AM23

Thank you for these great suggestions. Yes, there was an IEP meeting to review the most recent school eval and report from the end of 6th which focused on reading, speech, and writing that was done in response to a private language and literacy SLP eval we shared with the school that diagnosed Disorder of Written Expression, Specific Reading Disorder with impaired comprehension, issues with spelling, and Expressive Language Disorder. I reviewed the protocols for the school eval, because I wanted to see his writing. The school was saying he just needed to work on editing his work, and this did not fit with what I was seeing in his school work or writing done for the private eval. I will continue to collect writing samples and present them to school staff. What seems to hold weight though is the writing done for standardized and normed assessments done as part of school evaluations. So, it seems important that I can see that writing that is described as "average". Reading support and progress monitoring - My son told me he did not work with anyone other than his teachers for reading other than for DIBELS testing. I also found a document from the PA Dept of Ed. that described parental engagement as a key factor that made PA's RTII unique, but I'm not sure this document is current. It makes sense that "disabled" meant that progress monitoring was "turned off". Thanks, I didn't think of that. I like the idea of asking for a neuropsychological evaluation. My son is a student who is really curious, wants to learn and do well., and does what the teacher asks. He's quiet, polite, and hard working. He's masking so much at school! JSD24, did getting a school neuropysch open doors to support or at least understanding that weren't available before? Does the school usually have someone on staff to do neuropsychs? If we are able to get a school neuropsych, can we ask for an IEE if we feel it isn't thorough/don't agree with it? Alternatively, is there any way to get an IEE neuropsych even though his last school eval was 15 months ago? Are there criteria that this eval must meet? Is it a good idea to get put on a waiting list for an IEE neuropsych? It seems important that the school withheld information and didn't tell us our son was receiving reading help at the same time we were presenting major concerns about reading and writing. Does this help our ask? This reading support is not mentioned anywhere in his school evals. His report card comments from first grade mention he's working on his decoding skills and show he's approaching meeting grade level skills in this area. (I didn't know at the time this meant he was getting extra help of some sort.) His first eval report from 4th grade describes writing as his weakest skill and subsequent evals just suggest he work on editing his work. It also seems that having extra reading support in school may have swayed our private evaluations a different direction if we had this info at the time. As I said, my son is very good at masking his challenges, and we have helped support/remediate reading at home which was not really accounted for in his private or school evals. I am really angry about all of this. School staff didn't just lie to me and my husband. They lied to my son. And they continue to lie to us. I'm angry because we lost time to remediate reading and writing early on. I'm angry because this has caused my son a lot of heartache, frustration, confusion, and to feel badly about himself. This has hurt him deeply. It's not okay to be told you're doing great, are one of the best readers and writers in your class and to know inside that this isn't true. I have a new thing that came up this week, too. My son is learning a foreign language this year, Spanish, and I am curious to see how he does and also very concerned. I asked his case manager if my son's spelling, writing, and reading accommodations would apply for this class. (I feel they should as they are written to apply to all academic or general ed classes but wanted to double check.) His case manager emailed and said that spelling SDIs are not applied in Spanish. The reasoning is that spelling is a key part of language acquisition. One letter can change the meaning of a word in Spanish which makes accuracy very important. Assessments are aligned with IEP supports and often include helpers like word banks, multiple choice, and matching. Spelling deductions are small. The case mgr noted that extended writing assignments (which my son struggles with in English) might be the biggest challenge and can be handled on a case-by-case basis. Upon closer inspection, there isn't a specific SDI for spell check in the IEP, but my son's most recent writing goal was met using spell and grammar check. His unedited (by computer) work has many spelling (sometimes even with a word bank), grammar, and convention errors (lack of capital letters and punctuation) . I am confused why staff are so concerned about his spelling for Spanish but are perfectly fine accommodating spelling in English with spell check. Is my best option to ask the school for a neuropsych?

Hi, again. I'm providing some more info, as I am not sure that the document I attached is viewable. What it shows is that my son received intensive and strategic reading support in k and first grades. He had a mix of intensive, strategic, and core support in 3rd (coded red, yellow, green). In the student rostering section the following is listed under "Progress Monitoring": K No 1st Yes 2nd Yes (disabled) 3rd No We didn't receive any info past 3rd grade, so I am guessing DIBELS wasn't used from 4th grade on. I'm confused and wondering why "disabled" is listed in 2nd grade progress monitoring, while we were verbally told this same year that the school would not do an evaluation as he wouldn't qualify for an IEP. They said that he was doing great and teachers had no concerns. Am I just misunderstanding regular classroom support, RTI/MTSS, and special education? Thanks.

