"Screening Meeting"

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend an advocate also. My child has multiple learning disabilities and the school said they “ don’t see it” bc she has good grades. She is 5 years behind in math computation skills, 5. I would never expect the school to do anything to benefit your child, they will deny as long as they can and offer the most limited services only if they have to. It really is that bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - we had neuropsych testing done privately two years ago which resulted in an ASD and ADHD diagnosis. DC has struggled with anxiety and depression, over the past few years, and we have diagnosis paperwork from an intensive outpatient program from this past Fall. As part of that paperwork, the psychiatrist also confirmed the ASD and ADHD diagnoses but he isn't a neuropsych tester. I appreciate the advice. It is sad that people need to hire advocates in order to get services - I bet now more than ever MCPS is inundated with IEP applications.

People on this forum are so negative. Most of us have no difficulty getting services through MCPS and other local schools without advocates and lawyers. It is important to go in prepared and if you aren’t capable of this, then you may need professional help. But don’t let the negativity of this board send you into the process with a negative mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with ASD switched from an IEP to a 504 when moving between middle and high school. He had behavioral issues in early elementary that resolved as he got older. He is going great with a 504!

Does your child not already have an IEP or 504? What services does your child need that they are not already getting?

We moved from South Carolina and our public middle school was small. No more than 12-15 kids in a class so my DC was able to easily take breaks when overwhelmed, didn't need preferential seating because any seat was good, the teachers gave him extra time if needed etc. I knew we had it good but I had no idea....! I'm glad your child is doing so well!

SC also has an incredible early intervention program that really helps to identify and provide services to children and families. This helps so much by the time they get to school.

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of incorrect information on this thread.

A "screening," meeting, or "child find screening," is intended to collect the current data, come together as a team and decide if more information (testing) is needed as a part of the decision about whether or not a student might be need special education services. Even if the team decides to move to testing at a screening meeting (or you bring private testing that has a diagnosis) that does not mean a child will be eligible for special education services.

The flow is:

Screening (review educational history, teacher reports, parent report, observation, private report if supplied by family)->determinations (review any recommended testing, determine the need for services)->Initial IEP development meeting (if the team determined at the determinations meeting that a child requires special ed services to access the curriculum).

Finally, a diagnosis of autism does not "guarantee" that a child needs special education services to access the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I highly recommend an advocate also. My child has multiple learning disabilities and the school said they “ don’t see it” bc she has good grades. She is 5 years behind in math computation skills, 5. I would never expect the school to do anything to benefit your child, they will deny as long as they can and offer the most limited services only if they have to. It really is that bad.

I know this is the story you are telling yourself, but something is missing here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - we had neuropsych testing done privately two years ago which resulted in an ASD and ADHD diagnosis. DC has struggled with anxiety and depression, over the past few years, and we have diagnosis paperwork from an intensive outpatient program from this past Fall. As part of that paperwork, the psychiatrist also confirmed the ASD and ADHD diagnoses but he isn't a neuropsych tester. I appreciate the advice. It is sad that people need to hire advocates in order to get services - I bet now more than ever MCPS is inundated with IEP applications.

People on this forum are so negative. Most of us have no difficulty getting services through MCPS and other local schools without advocates and lawyers. It is important to go in prepared and if you aren’t capable of this, then you may need professional help. But don’t let the negativity of this board send you into the process with a negative mindset.

I am the poster who wrote about the LRE and using an advocate.

Not being "negative" just stating the facts.

We need a consultant to get the right placement for our kid. We were given the brush off for years without one (not enforced 504s).

This is the reality for a lot of people in MCPS which is why there are so many consultants around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I highly recommend an advocate also. My child has multiple learning disabilities and the school said they “ don’t see it” bc she has good grades. She is 5 years behind in math computation skills, 5. I would never expect the school to do anything to benefit your child, they will deny as long as they can and offer the most limited services only if they have to. It really is that bad.

I know this is the story you are telling yourself, but something is missing here.

