I came across this board (which has been VERY informative) about 2 years ago when my daughter (now 9) was diagnosed as dyslexic. She was in a private school prior to being diagnosed the summer before 2nd grade and has been attending, and doing very well in, a private school for dyslexics since 3rd grade.
I also have a 6.4 year old son who started Kindergarten this year in our very highly rated neighborhood public school. This is my first experience with the public school system.
A little history first. My son had constant ear infections from 2 months of age until he had his second set of tubes inserted at just over 1 year old. By the time he was 3, his speech was nearly unintelligable. He started private speech therapy at the age of 3 1/2 for 1/2 hour, 2 days per week. He made good progress but unfortunately a change in my husband’s work situation necessitated stopping the therapy. My son had two years of preschool prior to starting Kindergarten (age 5 1/2) and even then, he didn’t know all his letters before school started. His teacher said not to worry, they would be teaching that in class.
At the beginning of school I wrote the teacher of my concerns that my son may have some difficulties and that his sister was dyslexic. I spoke to her again at our first semester teacher conference. She assured me that my son was doing well in class even though I had some concerns about his progress.
So, here we are, mid-March and yesterday I attended a Student-Led Teacher Conference. The Student Led Conference consists of the child and parent(s) going to stations around the room (Reading, Writing, Math, etc) and the child demonstrates their abilities. There are several families doing this at the same time. We got a few minutes at the Teacher Station in which we received the report card and could have a brief conversation.
I was stunned when the teacher asked my son if he told me about “going to play games with Mrs. X”. I said that he hadn’t mentioned it. She goes on to tell me that my son is being pulled out of class by the reading specialist in order to work on letter recognition (he recognizes 42 out of 52 upper and lowercase letters). I asked how often was he being pulled out. She said “for 1/2 hour, 4 days a week. The teacher also mentioned that the Speech Therapist had done an evaluation on him but that she didn’t find anything inappropriate for his age. I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT EITHER THE PULL OUT OR SPEECH EVALUATION.
Of course I couldn’t have the conversation I needed to have what with my son sitting there and other families in the room. I have placed a call to the teacher and am awaiting a call back.
My question is this: Is it legal for the school to do these things without my knowledge or consent? I believe I had expressed my need to know if my son was struggling in any way and am quite disappointed with the teacher.
I dont know where they draw the line
I know I have helped in classes as a mom and taken kids to the hall or library to do extra one on one. But this sounds official. But Im not sure where the line is drawn
I think in speech they make a distinction between screening and evaluation. The screening does not need consent-this may be the teacher mentionning to the SLP that Johnny seems to have problems so the SLP chats with Johnny(she may ask him and kids around him to say certain words) and decides either no further action is needed or a full eval is warranted-THEN you would get the letter requesting permission.
I think you should have been informed even if permission was not needed-it would have been polite
But, honestly, dont throw the baby out with the bath water-sounds like a good deal
Re: I dont know where they draw the line
Thanks for the clarification. It makes sense and that’s basically the answer I got from the teacher also.
I’m not upset that he’s getting the extra help, I was upset that I didn’t know about it.
Re: Just found out my son is being pulled from class
Reading specialists are NOT special education, they are regular education intervention. While it is a good idea to let any parent know about any “special” program their child is going to, it is not mandatory that you know and approve the reading teacher.
Now, what the therapist did, I do not know. If she acutally pulled a child to evaluate, then she does need an assessment plan signed by you. If she just observed first grade classrooms, listening to children for obvious articulation errors and if she did this through out the first grade classrooms, then she very likely did not break any laws. A school employee can enter a room to observe and, for instance, if I go into a room for some reason and I happen to notice a child who I think may be LD, then I can ask the teacher to refer the child . Very simple. I have even assisted with whole class assessments before and sometimes this gives me hints of who may need help. I don’t think anything would preclude the speech therapist from doing something of this sort. Do ask to be told exactly what she did if you are queasy.
i live in michigan and they have to inform me if they are testing and have my consent before they test. good luck to you
dl