Hi! We're in southeast PA. My 8th grade son qualifies for an IEP under Autism. 2e. Very into math, science, and figuring out how things work. He learns well by doing and watching videos. Reading and writing are weak areas. I recently requested most of his education records. Among the info we asked for was DIBELS info and received the attached document showing that my son received reading support and progress monitoring in K-2nd that my husband and I were never informed of. Is this normal? This feels like a huge violation of trust, but maybe this is typical. We have been very open with the school and shared a lot of information with them in the spirit of collaboration. We first had concerns in K and brought them to his teachers and the school counselors attention in first and second grades. The feedback was that he was doing great, and they had no concerns which I have in emails. All I ever heard was, "We have no concerns." I had a lot of concerns! His first grade teacher asked my son why he was giving us such a hard time with homework and refused to do any or to read or write at home. (There were behaviors at home with reading and writing including refusal, frustration, anger, and yelling.) My son later told me he couldn't understand why other kids were reading chapter books and he wasn't. My gut kept telling me something wasn't right. When I verbally asked about an evaluation in 2nd grade, I was told he wouldn't qualify and was just a little "quirky". (I didn't know to put this in writing at the time.) We have continually been made to feel that we are making a big deal out of nothing. He has had some writing support over the years that has been hit or miss. School staff continue to say his reading is fine, but his reading is pretty limited to comics and magazines, and he has a lot of difficulty with spelling and writing (mechanics, grammar, and getting thoughts out wise.) School has agreed to accommodations for writing and reading. At his annual IEP meeting in May, school staff casually mentioned that because he met his writing goal, they no longer consider him to have writing needs despite his writing being riddled with grammar and spelling errors when not typing and using spell/grammar check. We're asking for a reevaluation in writing, auditory processing, and reading to help sort this out. His IEP does not match him and what he needs. Now, I am wondering if there are there other documents I should request from the school? (We received a counseling contact log, report cards, attendance records, and DIBELS and associated progress monitoring. I was permitted to view evaluations and special ed records at the district office. In their replies, the school considered this a FERPA request.) Also, I reviewed his reevaluation protocols from 6th grade at the district office to see what his writing looked like, since we have significant concerns about this area. I asked to review the protocols for his initial school evaluation from 4th grade (prompted after we presented a private evaluation to school staff at beginning of 4th). I was told that staff couldn't find the protocols and they think they were destroyed which is permitted after 6 months. Should I expect the 6th grade protocols to be destroyed at some point, too? This seems ridiculous, because then there is no record of his writing from those evaluations. The school refuses to give us copies of his writing from the evals, because we aren't professionals. What do I do with this new info that we weren't told about? How does this affect our relationship with school staff? Thanks! DIBELS xname.pdfDIBELS xname.pdf

I'll check into how and when accommodations are being implemented. I hear you that filing a State complaint can change things with the school IEP team.

Thank you both. I'm putting together my reeval request and submitting this week to get the ball rolling.

Thanks Carolyn. I'll start putting my re-evaluation request together ASAP. Anther question - How specific do I have to be about my concerns about reading and writing? For reading, I'd specify phonological awareness (advanced such as substitution, addition, and removal), fluency, accuracy, comprehension.....anything else? For writing, I'd include conventions, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, organization, and handwriting fluency for both on-demand writing and longer-form paragraph/essay writing. Is there a standardized test for multi-paragraph writing that's expected in middle? I always feel like I am missing something on my lists of suspected disability, and then worry that specific thing I missed won't be evaluated, because I didn't know to include it. (I didn't know to include phonological awareness on the last eval.) Finally, if I have concerns about auditory processing, is that something the school can assess or is that better to have done privately with an audiologist? Thank you!

