Special education testing and assessment

There are some names in this article that may be useful contacts for you:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/05/portland_priority_zone_would_g.html



Some names and issues in this article from 2008 may be useful for contacts:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/forest_grove_asks_us_supreme_c.html



And here's a legal review of that case mentioned in the 2008 article:

http://education-law.lawyers.com/special-education/Special-Education-School-District-Must-Pay-Private-School.html

Here's their list of law offices in Portland that specialize in education law:

http://www.lawyers.com/Education-Law/Oregon/Portland/law-firms.html

I am sensing a fundamental disconnect between how the system works, and how you Boomer think that it works. For instance did you know that the government and HMO's routinely deny disability claims and requests for procedures because they know that something like 20% of the people will give up after the first round and not contest the decision?? This is a huge cost savings. Did you know that Mortgage lenders are right now continually telling homeowners who are trying to use the government anti foreclosure program that they need more paperwork to process the claim??....multiple times over many months there is always some new piece of paper missing. Last month in the paper they were talking about how the Vatican delayed the dealing with a pedophile priest by not responding to the request from a Archdiocese for permission to remove, and then when the Archdiocese asked a few months latter why they had heard nothing the Vatican said that the paperwork was lost, and would need to be resubmitted.

Me being around the military all these years I expect this is what I am up against. I also know that if I have problems with the schools that there is a person working for the Army on post that I need to talk to. All this person does is fight school districts on behalf of military members. SHe (last I knew the person here it was a she) knows what my rights are, she knows what the school district in question has done to resolve past problems, she knows who rally makes the decisions in that district, she know which lawyer I should go to if the school district refuses to roll over, and she knows a few other tricks as well that are probably not all that legal. Who is doing this for you? If the answer is nobody then you are not even in the running, you are too far behind the other parents.


I think you need to face up to the fact that you are already in an adversarial relationship with the district, and that additionally you are fighting against other parents because there is only so much money to go around and you are trying to make sure that your kid gets some of it. This is about the use of power, who has it and who can use it the best and until you come to understand that this is the game you have zero chance of winning it.

Ran across this little nugget. (Not saying Mo has autism; just that other families encounter the same disconnect between medical diagnosis/testing and educational planning.):

Diagnosis of boy's autism pits doctors vs. schools

Well, sadly we can't tell you that.

I agree you need to take it higher.

Is there any sort of advocacy system for folk in your situation, by the way?

here, people can take an advocate with them to meetings etc.

Any updates?

Interesting, DrewDad! Thanks.

Funny thing -- I asked my brother about how this is handled in the military (in light of Hawkeye's reply) and he said, almost word for word, what you just posted: the school wants medical intervention and the doctors think that it's an educucational problem. Often, nothing gets done because one group wants the other to be responsible.

I think that's what's happening out here too.

I've been thinking about your earlier post -- about them waiting things out until they get the diagnosis that they want. I'm pretty sure they want us to put him on ADD drugs even though his diagnosis doesn't indicate drugs would help.

ANYway......

I sent the school another email last Thursday afternoon and never heard anything back so I resent it today and finally got back a list of times they'd be able to meet with us. Maybe I'll get some usable information.

I thought some of the teachers on here might have an idea of what schools are after which is why I posted all the testing we've had done.

Yes, there is advocacy, for about $200 an hour. Cheaper than the SpEd attorney but still pretty expensive. I don't think accessing the system should be this hard or this expensive.

Boomer...

it's not so much of the testing that has to be done, tho psychometric testing is a huge help in determining Mo's level of understanding...

it's not a "test" or "diagnosis" that you need as much as your proving that Mo cannot access the curriculum... there are ways to do that.

I totally disagree with Hawkeye. You can fight the education system - and you can win - tho that doesn't necessarily mean you will win the battle long term, some battles can't be won - dependent on the child's ability to engage with education and their peers.

Your IEP should state what Mo needs to ensure that he has the additional help to "access the curriculum" - where those needs are addressed in the IEP, this is where you place your fight - if you can show that the IEP is not increasing Mo's learning ability and that positive steps forward are not being made - then the IEP is simply just a piece of paper that no-one bothers to look at. There are too many teachers and too many children - in a large school, the children's IEP's are brought out once a term, or year and then put back in the file - teachers who come into the school will not look at the file on an everyday basis. If you have one, two, three different teachers who do not know where Mo's difficulties lie - then all it takes is for one of those teachers to say something and Mo will switch off for the day, or act out - if he isn't able to engage and communicate the way neurotypical children do, he will get lost in the system.

simply - Mo could be the most intelligent child in the world, however, if he is not able to communicate that and understand the way the public education system is educating him - he will not be able to learn sufficiently.

