District Limiting Time to Inspect and Review Testing Protocols as part of FERPA Request

[AM23]

Hi,

 

I have a  wonderfully curious and determined 8th grade 2e gifted, dyslexic, dysgraphic, disorder of written expression son, who desperately wants to be a civil or mechanical engineer. The problem is that he's having a lot of difficulty with reading and writing, school says they see no deficit, and I need data to show otherwise. My son has  private diagnoses for all but dyslexia ,and are I'm working to get that one, too, to secure at least accommodations for high school and beyond.

 

Part of my data collecting involves two FERPA requests. I did a second request, because I didn't get everything with the first request this summer even though I asked to inspect and review his complete and entire education record. The first request did yield some data showing reading deficits in early elementary and progress monitoring in 1st and 2nd which I had not seen/didn't know about  prior. 

 

So, I've asked for a second appointment appointment to inspect and review testing protocols again, because there is a lot of info to review (3 school evals/reevals). The district responded that they are limiting my review appointment to one hour and giving me mixed messages about how to deal with questions related to protocols.  They are also making me wait a second 45 days to get the information that should have been sent with my June 30 FERPA request. Additionally, the district sent the initial info on the exact 45th day which does technically follow guidelines. 45 days for this second request puts the date to have the info to us at mid-December.

 

Per Federal Law, the district is required to provide explanations and interpretations of the records if the parent's questions are reasonable and related to the documents being reviewed so that parents can understand the data and reports. After my initial records review appointment, I submitted two questions to the district in writing from my first review of protocols per their instruction. One request was for my son's responses on certain test protocols to be provided in a larger font, because they were illegible. These protocols had been printed from a digital administration of a particular test and deal with areas I am especially interested in. (Phonemic Proficiency test, Sentence Repetition, and Oral Reading Fluency which I think were from the WIAT). The second was for an interpretation of a discrepancy analysis that compared  literal, inferential, narrative, and expository silent reading comprehension from the KTEA. The district responded that they would arrange for a school psychologist to be present at my second review appointment to answer questions. When I contacted the school psychologist, he responded with the following email: ( I know they won't give me copies of the protocols, so I guess this is standard info put into a request to look at protocols.)

 

"Thank you for reaching out.  We will provide the protocols and ability for you to review them.  As per test security guidelines, we cannot provide you a copy and you may not take pictures of protocols.  That said, you can take notes on whatever you would like.  

 

 In the interest of time and others' schedules, we will allot 1 hour for you to review the information.  If, after an hour, you need more time, you can schedule to come in again.  With regard to explanations you are seeking, please email me a detailed list of questions we can consider so we can be prepared to help you.  We will not be able to answer your questions in the moment when you come in to review protocols, but can follow up after.

 

In terms of the font size being small, we will do our best to make copies of the protocols you would like to see with larger font.  Please provide us a detailed list of what you would like to see so we can be prepared. " 

 

• Is it okay to limit my time reviewing protocols?
• The district said to first put questions in writing, then that they'd have a school psych. available at my appointment to answer questions, and now are asking me again to put questions in writing and saying they'll respond later. They never responded to my initial questions from my July appointment. Also, at my first record review appointment, after 30 minutes I almost had to leave, because the staff person in the room with me was too cold and claimed I would need to come back another time. She found another staff person when I questioned this. 
• Do I really have to provide a list of every protocol that the font is too small to read after I told them month's ago this was a problem? I'm not sure I noted all the info that was unreadable which means delaying the time I see this info. I think the district should have to provide materials in a readable format. It is obvious that the font is too small. It's not just my eyesight. I guess I could just take a magnifying glass. 

 

Thanks!

 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

I have a few questions.  If you have had 3 school evaluations/re-evaluations that included the WIAT and KTEA, these must have been in response to a request for a special education evaluation, correct?  If so, did the school district hold a Review of Existing Data meeting prior to your consent to the evaluations?  Once the evaluations were complete, did the school district hold an evaluation/eligibility meeting to go over the results and did you receive a copy of the final evaluation after the meeting with a PWN stating that your son was denied eligibility?  This is all required (although sometimes school districts get by with reviewing existing data without a meeting, but you should have received a document entitled Review of Existing Data that showed what areas the school district determined needed additional data). 

The reason I ask these questions is because the evaluation/eligibility meeting should have been the time to have your questions answered and show you any of your son's answers you were curious about.  The school district has 60 days from the time you consented to the evaluation to hold this meeting.  And an Evaluation Report should have been provided to you with a detailed summary of the report (minus test protocols).  You should not have had to do a FERPA request.  The federal law I would be holding them to is not the law surrounding FERPA but rather the law surrounding special education evaluations.

To answer your questions:

1.  The school may be being difficult, but if they are allowing you one hour to review and another time if an hour is not enough, there is nothing in the law you can point to to make them do more than that.  They're not really limiting your time as much as they are (supposedly, but you can't prove otherwise) working around schedules and breaking up your time into two or more sessions.

2.  As stated above, I would be looking at this through special education law rather than FERPA.  They should have held an eligibility meeting within 60 days of the evaluation with the school psychologist present to answer all your questions (so another 45 days for FERPA wouldn't apply), and there is no requirement that they receive your questions ahead of time.

3.  When you have the eligibility meeting (long overdue, so reach out soon about this), yes, you could take a magnifying glass.  A better option (and one that would maybe make them provide materials in a readable format) would be to have the school psychologist tell you during the meeting what each protocol says that you can't read.

Bottom line:  You are entitled to see all protocols at the eligibility meeting.  You do not have to delineate which ones and which ones you have trouble reading.  You also do not have to provide questions ahead of time.  There will be questions that come up as the evaluation is explained to you during the meeting, which is one of the main reasons for having the meeting - the evaluation is explained to you, then you ask questions based on that explanation.  How would you know what questions to ask until you receive the (legally required) explanation of the evaluation?