Hi Carolyn and JSD24. Thank you for your replies to both my posts. You both had some great ideas and suggestions again! After I submitted my post, I realized my wording about how much time I have to ask for an IEE was not very clear. It has been almost a year since my child's school reevaluation that led me to consider requesting an IEE, so the school will almost certainly want to do another eval before agreeing to an IEE. I plan to ask for evaluations and am just deciding when to do so which I asked in my other recent post about removing areas of support (now or in August/September). JSD24, I like your suggestion to ask in writing why there is no specially designed instruction for the areas that are being accommodated. This confirms what I have been seeing and been confused about. Providing accommodations means there is an area of need, but these are not reflected as areas of need in the Present Levels. I did look up the PARC Consent Decree and that was helpful info. I am reaching out to some other families in our district to find out about their experience with the district and special education. I plan to do a deep dive into the testing by early Fall to see if private and school tests were looking at the same things to try to determine why the results were so different. This also ties into the areas of need listed in Present Levels of the IEP. In some part, the school's reasoning as to if and why something is an area of need differs from our private evaluations and has led to different conclusions as to whether a skill should be accommodated or taught or is an area of need at all. (My son's profile is complex and his needs fall into a legal gray area which further complicates matters.) Your info about SAT and PSAT was helpful, as I am just getting up to speed on this area and am trying to not miss doing something now that will make things easier later. Documenting accommodations currently being used in school seems important. If teacher documentation on the IEP of when and how often accommodations are being used is incorrect, and the school will not change it on the IEP how do I address this? For example, one teacher says the student occasionally goes to another room for small group testing for this subject area, but actually the student is always doing this. While, another teacher for a different subject did accurately capture this in their Present Levels statement in the annual IEP. Also, I am considering filing a state complaint about accommodations being provided without special instruction. JSD24, in my other post, you offered to help with this as you are also in PA. I may be in touch about help with this. I am deciding on what to do and when. File state complaint and ask for new evals in September or reverse that order? Thanks for your help. It's so easy to get confused and lose site of my "lighthouse".

Carolyn and JSD24, thank you for your suggestions and input! Yes, my IEE post is about the same student as this post. Yes, the special ed eval for speech and language, reading, and writing was done by the school psychologist. I plan to ask for more data supporting decision, why agreed upon goals and supports weren't added, and for evaluations in areas which have been removed. The suggestion to focus on creating a paper trail saying accommodations were used to meet the goal and there are still needs in this area was helpful. What are the pros and cons of asking for the special ed valuations now, with the agreement they'll be done at the beginning of the next school year, and waiting to ask in August/September? (I can overthink things, and maybe this doesn't matter.) Also, the reevaluation I referred to in my IEE post, was done almost exactly a year ago now, so I'm fairly certain the school would want to do new evals instead of agree to an IEE. Thanks again.

Hi, I am feeling overwhelmed and want to make sure I am understanding some details about asking for an IEE. I understand that the school may deny my request and file for Due Process, however I am concerned about doing this at the end of the school year. How long after a school reeval can I ask for an IEE? Also, is it from the date the reeval was done or the date on the reeval report? If I ask for an IEE do I have to have the eval done within a certain amount of time? If the school denies my request, is the Due Process timeline paused over the summer? Can I decide to not proceed if the school files for Due Process? We've presented private reports to the school before, and the school stated they would not accept the testing results. Some of the school's testing results differed significantly from our private testing. We have two private reports with the same diagnosis, SLD Written Expression/Dysgraphia, and the school will not recognize or accept the results/conclusions/diagnosis. Is there some criteria I need to ask about that the school requires to accept private testing? My problem is that the IEP should reflect my son and it really doesn't. He has a lot of accommodations for reading and writing, and the school refuses to qualify him under a second category of SLD. I want the categories to reflect where his main struggles are so teachers looking at the IEP quickly see this and also for SAT/college accommodations, but wonder why we're getting so much resistance to adding another qualifying category of SLD. Is this so the school can more easily legally provide accommodations instead of instruction in writing? We are not the only family in our district in disagreement with the school that accommodations (spell and grammar check) and grade-level edited long-form writing are sufficient to show a student no longer needs additional writing instruction. Thanks!

Hi, We're in PA. My son's draft annual IEP shows he met his writing goal and says due to the goal being met the school thinks he no longer has a need in writing/written expression, and therefore there's no goal and no instruction in the new draft. We disagree with this, because he did not meet the goal independently. His work was edited and used teacher conferencing with no data showing what his writing looks like on his own. We've provided staff writing samples that show my son still needs extra help with writing and spelling. Additionally, at two previous IEP meetings, school staff agreed to add a goal for on-demand writing, to provide data on writing done independently, and to provide data as to what teachers are correcting/suggesting in his drafts, and school staff will not provide any of these now. Also removed from the IEP were instruction in executive functioning and social skills. Similarly, the IEP showed he met his executive function goal, but there was no data showing this other than some vague language that he checked his work. Is it reasonable to ask the school to explain on the PWN/NOREP why they feel my son no longer needs instruction in writing, social skills, and executive function? In other words, should it based on data other than meeting a goal? Thanks!

You helped clarify my concern. It is that there is no backup accommodation when such books are not available. Also a great tip about language for the quality of the voices. Thanks!

