Questions for those who have been through this:
Our 11-yr old daughter’s last academic evaluation was completed in Dec. of 00. The school psychologist who conducted that eval led the team completely astray when her results showed a child of “borderline intelligence” who was performing above her level of ability. Fortunately, previous and subsequent independent evals proved what we intuitively know: she is a child of average intelligence with learning disabilities. This same psychologist told us: “It doesn’t matter if she’s dyslexic because we use the same teaching program regardless”.
She is now overdue for her 3-year re-eval and the school district wants us to consent to another eval by the same psychologist. We have refused thus far, and have asked for another independent eval. The school says we have to first have the school eval and can then ask for the independent eval. Does anyone know if this is true? I have searched the law but it is unclear about whether we have to disagree with the current eval or if disagreement with a previous eval is enough to warrant an independent eval. Also, the law states she has to be evaluated every three years. The last eval was over three years ago (by 3 months). Does that give us any leverage?
The school knows that we are going to place her in a school for LD kids next year and attempt to get tuition paid by the school district. They are doing everything possible to prevent that by showing she has made adequate progress. For instance, they have just sent home a progress report that shows “Outstanding” in every category! A first for her and given our understanding of her peformance, a complete fabrication. This is a child who is years behind her peers in every subject.
Does anyone know a source for a “model” IEP? I need to look at some examples of IEPs that are excellent. The goals that the school district propose include: “_______ will make an overall improvement in reading comprehension within one year”. “_________ will increase her decoding and encoding skills”.
The evaluation procedures are listed as “progress reports and report cards, classroom performance and participation, work samples, tests and quizzes”. This seems totally inadequate to me because it is all subjective and based solely on the teacher’s interpretation.
Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated.
If I were you, I’d go for a private evaluation at my own expense so I could control the results. I wouldn’t waste any more time waiting for the school to do it. Furthermore, those tests can’t be given again too close together (at least six months apart), so you need the private eval done now so you can decide about the school placement issue. I imagine the LD school will need an eval before they agree to admit her.
When you look at the decoding objective, does it tell you what percentage increase? It does need to tell you an assessment for that. It is subjective to say the teacher will assess her decoding skills just by work samples or observation. That is soemthing that is fairly easily measured.
But be glad if the IEP is bad. It will help your case for LD school.
Janis