Are Districts Required to Give Parents Literacy Screening Results and Tell Them About Progress Monitoring in Pennsylvania?

[AM23]

I'm in Pennsylvania and am looking for answers to the questions below. My son's 2e and in 8th grade.

• Are districts required to give parents the results of literacy screenings like DIBELS? In our situation, the district didn't, and we got them through a FERPA request last summer. We had significant concerns about our son's reading and still do. The early deficits that showed up on DIBELS are still there  in phonemic and phonological awareness and decoding. My son can read a few pages if he has to, but there are clear gaps in skills if you dig just a little below the surface. (Reading is tiring, and he adds,  skips and rearranges words, letters, and sounds.) Most standardized tests don't seem to require reading a lot of text at one time. The gaps show up more obviously in his writing. My son is in 8th grade, so it's also possible that districts share screening results now, but didn't have to 6 or 7 years ago. 
   
• Through our FERPA request, we also found out that my son was being progress monitored in 1st and 2nd, and we were not told about this prior to this past summer. This is in the context of me telling my son's teachers that he'd become very upset and refuse (couldn't)  to read or write at home, and I had significant concerns about this. I'm correct that parents should be informed of progress monitoring, right? 
   
• Can I use the DIBELS scores and progress monitoring as data to help show his current IEP  does not match him and what he needs and to provide history of reading struggles? How much weight will info have in making my case?  My son currently qualifies for his IEP under Autism. His only goal currently is a self-advocacy goal, so I'm gathering data to get new evals to show needs in writing and reading.

 

Thanks.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

I will preface this with the fact that I am not in Pennsylvania (although in general, my expertise is dyslexia), but I know of many others on this site who are in PA and may have better info.  However, I did some cursory research and here are my responses based on my limited knowledge of PA law and my knowledge of special education law in general:

1.  It appears that it the current law in PA requires school district to provide parents the results of literacy screenings, but I would assume it was at least the expectation 6 or 7 years ago.  Those early results would be helpful in making a "child find" complaint and arguing something should have been done years ago.  If the deficits in phonemic and phonological awareness and decoding are, as you state, still there, has he been given a special education evaluation in the area of academics?  If so, what were the reasons for denying eligibility?  If not, I would request one so that you have clear evidence of this gap in underlying skills which would hopefully lead to eligibility in reading (and perhaps writing)  and the receipt of specialized instruction.

2.  If he was being progress monitored, that means he was in tiered intervention, correct?  If so, yes, you should have received the results of his progress monitoring pursuant to any interventions he was in.

3.  If you are referring to "old" data from 1st and 2nd grade, this data is good for making a complaint that the school district violated "child find" (see #1 above).  It is also data, as you point out, that he has had a history of reading struggles.  However, you may need some recent data to get an evaluation.  If they are denying your request for an evaluation in the area of academics, could you ask them to do a brief screener in phonological awareness and phonics to see if deficits show up in underlying skills that would warrant an evaluation?  That's a reasonable request and it's easy to do.  If they won't, could your pediatrician do one?  Another option is to request an IEE because the school district didn't evaluate in all areas of suspected disabilities during the last evaluation.  This could prompt them to do their own.