NO learning disability??

[wakeupcall]

difficult child was REevaluated at school a few weeks ago. I have asked for a copy of the report from the diagnostician before the meeting on his IEP next week. The diagnostician sent me an email and said he would send a draft of his report home with difficult child today. HOWEVER, he said according to assessment of the data, difficult child doesn't appear to meet the eligibility criteria for a learning disability in any academic area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT?? Does that mean he shouldn't have been in Special Education in grades 3-5 for content mastery in the first place? Does it mean that because he WAS in SE he has overcome whatever obstacles there were?

Of course I know this testing does not address his emotional or behavior issues, but are those issues not impacting his learning...just the learning of others around him? I'm confused.

This year (6th grade) he's in a social development class most of the day. He's with the rest of the classes for band, pe, etc.

Does this mean when we have his ARD next week for his IEP that we only need to address the emotional and behavior issues?

 

[Sheila]

My interpretation of what you were told is that difficult child "doesn't meet the criteria for specific learning disability." Unless Learning Disability (LD) is his qualifying special education classification, I wouldn't be unduly concerned about what was said.

I'd still want to see the report however, which hopefully includes subtest scores. lol

Typically, a student qualifying as Learning Disability (LD) will have goals specific to the Learning Disability (LD) in the IEP.

Many non-Learning Disability (LD) designated Special Education kids need additional support in academic areas. In instances such as this Content Mastery can be viewed as a related service, e.g., this service helps the student benefit from his/her education.

So, no, that doesn't mean the IEP meeting should be confined to emotional and behavioral issues.

 

[Martie]

I took what you said to mean that the SD was planning on finding him ineligible because he major diagnostic label WAS Learning Disability (LD). The closing of an ability-achievement gap will cause some SD to revoke eligibility even though IDEA prohibits the use of dicrepancy formulae for determining Learning Disability (LD) eligibility. If your difficult child is EBD then they must address his educational needs... a kid only need ONE qualifying label to eligible for any necessary services.

A SD cannot say, if Learning Disability (LD), then here's what you get, If EBD, here is what you get, etc. That's called "one size fits all programming" and it is illegal. The "I" in IEP stands for "individual." Sometimes SDs need frequent reminders of this.

Martie