The results are in!

[lillian]

Well, this is where the advocate should help you. The advocate needs to read over the report and tell you your best options. For example, it sounds like they found he had some emotional/behavioral issues? Is that what you mean by "above average" on these indicators? Did they give a dx for any emotional/behavioral issues? If emotional/behavioral issues are in the report, you have a possibility of an Emotionally/Behaviorally Disturbed (EBD) label, and that's rarely what you want. It CAN be a good label, sometimes, for some kids in certain situations, but it's often best to try and avoid it, particularly when the child has an LD, which Sean has been dxed as having. I'm definitely of the belief that the LD should be addressed full force, then see whether or not some of the behavior issues in school subside, for they often will. Theoretically and legally, a school is suppose to address all areas of need, but in reality, that's not what often happens, and an EBD label can be very, very difficult to get rid of.

Whether you should go for an IEP or just work with the existing 504 depends on what the report says. You have to make sure that Sean qualifies for an IEP under your state law, and even though the discrepancy formula should only be one consideration, you should know whether or not he meets the state's required discrepancy rules. Does it state in the report that Sean does? I would want to know that.

[katiekat]

She did say that he does qualify. She said there are I believe 12 different "catagories" for lack of a better word and the child would need to be classified as to qualify at least one of these things. On the psychological eval. it says he qualifies under the category "Other Health Impaired"and on the learning eval it days he qualifies under "Specific Learning Disability due to a deficit in Reading Comprehension." Is this what you mean?
In their recommendations it says things like
Specialized reading instruction
Extra time to complete work
Break tasks into smaller increments since Sean needs frequent short movement breaks etc...
Sorry if I'm not answering your question correctly but I just have about 100 pages of this stuff.
Thanks for your help
Oh...although he does have emotional and behavioral problems according to their eval.(but no diagnosis) I would prefer he NOT be labled ED.

[lillian]

Who is saying he qualifies? The reason why I ask this is that private evaluators often do not understand how a child qualifies, even when they say they understand it. You need to be able to read the report and see whether or not it will hold up in public schools. If you don't know how to do that, an advocate will be your best bet. Still, for a Specific Learning Disability, you need to understand the discrepancy formula, know what the discrepancy criteria is in your state, and be able to do YOUR OWN calculations to see whether or not he qualifies. Don't let them tell you that the state no longer uses the discrepancy formula. Find out from your state board of education! For Other Health Impaired, you need to know what categories qualify as such in your state, and see whether or not the report names his having one of the qualifying health conditions. You also need to know whether or not your state requires a medical dx of this qualifying condition, in order for him to qualify.

[katiekat]

The CST that evaluated him is saying that he qualifies for special education under IDEA. Even though they are private evaluators they all work in public schools as their primary jobs. They are a school psychologist, a LD teacher, a speech/language pathologist etc. who came together and created this private child study team.

[lillian]

O.K. But you need to understand how he qualifies. You need to understand why he qualifies. What health condition does he have that qualifies him for Other Health Impaired (OHI)? There has to be a qualifying health condition. How did they make the decision that he qualifies under OHI? Does your state require a doctor's dx of the condition, as well? If they are saying he qualifies under IDEA, they are talking about an IEP. The IEP Committee at Sean's school will have to meet and decide whether or not to accept this evaluation, or whether to conduct their own evaluation to see if their evaluation supports this evaluation. The latter is what usually happens. You need to understand the evaluation fully in order to be a participating member of the IEP Team.

[katiekat]

When they explained it to us I thought that I did understand why he qualified. I thought that he qualified because the eval shows that he had a specific learning disability due to a deficit in reading comprehension. I thought that he qualified because his scores in these areas were so low and show that he does have a LD. Am I incorrect in my thinking? Are you saying that there is more to it than this and that they can still say they are going to do nothing for him?

[lillian]

Yes, there is more to it than that. OHI is a separate category, than Specific Learning Disability (SLD). He qualifies for SLD because of reading comprehension, but I'm wondering why he qualifies for OHI. That's commonly used for ADHD, but he doesn't have ADHD, does he? It also can be used for a number of other physical ailments, like asthma. But, OHI means health impairments, and that's why some states require a medical dx for a student to receive the OHI label.

This evaluation does not ensure that the school will help your son. It makes it much more likely, but it does not ensure it. Remember, my son had two private dxs of SLD in written expression, a private dx of dyslexia, and a private dx of ADHD, PLUS the school tested him and found he had an SLD of written expression and an SLD of mathematical calculations, and I had to fight the school to get him help.

[katiekat]

He does have ADHD also bipolar and an anxiety disorder. These DXs were made by his psych and are included in the psychological
evaluation. Would these things make him qualify for OHI?

[lillian]

Bipolar and anxiety are under Emotional and Behavioral Disturbance, in the state where I live. I have heard some states are putting anxiety under OHI, but that's not happening here. ADHD, anxiety, and bipolar can all serve as qualifying conditions, if those conditions severely impair the child's ability to learn in the classroom. If the child must have modifications to the curriculum or to the instruction, in order to learn, then the child qualifies for an IEP. Classically, with ADHD, what this meant is that the child could not function in a regular classroom because of distractions and the child's need for constant re-direction, so the child was put in a smaller (resource) classroom, which is modification to the instruction, but resource classrooms are becoming less common. How did he qualify for a 504? What was the qualifying disability?

[katiekat]

He gets the OT for motor coordination skills. His standard score on this was 80 which falls at the 9th percentile. This is on the report from the OT at school.
Sorry for asking all these questions and thanks so much for answering them.