Can I request outside testing for LD?

Individuals with disabilities act is a federal law. It means ALL states must comply with this law.

There is a section of this law entitled parental safeguards.
In this section it states that if you are in disagreement with the district’s eval,if you feel they have come up with the wrong conclusion you may request an independent evaluation at the districts expense. You request the independent evaluation and the school district can either allow you the eval and pay for it,or they can file due process against you and defend their evaluation in court. It is then up to the judge to determin whther or not the district did an adequate job. Most of the time,if a parent requests an eval,the district generally just goes ahead and pays for an independent,because it would be much cheaper then taking you to court.

Now with that being said,once the eval is done the district must look at the eval,but they don’t have to agree with the results,so it is very important to make sure your independent evaluator knows what criteria the district uses.The legal recourse there would be then left to the parent to file in court and defend your independent eval.

Now if a parent wants to just go out and pay privately for an evaluation they may also do this,with or without the permission of the school district,but again the same pitfalls would be there if you or the evaluator wasn’t aware of what specific tests the districts uses to determine whether or not he meets criteria for eligibility. This means, he, according to federal rules is defined as a child with a learning disability.You can have a learning disability that does not meet this definition,if this is the case he would still be entitled to accmodations under federal law,because he is diagnosed with ADHD,this would be a different law. 504 laws,which would include accomodations for testing,etc.

In the previous evaluations was anything mentioned about your son’s ADHD? Was there any testing done for long or short term memory or a behavioral observation or checklist? Did you complete any paperwork requested by the school’s psychologist? Somewhere the fact that your son has ADHD should be mentioned at it should have been discussed at prior meetings.

Your son may qualify for sped services under the exceptionality of OHI (Other Health Impaired).Check the date on your son’s evaluation and if it is less than 3 years old it is considered to be current. If not you will want more testing to be completed. If the psyche is current then call the district sped director and tell him/her that your son has ADHD and you have reason to believe he maybe a candidate to receive services for OHI as stated in IDEA. Also, if the psyche is current you want to state to the director that you want a meeting to determine eligibility. If the psyche is old then you request that another battery of tests be completed. Follow this phone call or visit with a letter restating your request and send a copy to the district superintendent. And document everything including the phone call or visit!

You will need to get a letter from your son’s doctor stating the diagnosis along with type and amount of meds. You will need that for the meeting, because it is needed for the OHI eligibility report. When you have the meeting bring an advocate as well. You can get one by contacting your state’s advocacy center and they will supply you with a name of an advocate in your area.

I’m not a parent but a sped teacher trying to do the right thing. Let me know if you need further assistance.

Laurie

We just finished with outside testing and now I don’t know what to do. I originally thought we were testing for ADDor ADHD but discovered it was actually for LD. I guess it’s good that we started there as they actually found that my son has dysgraphia. I still believe he may have ADD, but am not sure where to go. he scored extremely high in all catagories, except for formulation. (in relationship to specific tasks with certain conditions)The average score from 85-115, he scored 115 and above on the majority, but 65 on formulation. We still haven’t recieved the complete report, this was just the draft.

He attends private school and I contacted our local school district for information on who the district uses to test for ADD. They didn’t give me the Dr.’s name, but sent me a referral form to complete and stated they would have someone contact me within 15 days. Does the schoold district actually test for ADD? I don’t know what other purpose it would be to do further testing. Any suggestions or welcome. I hope before you pay for the evaluation, you have a better idea than I, where you are going with it.

The school system can actually test to determine if your child has characteristics similiar to ADD. Only a physician can actually diagnose the condition. In my experiences I have had parents use the information gained through the psycho-educational evaluation and review the findings with their child’s doctor. And in most cases these children actually had ADD/ADHD in addition to a learning difference. In fact it is quite common for a children to have both.