1. Carolyn, good suggestions. I’ll ask to have my notes about errors on the evaluation added to the IEP and look up a score conversion chart. 2. To clarify, my (2e) son had a private speech and language evaluation focusing on reading, writing, and speech and language last year (almost 3 years after the previously mentioned private testing), which diagnosed expressive language, reading (spelling, comprehension, prosody, accuracy, and fluency), and written expression disorders. (This is the second private diagnosis of written expression disorder.) We presented this newer testing to the school IEP team which prompted another school evaluation. The resulting TOWL-IV and reading scores from the school testing differed considerably from the private evaluation, and I am not sure why except that maybe he wrote more for the private testing leading to more chances for errors. The school evaluation concluded no SLD and average, but even so writing support and a goal were added to the IEP to edit with autocorrect and add more content. The goal was just recently met and removed indicating there's no longer a need for writing support. I do plan to ask for data showing that he's doing 3. Another point of disagreement with the school is about on-demand versus edited longer-form writing. His written essays are fairly good when typed, written over multiple days/weeks, edited with autocorrect, and incorporate suggestions from teacher conferencing. Any writing that is by hand or not edited has many issues and is very different than how he’d answer verbally or type with auto correct. Would a “No peer editing or sharing of on-demand writing with peers” SDI at least be something to help my son feel more comfortable (In the same vein of not being expected to read aloud at school)? I feel this may not work, because there is a fair amount of group work and sharing in class, though. Do I just continue to bring samples to the IEP team showing evidence that he's not independently showing skills in conventions and written expression and ask for services and another goal? I don’t think asking for an IEE would help, because the school has already mostly disagreed with our private evaluation. Thanks!

Hi all! I am looking for clarification on standardized test answers for written expression. My son's initial school evaluation about 4 years ago in 4th grade included testing of written expression using the TOWL-IV. That evaluation report included the spontaneous writing story/paragraph my son wrote along with a description of his written expression skills being weak and below expectations on contrived sentence writing and spontaneous essay pieces (contextual conventions, spelling in context, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, and grammar). Private testing from around the same time indicated my son "stopped to think" often and breathed heavily while writing his essay. His reevaluation focusing on reading, writing, and language last year included the TOWL-IV again. My concern is that my son's daily writing clearly shows issues, and no examples of his actual writing were included in the reevaluation which included scores in the average range and suggestions for my son to use organizers, edit his work, and add more content (He only wrote for 5 of the allotted 15 minutes.) I also noticed that standard scores were provided for the composite Story Writing but only scaled scores for subtests of Contextual Conventions and Story Composition. (Percentile rank included for both). I understand that the test questions are copyrighted and of the need to maintain test integrity. However, is my son's own creative story or essay that he writes in response to the test prompt copyrighted? I want a copy of what he wrote, and while the school will let me view and take notes, they will not provide a copy of what he wrote. I plan to provide my own examples of his writing, but they are not "normed and standardized". My data does not seem to equal or agree with their data from their perspective. I am making a case that my son needs specific instruction and not only accommodations and also want the SLD category for written expression checked on his IEP. In first and second grades, when asked to read or write at home he shut down, became angry, and refused to do either. He also refused to go to school on time for parts of 5th and 6th. Reading and writing are still issues. Alternatively, we are remediating reading outside of school. Should we seriously consider also do this for writing and view school accommodations as getting my son to a place mentally and emotionally that he can do this work outside of school? Thanks!

Hi everyone! I have a question about an SDI on my son's IEP for audiobooks that says classroom textbook eBooks and relevant audiobooks will be provided for use during homework and in-class assignments when available digitally. I have a problem with this wording, because this leaves it up to teachers and interpretation as to what "available" means. The school should provide what he needs and it shouldn't be based on whether it's available, right? Also, he will not listen to poor quality "computer voices" read extended text to him. How can I show he needs a premium, human-like text-to-speech reader or human-read audiobooks? I have seen some of the standard/free voices in apps/programs are improving, does anyone know if quality human-like voices are currently built into Word, OneNote, or Edge? (We are not a Google/Chrome school.) Thanks!