Dont do this, I am well aware of our situation, this is exactly what was said at the screening meeting. You know parents of kids with unique needs have enough going on, we don t need this type of response. We have an advocate and attorney now and have a whopping 30 minutes per week for services in her iep. My advice to the OP stands, take an advocate, you never know what type of responses you will receive from the school and you are better prepared with an advocate.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been to many IEP meetings with parents while working inside and outside the school system. I’ve seen teachers basically be told no you can’t recommend that before IEP meetings. I was always a contracted employee so the school couldn’t tell me what to say or write. Well many might have tried but it didn’t work. Knowing how schools and IEPs are I learned long ago not to join parents if they don’t also have an advocate or attorney with them.

It can get ugly in there and I need to have someone that knows IEP law and be able to ask questions to during the meeting. The school won’t be on your side no matter what they say, sorry it’s just not how it works. I never refer to the school district lawyer even if I’m working in the district, I always consult with the parents and their team. If you want to best support your child then you have to work within the confines of IEP laws. If you don’t know them then you’re basically stuck with a generic IEP that was probably drafted to fit into the current system and make it easy on teachers and cheap for the school.

The point of an IEP is that it’s individualized to meet your child’s needs. Take the advocate, lawyer, and anyone else that knows your child well and go in prepared. Always better to go in with support and gain the respect of the school than have zero support or knowledge and spend months in appeal because you signed off on a bad IEP.

I don’t say this to scare parents. I find they just go more smoothly if you aren’t in it alone. Ideally it should be a collaborative effort, and it usually is when you have someone on your side that knows the law and process. You likely still won’t get everything you ask for but you’ll get individualized support. You’ll also have someone to discuss the IEP process with before and after the meeting which can be incredibly useful because it’s a huge complex system that nobody really ever seems to understand completely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been to many IEP meetings with parents while working inside and outside the school system. I’ve seen teachers basically be told no you can’t recommend that before IEP meetings. I was always a contracted employee so the school couldn’t tell me what to say or write. Well many might have tried but it didn’t work. Knowing how schools and IEPs are I learned long ago not to join parents if they don’t also have an advocate or attorney with them.

It can get ugly in there and I need to have someone that knows IEP law and be able to ask questions to during the meeting. The school won’t be on your side no matter what they say, sorry it’s just not how it works. I never refer to the school district lawyer even if I’m working in the district, I always consult with the parents and their team. If you want to best support your child then you have to work within the confines of IEP laws. If you don’t know them then you’re basically stuck with a generic IEP that was probably drafted to fit into the current system and make it easy on teachers and cheap for the school.

The point of an IEP is that it’s individualized to meet your child’s needs. Take the advocate, lawyer, and anyone else that knows your child well and go in prepared. Always better to go in with support and gain the respect of the school than have zero support or knowledge and spend months in appeal because you signed off on a bad IEP.

I don’t say this to scare parents. I find they just go more smoothly if you aren’t in it alone. Ideally it should be a collaborative effort, and it usually is when you have someone on your side that knows the law and process. You likely still won’t get everything you ask for but you’ll get individualized support. You’ll also have someone to discuss the IEP process with before and after the meeting which can be incredibly useful because it’s a huge complex system that nobody really ever seems to understand completely.

Basically this. Thank you for sharing. This was exactly our experience.

The diff between how we were treated before we hired an EC and after has been night and day.

[Anonymous]

Definitely agree with PP, you will be treated differently if you have one or don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I highly recommend an advocate also. My child has multiple learning disabilities and the school said they “ don’t see it” bc she has good grades. She is 5 years behind in math computation skills, 5. I would never expect the school to do anything to benefit your child, they will deny as long as they can and offer the most limited services only if they have to. It really is that bad.

I know this is the story you are telling yourself, but something is missing here.

Dont do this, I am well aware of our situation, this is exactly what was said at the screening meeting. You know parents of kids with unique needs have enough going on, we don t need this type of response. We have an advocate and attorney now and have a whopping 30 minutes per week for services in her iep. My advice to the OP stands, take an advocate, you never know what type of responses you will receive from the school and you are better prepared with an advocate.

