Psychoeducational evaluation for student with good grades

[Boy Mama]

My son is in 7th grade and having a psychoeducational evaluation done. He just exited an IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program) for depression and anxiety. He was in the program for 2 months. He currently has a 504 plan for ADHD and anxiety, but things have gotten significantly worse since school began this fall. He has meetings with the school adjustment counselor to work on anxiety in his 504, but the school psychologist thought it made sense to do a psychoed eval where his mental health has been so poor. He is exceeding grade level expectations academically so I feel like we're not going to get anything out of this AND he may be further triggered by the evaluation.

He is in the BRYT program at school to help him with his mental health and to help keep him caught up in the classroom. The coordinator of the program has been awesome and has been in frequent close contact. They think that the evaluation may give further suggestions to help my son.

My questions are: 

-What goals are put in place for anxiety and depression? The school psychologist mentioned goals around emotion regulation.

-What can be done outside of meetings with the adjustment counselor for mental health?

[JSD24]

I feel it's going to be hard to come up with good goals but I do have a few ideas.  If he's got a pass to leave the classroom when he needs a break to use 'calming tools', a goal could be to use this less often or for less time.  Letting your child have lunch with friends (if he's up for that) or eat with the psychologist or social worker (or favorite teacher) - it's more of an accommodation but the goal could be to maximize being with peers.  Adayinourshoes has a post on this:  https://adayinourshoes.com/anxiety-iep-504-accommodations/

If anxiety causes him to take longer to do things, extra time or shortened assignment are possible.  (Do you really need to do 18 math problems?  10 might be better for him.)  If speaking to the class is an issue, eliminate the need for participation in class and allow oral presentations to be done 1:1.  What you want in the IEP will depend on what your son needs to have to be successful as well as not triggering his anxiety.  Even changing for PE in the nurse's office could be on the IEP.

My fear, knowing how mean 7th graders can be, is your son getting bullied by his classmates or them asking too many questions about his extended absence from school where it makes him uncomfortable.  He might want to come up with a comeback in case things like this happen at school.