For those that did private testing

[Anonymous]

Did you tell your child’s teacher that you were doing it or just share the results with the school after? My 2nd grade child is already being pulled out for small group interventions (with a partner teacher and not a reading specialist)so the teacher knows there are struggles but the school hasn’t mentioned anything yet about testing her. We suspect dyslexia and some attention issues and her tutor agrees and while we’d prefer not to pay the heavy price tag for private testing we don’t want to depend on dcps. Is there any major advantage to using a testing provider that is familiar with your particular school district? We are in Dc and considering Mindwell. Thanks for any insight!

[Anonymous]

Part of the testing involved a questionnaire completed by the teacher so they end up knowing.

[Anonymous]

For the first question, the teacher will need to fill out evaluation forms, so they will know you are having her evaluated.

[Anonymous]

For your second question, school districts are only required to "consider" private evals. If you are hoping to use the evaluation to get an IEP, it's best to use someone who frequently writes reports that the school respects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For your second question, school districts are only required to "consider" private evals. If you are hoping to use the evaluation to get an IEP, it's best to use someone who frequently writes reports that the school respects.

This is what I was wondering. Thank you! This is all new to us and a lot to navigate.

[Anonymous]

To answer your second question, we live in VA and used Stixrud in MD. The recommendations in the report were generic enough that I don’t think it matters that they weren’t that familiar with our district.

However, almost all the referrals they had were for providers in MD, which was kind of a drag. But there are plenty of lists of providers (and the chances that any given provider has availability is low anyway). Geographic proximity wouldn’t be a large factor in my decision.

[Anonymous]

DS is in MCPS, and we used Stixrud, who is very familiar with that school system. We warned his teacher, since she needed to fill out a questionnaire. The report was written in "MCPS-speak" , which was instrumental in getting services and accommodations without pushback. So yes, please select someone who is familiar with the school your child goes to.

[Anonymous]

I err on the side of sharing as long as the report doesn't contain private information that is irrelevant to the academic environment. I would never share something like a medical evaluation with the school if that medical condition did not impact my child at school.

Between two kids, we had a lot of private/research study assessments done and I shared them all with the school team. When the school team has a better understanding of my kids, they can better meet their needs. If/when school testing is done, it's important to know what tests were already administered so they aren't repeated.

[Anonymous]

I read a lot of MSDE due process decisions and one of the ways that a school system will refuse to consider the recommendations of a private evaluation and get the judge to agree with them is if the private eval obtains no input from teachers, no classroom observations, etc. It's best to be open with the school, I think, because to get them to accept the report and the recommendations and for the diagnosis to even be valid, there needs to be input from the teacher.

[Anonymous]

We have done a few rounds of testing. We never give the results over for no good reason--we use the report strategically in search of some accommodation. With our very first round of testing I sat on the report for some time before I needed it for an IEP. We also asked for a streamlined school report which left out family medical history and other issues we wanted to keep private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of the testing involved a questionnaire completed by the teacher so they end up knowing.

This. In the end, 4 teachers sent reports. One dismissed any issues. Two saw issues, but thought DC compensated well. Only the fourth saw what we see. I was a bit nervous because the school also lost many of DC’s files from the prior year and wanted to base the 504 on grades alone. The private evaluation was really worth every penny. He noted things I hadn’t put much thought into but were odd/off once I really considered them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the testing involved a questionnaire completed by the teacher so they end up knowing.

This. In the end, 4 teachers sent reports. One dismissed any issues. Two saw issues, but thought DC compensated well. Only the fourth saw what we see. I was a bit nervous because the school also lost many of DC’s files from the prior year and wanted to base the 504 on grades alone. The private evaluation was really worth every penny. He noted things I hadn’t put much thought into but were odd/off once I really considered them.

We brought up slow processing speed - and other issues- to the teachers grade after grade and most said All is Well. Then ages 10-12 came and all was definitely NOT well; attention issues, math issues, confidence issues, reading stamina & decoding issues, processing speed issues.

Trust in the school and teachers went out the window and we left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I err on the side of sharing as long as the report doesn't contain private information that is irrelevant to the academic environment. I would never share something like a medical evaluation with the school if that medical condition did not impact my child at school.

Between two kids, we had a lot of private/research study assessments done and I shared them all with the school team. When the school team has a better understanding of my kids, they can better meet their needs. If/when school testing is done, it's important to know what tests were already administered so they aren't repeated.

We got two separate reports - one complete and one for the school. There was only one issue we did not want in the school records and the tester agreed with our concern and suggested the separate school report.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the testing involved a questionnaire completed by the teacher so they end up knowing.

This. In the end, 4 teachers sent reports. One dismissed any issues. Two saw issues, but thought DC compensated well. Only the fourth saw what we see. I was a bit nervous because the school also lost many of DC’s files from the prior year and wanted to base the 504 on grades alone. The private evaluation was really worth every penny. He noted things I hadn’t put much thought into but were odd/off once I really considered them.

For us it was super telling that the teacher our DD had twice refused to fill out the questionnaire. I knew she knew there was a learning disability but she refused to help us before we got the private evolution. The doctor doing the evaluation said it was better she didn’t fill it out then lie on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For your second question, school districts are only required to "consider" private evals. If you are hoping to use the evaluation to get an IEP, it's best to use someone who frequently writes reports that the school respects.

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Anyone have recommendations for best practices to use if we are in DCPS?