Thank you for your responses and suggested resources. We are in a suburban district north of Philadelphia. I realize, even though I forget sometimes, that we need to remediate most/all the reading skills outside of school. At home, he is currently doing an online program that teaches reading and spelling with visual phonics, and I am also working with him using a book that teaches the logical patterns and rules underlying English words using letter tiles. IEE I have thought about an IEE, but I want to try a couple more things before going that route and make sure I am prepared for likely next steps. Testing I am digging through past testing to see if underlying areas of reading and language have been tested. There are some gaps, and I see no RAN test. He has a fair amount of variability and discrepancies in his cognitive and achievement testing, but most things fall in the average range with some really high and pretty low scores mixed in. Decoding and phonemic proficiency are average, but discrepant from reading comprehension and verbal reasoning and this could be why he was able to get an accommodation for audiobooks . I am meeting with the school psychologist to look at how my son did on each part of the Phonemic Proficiency subtest to verify "average" in subskills. Are some tests of underlying reading skills better at detecting issues than others? (TILLS, WIAT, Woodcock Johnson) Documentation for college and SAT Is the documentation on the IEP of why he needs his reading and writing accommodations important for accommodations in college and on the SAT, or is a history of having and using them enough? (I.e. Do you need a certain diagnosis/identification to receive certain accommodations, and it is therefore important to keep advocating to have SLD in Reading (Basic and Fluency?) and Written Expression checked as categories on his IEP? I’m working on building a history for the need of accommodations on State testing to pave the way for the SAT/ACT. When I started this journey 6 years ago, I thought I would feel less confused and frustrated by now!

Lisa - I really needed to hear this. Thank you for next steps, validation that I am not overreacting, and motivation to keep advocating. I purchased your online training a few years ago, and it has been so helpful!

My son is in 7th grade at a large public school in Pennsylvania and qualified for an IEP under Autism. He's kind and very bright and wants to be an engineer but is having a really hard time with school. His school refuses to recognize him as gifted. He excels in math, and is two years advanced, and finds gen ed science unchallenging. He struggles with reading, particularly fluency, accuracy, and spelling, relying on memorization instead of sounding out words. Comprehension had been superior but is now slowly declining but still above average. His writing and handwriting are also problematic, but his scores remain average or above, which limits the help he can receive despite numerous accommodations. There were times he refused to read, write, or go to school in elementary, leading the school to require meetings with a guidance counselor despite our not wanting this, and it clearly being from a teacher with the attitude that he just wasn't trying hard enough. At the end of 6th grade, we shared a reading and language evaluation highlighting concerns in reading, writing, and spelling. The school reevaluated him and found results to be average but agreed to support him with essay writing, as writing was clearly not "average", through teacher conferences and small group instruction in writing, but it’s unclear whether it’s being implemented effectively. We have concerns about when teacher conferencing and autocorrect aren't available (tests, on-demand writing, sharing info with peers). Recently, we brought up our ongoing concerns about read and writing and also lack of progress and provided writing samples and reading probes. Without autocorrect and typing, his written responses are at a lower level than his verbal response would be and not at a 7th grade level. In response, school staff suggested a reading evaluation by a program specialist to gather more data, which was clarified to be a screening rather than another formal evaluation. We found this process confusing and questioned why previous concerns were handled differently. The current laws do not recognize his reading and writing disabilities since the school sees him as on grade level and at the top of his class, which feels unfair. While he maintains good grades with support, he experiences stress and struggles with the workload. We hope he can remain in public school, but it greatly depends on his teachers’ understanding of him. We are considering potential changes to his schooling arrangements, although we really want him to stay in public school, but it depends on his teachers and if they "get" him as to how each year goes. This year has been relatively good. He is working on self-advocacy and just started to gain some confidence in what he needs and how to ask for it. Although, it's difficult for him to self-advocate in an environment that doesn't fully recognize his needs or call them what they really are. It's very confusing and frustrating. He also has a hard time finding peers to connect with that have similar interests and at the same level. Our main problem with getting help for our son is that "relative to ability" was removed leaving only relative to age or grade-level for qualifying for help as an SLD under IDEA and State criteria. So, the law does not "see" his reading and writing disabilities, because he's not below grade level which seems discriminatory to Twice Exceptional students just as requiring discrepancy between ability and achievement was not "seeing" all students who needed help prior to this change in 2006, and thus it's been difficult finding and advocate or attorney who understands and can give advice. My son does have discrepancies and would most likely qualify for SLD in reading and writing if he didn't first have to be below age and grade-level. The school points to his excellent grades, however he has a lot of support and leeway to achieve this, but my son shows stress, big emotions, and behaviors at home that indicate everything is not okay at school as he is using higher level reasoning and abilities to compensate for lower level deficits. (He skims, he's good at using context, but is being overwhelmed with the workload in 7th grade.) He is willing to do very , very minimal homework and reading and writing tutoring after school, because he doesn't want to do more school stuff at home especially since the school is not meeting his needs in a way that works for him and he's exhausted at the end of the day. Note, we first brought reading and writing concerns to the school in 1st grade when he became very upset and refused to do these things at home. He has many great skills that will serve him well in adult life, but he has to get through school first. I'd appreciate any tips for 2e kids in public schools that don't seem to "see" them? Thanks!