I just had an IEP meeting with my son’s school where we discussed some recent NeuroPsych testing he had done, resulting in a diagnosis of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. The School Complex Psychologist picked the report apart and basically told us that the results were skewed and that she didn’t believe a word of it. She insists that he doesn’t have any LD problems, all his issues are behavior related (he is also bipolar) and that we just need to keep doing what we are currently doing.
My son is going into the 6th grade and has the handwriting of a 2nd grader. He has a lot of difficulty with writing and shows 90% of the symptoms of dysgraphia.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what I do next? The school psychologist is not a clinical psychologist, although I don’t really know what the difference is.
Re: Testing Disagreement with School
Thank you so much! I wasn’t sure if I could ask them for yet another opinion. We are military, so I will also go to our folks to see if there is someone that we don’t have to pay for that can do the same thing.
I appreciate the advise!!
I think you’ve got two good options - If you have enough money and time, the best bet is to go find another “expert”, someone with a good reputation in the area, AND someone who DOES NOT do any contract work for school districts, and get them to review the reports, retest, and give their evaluation.
If you are short on funds, formally request the school to pay for a second opinion by an outside expert. Of course the problem with this approach is the bias of someone who is taking money from the school. Very often these people will be honest, they just won’t be forceful in their opinions.
In either case, you have the law on your side. Your first, critical step is to write them a letter, formally requesting a “notice of action” specifically rejecting your request for services or for a requested “learnind disabled” status.
You have a clear issue - a lawyer may help, and if you don’t have the money for the lawyer, there are many organizations that can help you pull the strings. Even the state govt. should be helpful on this one.
It is amazing (and sad) the BS that school psychologists can give to parents. Ours once told us that if we disagreed about their proposed plan, they could no longer provide services - an absolute lie!
Good luck!