It is important to know all information concerning the learning processes of your child. The more that you know the more able you and your child’s teachers will be able to help your child. Since you haven’t gotten your final report am I correct to assume that you have not had the meeting to discuss the findings of the testing? If not, make a note to ask if any testing was done for ADD/ADHD. If no such testing was administered ask that some be completed. Also,it wouldn’t hurt to ask your child’s doctor to test for this condition.

Laurie

The testing did not incorporate ADD/ADHD. We have talked to our doctor about this and he referred us to a psychiatrist. We did not feel comfortable with this since the first response was that we would need to agree to medication. Obviously if that is necessary, we would have to consider this but didn’t want it to be the first option. They would go no furthur until we signed papers that we would agree to medication. That is why we went to the LD testing. We’re just not sure where to go from here.

He is able to maintain his composure for awhile when he knows it’s necessary, it’s more when he is comfortable with the situation that he gets out of control and disruptive. We did have the conference and they agreed he might have ADD/ADHD, but did not feel that it would be uncontollabel since he was able to maintain his focus for each test which lasted 50 minutes (also they did not have the ability to test for this). They did tell us that it was one of the first times that they had seen a child that was able to charm them into assisting in the testing (actually wrote his answers for him since it wore him out) This is a highly respected school and I truly believe he was capable of doing this and it was not their lack of ability. They had suggested no further action other than informing the school of this diagnosis so that they can assist him with note taking.

I have already been through this with my older daughter, but were unaware of LD’s and ADD/ADHD at the time. She is extemely bright and barely graduated from high school. We see the same tendencies in our son and are trying to avoid the same trials and tribulations if at all possible.He is quite talented and creative, which was the reoccuring theme throughout the report we received.

Laurie -
The school knows that my son has ADHD because they sent him for the evaluation in 3rd grade. He was evaluated by the school for a learning disability two years ago so I guess it is considered current. I tried to get him classified under other health impaired but he did not qualify.

The doctor in charge of his clinical trial said that he never tests kids for LD until their ADHD is under control. According to this doctor, my son’s ADHD is now under control so he recommends testing. In addition, my son has been experiencing more problems with his grades so he may now qualify for special services.

Della

Socks -
Thanks for the information. Does it ever get any easier to parent a child with ADHD?

Della

The primary question is - does the ADHD interfer with his academic success. It appears that something is happening. The descrepancy between achievement and IQ determines LD. There continues to be confusion that just because a student does not do well academically, they are a candidate for an IEP. Daily, I see many other factors that interfer and I have far too many IEP’d kids that continue to fail despite our best efforts. Where is the kid and what he wants to do in this picture. Is he trying, getting help from teachers, attending school regularly, attempting to be organized with school work etc.? Does he have behaviors that create success and is not successful?

Yes,it gets easier..

Okay it gets different. It becomes more of an issue of social skills,independence, organization,etc.rather then hyperactivity.

All things their loving parents struggle with:-) You start relating to them in different ways,instead of feeling like tying them to a chair,you are saying,I know,I know,let’s figure out what can be done,instead.

The ultimate goal is for your kid to become independent,you start seeing the possibility. THEN comes HORMONES.

Okay,OKAY,it doesn’t get easier,just different.

hi my name is drewconsidine and i am 13 my mom fought with the same proublem that you are faving and she got the school distric to test me out side of school the school will denies that i have adhd enven after the testing. the school distracts are very determaned to pay the minium and i would keep fighting for what you want until they give it to you. My mom fought for 4 years before they gave any spcal help. I evenchaly went to a school in californa just for kids with reading disabiltys. I live in californa just to make sure tht you did not think i moved there. but i know that there is schools on the east coast just like mine.And i have herd of high schools to there. and itis never to late for schools like mine i have made many strives in just 3 years there. so i hope his help but i know it wont help to much but keep asking and ask for an IEP thats what i had so thanks for leting talk.

Drew Considine

Yes, the school district does pay for testing. You might wan to hook up with a local chapter of CHADD. They told me which doctor to ask to go to because she was the best in the field. They are a wonderful resource.

Della