Is a kid who is behind in reading going to get an IEP?

[Anonymous]

Our 2nd grader is in private school and is below grade level in reading and writing but teachers report no concerns in other areas. He's social, easy-going, contributes to class discussions, doesn't seem to have a hard time paying attention, etc. He started off slow due to COVID closures and kind of a missed year, and I would have expected him to catch up quicker than he has, but he doesn't display anything that suggests to me any kind of LD or attention difference, etc.

We thought maybe dyslexia, but when we talked with some potential very experienced dyslexia tutors, they wrote off dyslexia based on description of what he can do.

Recently the school seemed to suggest we could go through the county process and get an IEP so that a tutor would come during the school year to tutor him from the county. Is this really a thing? I have another kid who has ASD, so I'm familiar with the IEP process, and even with a kid with an ASD diagnosis and obvious attention and behavior challenges, it was a battle getting any kind of services (to be fair, he was testing at grade level even though he was struggling in class in other ways, so maybe that was why).

[Anonymous]

From what you are describing, he will not qualify for an IEP - but why not go through the request to see if there is something there.

At least you can come back to the school and say that after the initial analysis of data, the county did not believe there was a need for an evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Are you in the DC area? For kids who are parentally placed in private school, districts are only required to provide service plans, not full FAPE. For DC and Maryland (I don't know about Virginia), that means some speech therapy -- they will not send a special ed teacher to you. New York does; I don't know about other places.

Get your child tested privately -- dyslexia can't be diagnosed through your descriptions. Then decide what you want to do.

[Anonymous]

Pay attention, OP. Here is what the school is really saying:

1. We are a private school and not used to accommodating kids who need special stuff (in actuality, NO school likes to deal with dyslexia, even publics who are otherwise very good at dealing with ADHD, autism, etc).

2. Your kid might actually have dyslexia or ADHD or an actual diagnosis, so please get him formally tested. There are several different presentations of dyslexia, including some unusual ones, and specialized tutors are NOT experts. Psychologists with PhDs are the ones who diagnose dyslexia. You need an actual assessment with a psychologist who will give your child a battery of tests.

Please take this seriously, OP. My friend ignored all the warning signs and 10 years later, her teen requested an evaluation, and they found... dyslexia. Except now there's little anyone can do about it, and as a result, since every class depends on reading (even and especially math), academics has never been his strong point. Basically they destroyed their kid's potential.

[Anonymous]

Get on this quickly, OP. In 3rd grade, reading switches from "learning to read", to "reading to learn". Next year your child will start falling behind in all subjects and accumulate gaps in knowledge and understanding if they're still behind in reading. Do not discount the impact in math, too.

[Anonymous]

You say he is below grade level in reading and writing. That means that there are skills other kids his age have that he doesn't. Ask your kid's teacher what those skills are. How are they measuring "grade level"? MAP? Fountas & Pinnell benchmarking? something else?

What was it that you told the dyslexia tutor your kid could do?

I have encountered dyslexic kids as late as junior year of high school. Smart kids can mask well. I've also seen other smart kids with ADHD Inattentive mask well - they are not disruptive, often rely on outside knowledge or pictures to compensate for their reading weaknesses but as books get longer they have more difficulty.

If you think your kid has average intelligence but he is below grade level, you should absolutely get an assessment soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From what you are describing, he will not qualify for an IEP - but why not go through the request to see if there is something there.

At least you can come back to the school and say that after the initial analysis of data, the county did not believe there was a need for an evaluation.

A kid who is below grade level in reading with a normal IQ is very likely to get an IEP. Benchmarks of "grade level" are set low so that most kids end up on or above grade level.

Some public schools will try to argue that reading occurs in a wide developmental window until age 8 but the vast majority of kids read much earlier than that. To be behind a year already in 2nd grade is something to be concerned about.

[Anonymous]

From experience, you need to be significantly below grade to qualify for IEP. I would do a private assessment, get on waitlist now. You can always cancel if you don’t need it.

[Anonymous]

Are you resistant to a diagnosis because emotionally and psychologically, it's difficult to accept two kids with diagnoses, and not just one?

Just putting it out there.

We worked so hard to parent our oldest with ADHD/HFA, only to find out that our second is developing an auto-immune condition she will have to manage lifelong. Somehow, we'd been so happy at the thought that this was our "healthy" child. She's turning out not to be. I don't know why that's difficult for me, but it is.

[Anonymous]

I think your real question here is whether a kid who is placed in a private school by his parents can receive IEP services from the public school. I don’t know of any situation where this happens but others at have ideas if you identify your local school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From experience, you need to be significantly below grade to qualify for IEP. I would do a private assessment, get on waitlist now. You can always cancel if you don’t need it.

This is my experience. My daughter in a private school was at 23% in ELA from a standardized test in 2nd grade. I called a meeting and asked at what point do they intervene because that's pretty low. More that just "below grade level". Their solution was to just have her take the test again and magically her scores improved. We did follow up with an evaluation anyway and she has ADHD and just doesn't care about school, homework or tests. But has average IQ. She doesn't get any academic supports but the school works with us on preferential seating, access to a quiet place for tests away from her peers, checking that she wrote the daily homework down etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay attention, OP. Here is what the school is really saying:

1. We are a private school and not used to accommodating kids who need special stuff (in actuality, NO school likes to deal with dyslexia, even publics who are otherwise very good at dealing with ADHD, autism, etc).

2. Your kid might actually have dyslexia or ADHD or an actual diagnosis, so please get him formally tested. There are several different presentations of dyslexia, including some unusual ones, and specialized tutors are NOT experts. Psychologists with PhDs are the ones who diagnose dyslexia. You need an actual assessment with a psychologist who will give your child a battery of tests.

Please take this seriously, OP. My friend ignored all the warning signs and 10 years later, her teen requested an evaluation, and they found... dyslexia. Except now there's little anyone can do about it, and as a result, since every class depends on reading (even and especially math), academics has never been his strong point. Basically they destroyed their kid's potential.

Don't forget the all important

3. We are going to use the IEP as an excuse to counsel out your kid because we cannot meet their needs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From experience, you need to be significantly below grade to qualify for IEP. I would do a private assessment, get on waitlist now. You can always cancel if you don’t need it.

An IEP requires a diagnosis. Unable to read is not a medical condition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From experience, you need to be significantly below grade to qualify for IEP. I would do a private assessment, get on waitlist now. You can always cancel if you don’t need it.

An IEP requires a diagnosis. Unable to read is not a medical condition

No it doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Go ahead and do the eval and see what happens. Language delays can be freestanding diagnoses that may be more likely with a sibling with autism. I know one family with a child on the spectrum and a mostly NT child. The NT child has a language delay but it has gone unnoticed since the child with autism has greater needs and NT child’s language seems so good in comparison. But he clearly has difficulty in producing speech - poor intelligibility and reduced vocabulary from what you would expect for a child his age and intelligence.