At the meeting the school said, "your child is five years behind in math, and has multiple disabilities but we 'don't see it'?"

No.

I know you paid someone a lot of money to tell you your kid has multiple learning disabilites. I've seen plenty of neuropsychs for basically normal kids who get a low average subtest score and then have, 'dysgraphia," or "dyscalculia." I know your child isn't performing to your expectations.

But 5 years behind, with multiple disabilites and the school is denying services because they've all dedicated their lives to "never doing anything to benefit your child?" No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I highly recommend an advocate also. My child has multiple learning disabilities and the school said they “ don’t see it” bc she has good grades. She is 5 years behind in math computation skills, 5. I would never expect the school to do anything to benefit your child, they will deny as long as they can and offer the most limited services only if they have to. It really is that bad.

I know this is the story you are telling yourself, but something is missing here.

Dont do this, I am well aware of our situation, this is exactly what was said at the screening meeting. You know parents of kids with unique needs have enough going on, we don t need this type of response. We have an advocate and attorney now and have a whopping 30 minutes per week for services in her iep. My advice to the OP stands, take an advocate, you never know what type of responses you will receive from the school and you are better prepared with an advocate.

At the meeting the school said, "your child is five years behind in math, and has multiple disabilities but we 'don't see it'?"

No.

I know you paid someone a lot of money to tell you your kid has multiple learning disabilites. I've seen plenty of neuropsychs for basically normal kids who get a low average subtest score and then have, 'dysgraphia," or "dyscalculia." I know your child isn't performing to your expectations.

But 5 years behind, with multiple disabilites and the school is denying services because they've all dedicated their lives to "never doing anything to benefit your child?" No.

Ummm, was in a specialized dyslexia school for grades 2-5 so she could learn to read ( which of course in public school didn’t notice either, her first grade teacher literally said I don’t know anything about dyslexia. We gave private neuropsych upon enrollment in public middle school, but of course it was two and a half years old, so too long to be “ current” . Of course they gave an 504 bc they don’t need to do anything. I emailed to ask for testing bc of course they won’t do that unless you specifically write to the principal about wanting it. They didn’t want to test her for anything bc “ they didn’t see it” . I would not give in about the math bc they were taking her in a small group and giving the answers so her grades were ok. She tested 3rd grade level in 8th grade which is ironically the same level she was upon enrollment in public school. Got an advocate she has a crap iep that we are still working though. Now you tell me how any of that served my kid. And my child is performing fine now in reading and writing bc I paid over 100k to get her there but to have a kid with that level of math computation skills and they won’t give her a calculator accomodation either. She is severely dyslexic, etc so don’t even with someone made up a diagnosis. My kids will be perfectly fine once she gets out of the public school system, and if you are a teacher, it really wouldn’t surprise me at all…now you tell me how well that public school system served my child., you know besides not doing anything to help her learn to read , write or do math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I highly recommend an advocate also. My child has multiple learning disabilities and the school said they “ don’t see it” bc she has good grades. She is 5 years behind in math computation skills, 5. I would never expect the school to do anything to benefit your child, they will deny as long as they can and offer the most limited services only if they have to. It really is that bad.

I know this is the story you are telling yourself, but something is missing here.

Dont do this, I am well aware of our situation, this is exactly what was said at the screening meeting. You know parents of kids with unique needs have enough going on, we don t need this type of response. We have an advocate and attorney now and have a whopping 30 minutes per week for services in her iep. My advice to the OP stands, take an advocate, you never know what type of responses you will receive from the school and you are better prepared with an advocate.

At the meeting the school said, "your child is five years behind in math, and has multiple disabilities but we 'don't see it'?"

No.

I know you paid someone a lot of money to tell you your kid has multiple learning disabilites. I've seen plenty of neuropsychs for basically normal kids who get a low average subtest score and then have, 'dysgraphia," or "dyscalculia." I know your child isn't performing to your expectations.

But 5 years behind, with multiple disabilites and the school is denying services because they've all dedicated their lives to "never doing anything to benefit your child?" No.