It's a tough challenge to get the schools to recognise that Every Child Matters - some children learn in a uinquely different way to others - if the child is not neurotypical - if he cannot "access the curriculum" the way the school is teaching it (i.e. achieving positive results) then they are failing in their duty to the child. This is where you base your argument. Not on a million different tests and drugs, but on the fact that their form of education is not suitable for your child.

I won't ramble here...

psychometric testing = cogntive testing


educational/heath/social services - tri-partial funding from all three agencies is what you should be seeking. It is possible.

I would make an appointment with the school psychologist to go over the test results you already have and to ask what further testing needs to be done. That person should be able to tell you what additional testing should be done, and why it is needed.

I agree.

But, to show that the current academic setting is not appropriate for Mo, you first have to identify the nature of his difficulties or disabilities, as they pertain to his education. In that regard, there is a difference between testing done for diagnostic/treatment purposes and testing done for educational purposes. It may be that the testing which has already been done is sufficient to establish a diagnosis, but does not adequately pinpoint what modifications need to be made in his educational setting. Further testing might clarify that issue.

Does the current IEP accurately reflect both the nature of Mo's disabilities and a clear plan to address those problems?

Can you provide objective, concrete evidence that the current remediation efforts provided by the school are inadequate? If so, what more should the school be doing? Is the school willing or able to provide these additional services?

Ironically, there are many parents who resist and fight special education placement for their children because they feel their child is being unfairly labeled or stigmatized. Then there are parents, like Boomer, who advocate to get their child additional special services. So, the school gets pushed by both ends. For the school, the issue is probably less about money and more about the need to provide the least restrictive setting, and to mainstream as many children as possible.

The school psychologist is the one person in the school who is the expert on testing. That person should be familiar with the tests necessary to establish a clinical diagnosis as well as the tests which evaluate academic progress or academic limitations/deficiencies. They should be able to review all of the outside testing which was done at the hospital, as well as any evaluations/testing done by the school, and offer an opinion on whether further testing is needed, and why it is needed.

So I would meet with the school psychologist. I would not expect the classroom teacher, or anyone else in the school, to be able to answer questions about testing--they probably base their opinions on what the school psychologist has advised or told them.

I don't know whether this will be any help, but . . .

We went through this sort of thing with my son Rhys.

We finally got a neuropsychologist (Janice Swartz, Beverly MA) who
talked with Rhys then set up and ran some tests. She then came in
to a meeting with his IEP team, discussed the results, and made
recommendations. The IEP agreed to everything she recommended.

Special education testing can be, and, often is, abused.

My daughter entered school reading. The first day of kindergarten (1983), when I picked her up, the teacher came at me like a battle ship with all flags flying. She had the children draw self portraits and my daughter, a tiny Star Wars fan, drew a girl with buns over each year and labeled the drawing Princess Leia. Instead of being happy to have a five year old who could write Princess Leia, the teacher was angry.

Several months later, I went to the regularly scheduled parent-teacher face off and I had to pull a reaction out of the old battle axe. She told me nothing about my daughter. Two weeks after that, I received a notice in the mail that an evaluation was scheduled for my daughter. I called to ask whether it was because she was so bright that the school was thinking of double promoting her.

I was told no. It was because she sat under her desk and cried.

Coming as it did two weeks after the parent-teacher conference, I was stunned. When I picked my daughter up, I asked whether she hid under the desk and cried. She said yes because the teacher never hung up her work. The woman took her revenge on this child.

At the eval, the school recommended therapy for the girl. She attended the same school for first grade and had a kind and motherly teacher. She also returned for second grade but was bullied by the son of a local attorney who stole and/or vandalized her possessions. I sought a private school. She was transferred to a Montessori preschool where she remained through the 6th grade.

the investment in having the assessor come in to explain the results and make recommendations can be cost-effective

It was serious bucks, but at that time the company I worked for provided
outstanding medical coverage and they picked up something like 80% of
the cost.