993, I’ve kind of gotten used to it. (sigh)

HTH,
Marcie

Simply because the school does not test for certain disabilities does not mean the disability does not exist.

The district’s failure to test for or recognize certain areas of deficit would be grounds for going outside for independent examinations; with the understanding that it may take a bit of effort and mountains of documentation on your part.

A written correspondence between you and the district, written wisely (by you) requesting they explain what is the full paramater of testing they do provide, what you are requesting they test for, and their response, in writing regarding what they do and do not test for would be quite helpful in this area.

You definitely need to become proficient with the laws and responsibilities for both school and parent, so you can be both intelligent and knowledgeable in this area; obviously the school is lacking in their concept of the law and legal obligations.

Go to web sites like www.edlaw.com, www.wrightslaw.com and other parents’ sites like Sock’s from this bb. You will find much there that is going to help you. Take a little time and do your research before you contact the school, to be prepared is advised.

Good luck.

Andy

Becky,

I feel that you have been discriminated and it is important that your child gets the help he needs as early as possible. We missed out 2 years of help for my 9 year old daugther and she had to struggle through her SATs in Year 2. We now get a little help 3 x 20 mins sessions for literacy but no help with maths. She has now been assessed again this year to get the extra help for maths but the term is coming to an end in the middle of July and I feel yet another year has gone by. We have our hands tied in the UK we are funded by our local education authority and money is certainly strapped unless you are very bad and statemented. I have a sister who also has a child with dyslexia and dyscalculia but goes to private schools and they have to pay for the assessment every year….. but she gets smaller classes. Get help now and fight all the way you are the only people who can help your child give them the best help through their school years you can never go back ……. Write to your senator of your state and complain. That can always cause a stir. Good luck.

Janis

In our school district, the term dyslexia is not used. And our LD specialist says even in the field there is no specific agreed-upon diagnostic criteria that defines dyslexia and therefore he doesn’t use it either. And he also said that it would be highly unlikely that we could get the one-on-one remediation our son needed through the school system even if they provided resource time it would be shared with other children with other issues. He recommended getting a private tutor trained to work with reading difficulties. We’ve been very happy we did and I’m sorry I waited so long thinking that the school system would take care of it.

In first grade, there will be a lot of kids who still can’t read and don’t have learning disabilities. As your son heads into 2nd and 3rd grade, the disparity between his skills and the skills of other children will become more apparent, and they won’t be able to deny that they have to address the issue. Our school district says the child must be 2 years behind to [what —I’m not sure. Get an assessment? Get services? I don’t know exactly]. We could not get an full school psych/ed evaluation until 4th grade. How ridiculous. You have to wait to get help until a child with a diagnosed LD is two years behind?

The school’s are trying to bs you so they do not have to make the accomodations necessary to help him with his dyslexia. As you have said, medicating seems to be helping, and considering how young he is, they are choosing to wait for him to clearly fail before they take any further corrective actions.

The exact specifics of the law are different depending upon the state you are in. You need to get ahold of a trained parent-advocate to help you with this. Use this link to locate the nearest advocate to you:

http://www.fcsn.org/ptis/ptilist.htm

And I may be mistaken, but I believe that the 2 year rule (a child must be 2 years behind age peers in development of specific skills) only applies when their is no formal diagnosis, not when a diagnosis is already present. There have been cases where children who had very specific problems were given approrpaite modifications to help them when they were not even failing at all.

Good luck and never give up the fight!

for a lot of basic information on the process of getting special help through the school. The “assessments” section and the “IEP” sections are especially helpful.

Mary

Can you point me to where there are diagnostic criteria for dyslexia I can look at? I have been trying to find a list because we have the most generalized (written language/express language disorder) description of our son’s LDs and I am sure he is dyslexic. I can find lists of common issues but not specific diagnostic criteria like there is for ADHD.

Strongly suggest you research and contact DARC (Dyslexia Awareness & Resource Center), regardless of where you live.

http://dyslexia-center.com/

Strongly suggest you research and contact DARC (Dyslexia Awareness & Resource Center), regardless of where you live.

http://dyslexia-center.com/

Okay for your federal Law,
IDEA

300.7
10) Specific learning disability is defined as follows:

(i) General. The term means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.

and what part of this do they not understand? Now depending on what State you live in there is also STate Laws,ironicly in searching this very issue,I found Texas to have a pretty good identification for Dyslexia,of course they told the parent they didn’t! LOL anyway I would suggest you search your State laws too,but always remeber IDEA always over rules state laws.

I also have a website,as Andy mentioned above,might give you some ideas,it’s a mish mash of a lot of stuff found over the years. Good Luck

http://specialedmom.homestead.com/index.html

wanted to give this a bump so it didn’t fall,over the cliff,never to be seen again,

Many thanks for your comments I will look into what you have commented on. In England it is very different we are governed by our Local Education Authority by our Government who says yes or no to the issues…… lets hope with a general election coming up things may change….. we live in hope.

Many thanks
janis

Andy,

thanks for your comments and I will look up the web site you quoted and see what comes up.

thanks
janis

KSE,

Thanks for your 2 e-mails. My daughter Amy has been diagnosed with dyslexia and dyscalculia (as my niece has as well). It is very unlikely in England to get one to one help unless you are statemented (meaning things have to be really bad for the child and cannot cope at all at school). We do get private lessons for Amy but we pay for that privately once a week (1 hr session this is only for english). The school system over here tend to just let the child slip through the net or system so it may disappear I am sure!! You have to really keep nagging then perhaps they think it would be good to get rid of you quickly and get the assessment over and done with. I approached the Educational Psychologist in the Local Education Authority and moaned that I was getting no help and she said to tackle the Principal …… no use…… It did take us 2 years with a private assessment in the end costing £140.00 Amy was assessed in year 3 (last year she was coming up for 8 years old then!!!).

It is ridiculous that you should have fight tooth and nail for your child. You seems to have strict laws which can help you. I have problems as my husband is a parent governor on the governing body of our school and I cannot start moaning and groaning about the system (as I have been told through a nasty letter from the ex-principal (she has retired now)). I certainly was now amused by the tone of the letter especially if she sent letters like that out to parents and not to someone she actually knows very well…….

good luck and many thanks.

janis

MaryMN,

many thanks for your reply I know it was a good idea to approach the school but things do tend to go on deaf ears over here in England….. I am glad I got Amy assessed over a year ago privately. She has just been assessed again this year to try and get extra help for not only English but Maths….. Its just the most simpliest of maths. I have been to her teacher and mentioned that she was struggling with the simpliest of maths and all she said was “it will come it takes time”” and my comment was “you do know she has dyscalculia as well as dyslexia!!!” Deaf ear……… We will have to wait and see what happens in a couple of weeks. But soon we will be breaking up for summer holidays in middle July……

thanks
janis

Dad.,

thanks for the comments you made it does seem to look like you have to be 2 years behind, Amy was 1 1.5 years behind….. they have proven documentation from our private assessment when she was 8 (or coming up for 8) she is now 9 years old. The educational psychologist (private) said she needed help with english and maths. We only get help with her English with the school (plus 1 hr private lesson we pay for once a week). No maths help at the school..

I will not give up fighting for poor old Amy. I also have a 5 year old child who has just started school the only problem I see is her being left handed at the moment. I live in hope. No doubt it will be too late when they get around to helping poor old Amy with her Maths!!
Good luck
janis