I need to ask the school for an IEP. Although I’ve written letters about this in the past, my son previously had plenty of testing through the school, but no actual diagnosis. In my previous letters I wrote that I was “concerned” about his reading and writing skills. My son has never actually had an IEP because he never tested as qualifing for services. (Although it’s pretty obvious there’s a problem of growing severity).
Just recently I had neuropsych testing and received an actual clinical diagnosis from a well-respected neuropsychologist. Although I don’t have the report in hand yet the diagnosis is high-functioning autism along with reading and language disablities.
When I ask to set up an IEP, do I include this informaiton in my letter? What’s the best approach?
Thanks for any help!
Laura in CA
Hi, Laura,
You can’t just ask for an IEP. You must go through the whole referral process. The school will likely do their own testing again and they will have to also at least consider your testing inofrmation. The reality is, your son at this age will likely get no worthwhile services from a school. I can understand why you’d want accommodations, however. You may be able to get a 504 plan which will give the accommodations because of the hfa diagnosis. Whether he would qualify for an IEP would depend on whether the reading delay is significant enough by whatever the discrpancy formula is there. But you are already getting your remediation privately, so the 504 plan might be all you need.
Janis