Ummm, was in a specialized dyslexia school for grades 2-5 so she could learn to read ( which of course in public school didn’t notice either, her first grade teacher literally said I don’t know anything about dyslexia. We gave private neuropsych upon enrollment in public middle school, but of course it was two and a half years old, so too long to be “ current” . Of course they gave an 504 bc they don’t need to do anything. I emailed to ask for testing bc of course they won’t do that unless you specifically write to the principal about wanting it. They didn’t want to test her for anything bc “ they didn’t see it” . I would not give in about the math bc they were taking her in a small group and giving the answers so her grades were ok. She tested 3rd grade level in 8th grade which is ironically the same level she was upon enrollment in public school. Got an advocate she has a crap iep that we are still working though. Now you tell me how any of that served my kid. And my child is performing fine now in reading and writing bc I paid over 100k to get her there but to have a kid with that level of math computation skills and they won’t give her a calculator accomodation either. She is severely dyslexic, etc so don’t even with someone made up a diagnosis. My kids will be perfectly fine once she gets out of the public school system, and if you are a teacher, it really wouldn’t surprise me at all…now you tell me how well that public school system served my child., you know besides not doing anything to help her learn to read , write or do math.

Dyslexia can be hard to diagnose in 1st grade because many children that do not have a disability still need structured and systematic instruction in decoding to learn to read, but do not have a disability. Some kids have delays at that point that are clearly not within the scope of typical for reading (kids who can't identify all their letters or write their name by the end of 1st grade or can't make the sounds of the short vowels and consonants and can't decode any CVC words).

You don't mention if you asked for a screening meeting at the public school in 1st grade only that the gen ed teacher told you she didn't know about dyslexia. Well, gen ed teachers don't make learning disability diagnoses and they aren't special educators. They can usually spot kids that are behind relative to their peers.

Your child was in private school from grade 2-5. If she was behind going into middle school in math it sounds like the private school wasn't supporting her needs in math, no?

A two and a half year old neuropsych would not be helpful to determine a student's present levels.

It is inaccurate to say schools do, "not need to do anything," for student's with 504's.

I would have encouraged you to email specifically requesting a screening because they are then required to hold that meeting. If at the end of that meeting they decide further testing isn't necessary you should have them document in the prior written notice the specific reasons why.

It sounds like they were providing her with small-group support in math. That's good.

What measure did they use to test her at a 3rd-grade level in 8th grade?

I see that you are frustrated but I also see that you are determined to see ill-intent and malice toward your child on the part of all the educators working with her. "Of course," the public school didn't notice her dyslexia, the school should have used data that was two years old to determine present levels, they gave you a 504 which means, "they don't have to do anything," except they were pulling her for a small group to work on math (but that was flawed too because they "gave her the answers). They gave her an IEP, "but it's crap." They won't give her a calculator, they haven't taught her anything...you even seem angry with the public school about the money you spent for private school (where evidently your child got behind in math).

[Anonymous]

I shouldn’t even bother responding but here we go, an appropriate response from a 1st grade teacher at a parent teacher conference would be, yes she does seem to have difficulty with grade level literacy skills, if you would like her tested to see if additional / specialized education is needed , you do it by sending an email to principal, spec Ed teacher.

No one is asking her to diagnose.I think it’s a reasonable expectation to communicate with parents about difficulties and how you would go about getting help.

Upon enrolling in 6 th grade and presented with a diagnosis and history of specialized school a reasonable response is thanks for sharing this since she has a history of multiple learning differences, why don’t we test to find out her present levels.

And if my child was two years behind when she left private, she is 5 years behind in math now.

I’m not angry about the money I spent at private, she would be illiterate if we stayed in public. Best money I have ever spent. However, should every family need to do that?

So it looks like you are a Special ed teacher, so you may have a very different point of view from a parent.
We should all have the expectation that kids get identified as early as possible, supported and work toward remediation and closing foundational gaps. I believe in that for all children, not just the ones with resources.

My point to the OP, an advocate is a very good idea.