Qualifying for LD

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I am a special ed. teacher in New York. I have been hearing from my administrators that in order for childern to be labeled LD now they have to go through AIS with a researched based program 1:1 for one year. If they are not successful with this program, then they can receive special ed. services. I cannot find documentation of this and I cannot find a list of NY state approved programs that need to be used. Does anyone have any ideas??

Submitted by lakeshore on Thu, 01/19/2006 - 3:10 PM

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I am not a LD teacher but I am intrigued by what you wrote. WOW, I wish I lived in NY! My son could not speak to be understood by teachers until mid first grade. After finally receiving services in first grade from a speech pathologist who was able to make progress with him, his spelling and reading began to improve. At year end, he was still behind his peers so IQ tests were administered. My son was labeled with a LD due to discrepancies with his IQ scores. Performance 130, Verbal 85, Full Scale 105. It was recommended that for 2nd grade he be placed in a Special Education Resource room and his entire LA curriculum was the responsibility of the LD teacher.

Unfortunately, I saw little progress by second semester, so my husband and I made the difficult decision to remove him from school last year and send him to a LindaMood Bell center for 1:1 help. We only sent him for 4 weeks, but it made a world of difference. He is currently being privately tutored using Wilson on a 1:1 basis. It has made such a difference- my son was tested again this year and he no longer qualifies for basic reading. This makes me really wonder if my child truly has a LD, or does he need intensive help to “catch-up” because of his significant delay in speech. I wish my LD teacher was required to use researched based programs!

Submitted by michelemcc on Fri, 01/20/2006 - 1:28 AM

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I agree that teachers should use research based programs. I use the Wilson program in my class, but I chose to go through the training on my own time. What I am concerned about is that the Wilson is not for all Ld problems, so if we are required to use one program provided by the district many students will not succeed. I just want some clarification on the laws and ideas about other research based programs.

I am glad your son is out of special ed. Too bad he could not receive those services in school. An issue I am constantly fighting.

Submitted by lakeshore on Mon, 04/10/2006 - 8:41 PM

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Is your school system requiring 1:1 reading help, or is this being mandated by the State of New York? Also, is there a limit as to the number of children you can teach at one time- or a limit on the age range of your students?

Thanks!

Submitted by Janis on Mon, 04/10/2006 - 9:16 PM

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It is somewhat unlikely that the state of NY would have made their regulations when the federal regulations for IDEA 2004 have not come out yet. I seriously wonder if that is someone’s misinterpretation of what they have heard on the new law. The new law allows for response-to-intervention instead of the discrepancy model to place a child LD. But the federal law most definitely will not say that the intervention has to be one-on-one, and I think that will be highly unlikely to be written into any state law. Nice idea, though! Some states may adopt a list of programs that can be used for each level of interevention, and some may leave it up to local districts to decide. I think it is very unlikely that any state would require one program for all students in the state.

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