school district evaluation
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| Sun, 01-28-2007 - 10:47pm |
Hi everyone, I've got a few questions about school district evaluations. My daughter has been diagnosed PPD-NOS by a developmental psychologist and she referred me to OT for her sensory issues as well as to the school district for an eval. The thing is, that since I requested her eval with the school, things have improved quite a bit. About a month ago, she was unable to function without constant rigid routines, etc. But I put her in a preschool and she did well and she has dropped A LOT of the anal retentiveness and/or "quirkyness". Should I still have her evaluated? The eval is scheduled for Feb 27th. Can I back out of it? I am VERY worried that they will put her in programs when all I really want to do is keep her in the preschool she is in since she is doing well. Once you get into the school district, is there really any way out? I mean, do they have control of my child now? I know, its paranoid, but that is me. She has only recently started to mellow out and if there is any chance that the diagnosis was wrong, then I would really like to keep the school district out of it. From what I have been reading on your board, I see that (unfortunately) most of you are having to fight for services and force the schools to help. Would you please clue me in to what the school district's threshold is for help/non help. I mean, what will they be looking for that will put dd in the "must help" category. I sincerely thank you in advance for all your BTDT answers.
Tara (Peyton 2 years, 11 months).

Such a confusing time for you. Big (((HUGS)))
I hope I gain help you gain some insight. It sounds like your daughter is doing lovely.
First and foremost, a major goal of special education is to support kids in the LEAST Restrictive Environment, or that which is closest to what they would be typically experiencings if they did not have a disability. There for, in most districts they would recomend either continuing to support your daughter at her current preschool or they may offer an integrated preschool where it is a mix of children like your daughter and typically developing children.
Next, parents rights. You have to sign and agree before she is tested and before she is placed in any placement. Basically you have final say on everything in the plan. That said if the district really really disagrees with you they can also file for due process. This rarely happens and from what you have stated I don't think that would be the case. There are some rare cases where a child has severe needs at gradeschool age and the parents don't want them in special education. In those kinds of cases then the district may file to provide services the parents may not agree too and they have to get a judge to rule in favor of them.
Usually if there is a due process issue between parents and school district it is because the district wants to provide less than what the parents want provided.
The way it typically works is that the district and parents work out together an appropriate plan based on both sides. It can get sticky in some districts but never can they.
They can provide supports for your daughter in her current placement either through OT, Speech or special education consultation. I would still have her evaluated. It takes forever to get things moving and the ball rolling. By the time all the testing is done, etc, you will be looking more toward next year than this one. Plus she is doing well now but it would be nice to have her qualified during preschool incase that changes. It will save you alot of time in accessing more supports.
Renee
Thank you very much for your reply it was very helpful. I had no idea that it could take as long as you said -- that actual help would not come until next year even though they will be testing her next month. Yes it would be nice to have the supports in place in case she starts acting like she used to. I don't know what has changed but she sure is acting more agreeable. I am curious to know whether they factor in that a testing situation can affect a child's behavior there in the moment and therefore the result they get is not an accurate picture of how the child is doing but more a picture of how a child performs in a testing/evaluation type of situation. Having lots of strangers there staring at her may well throw her off and thereby give the impression of a false positive if you know what I mean. Anyway, thanks again for your information.
Tara
Dear Tara,
Welcome to the board! Good evaluators are actually amazing. My ds has been through many batteries of tests and I would say a false negative is generally very unlikely, that people who regularly perform evals have a good idea of what stresses a child may be under and know what to look for. This usually goes more the other way when children are younger, that a more inexperienced evaluator may not pick up on areas of difficulty at an eval and the child might not get recommended for all the services needed.
Children change from year to year, and getting started with evaluations will be very helpful in learning more about your daughter moving forward. The information we have gotten from evals, even the more limited ones done by school districts, have always been full of very useful information. And as Renee said, the final decision is with you, you will always be a full part of her educational team and they cannot make decisions without your signatures. If they try, they are way out of compliance with the law. And if you really run into trouble for some reason, there is always the option of getting an advocate or lawyer.
Good luck, let us know how it all goes.
Sara
ilovemalcolm
Well, I will clarify on the times. Once an assessment plan is signed the district has to complete it within 60 days. They typically like to take as many of those 60 as they can, lol. (I am a sped teacher. I can bust on us). Then you add in vacations (which don't count if they are over 5 days) and you are probably looking at a meeting in the spring. By then most of the plan will be with next year in mind though they have to implement the IEP as quickly as possible once it is signed.
Since you already have a date I am assuming you have an assessment plan so yours may go a bit quicker than that. Still, the IEP is for a full year covering until next year. I didn't mean she wouldn't start until next year. It is just that with school vacations and such it kind of will seem that way. I still think they will likely opt to keep her where she is and provide supports if she is eligible for special education. Honestly, in preschool it isn't that always that easy to qualify.
As for taking the testing situation into account, yes they should. In fact often a complete history is done as well as having the parent fill out questionaires of her typical behavior and skills at home. All of this information is gathered when looking at the whole picture of the child.
It is EXTREMELY common for kids to behave different in testing situations than in thier natural environment. Some kids do better, some do worse. All things need to be considered when evaluating.
Renee
Tara