Does FCPS test for Dyslexia/Dysgraphia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

How many hours of testing do you spend with a child when you conduct a school-based evaluation? Case loads are very high and time is extremely limited.

I probably spend 2-3 hours with each child and then observe them.. There’s also an educational assessment that is another 2-3 hours. Private testing might be 4-8 hours, they typically give several tests that measure the same construct, whereas I’ll probably only give 1-2 unless there’s an unanswered question about the child’s performance. Private testing can definitely be more thorough, but I find that testing that takes place in a child’s ecological system is often more accurate to their day to day. I’m also not sure that giving additional tests provides much added utility. I am not saying people shouldn’t get private testing, but if it’s a financial burden for you and not covered by insurance, school based testing can often do the trick of understanding what your child needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

Another veteran school psychologist here who would encourage the private report. I've seen so many examples of shoddy work by other school psychs particularly around learning disabilities. Many of them lack the time or training for accurate diagnoses. Many have less training and skill set than a doctoral level psychologist. The private evaluations are much morepractice and accurate when done by a well regarded oractice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

ha! every school psychologist I have encountered in my 10 years of FCPS has falsified documents/testing and maybe spent 15 minutes with my kid and even said things like "I have never had a student with dyslexia."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

ha! every school psychologist I have encountered in my 10 years of FCPS has falsified documents/testing and maybe spent 15 minutes with my kid and even said things like "I have never had a student with dyslexia."

Ridiculous. No one falsifies testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

ha! every school psychologist I have encountered in my 10 years of FCPS has falsified documents/testing and maybe spent 15 minutes with my kid and even said things like "I have never had a student with dyslexia."

Ridiculous. No one falsifies testing.

Then, extremely wishful thinking testing results or improper testing. Granted, this was a while ago, my DC scored a “16” on the DRA at the end of first grade. The following September it was an 8, and we had worked all summer on reading and DC had improved very very slightly- they certainly had not backtracked. The school never ever fully explained what happened, despite being asked directly, but DC was “fast tracked “ into qualifying for an IEP that fall.

[Anonymous]

DS has dysgraphia - he was diagnosed through a neuropsych (cause other things were going on) and OT evaluation.

Started OT for handwriting in elementary school (FYI - didn't really help.)

Did neuropsych testing in middle school. Got dysgraphia dx. Got 504 and was allowed to use keyboard for all handwritten assignments/note taking.

Was followed by OT in middle school (got therapy through school.)

In HS, 504 continued and OT would evaluate him 1x/year for updated dysgraphia dx.

He is in college and still has handwriting accommodations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

ha! every school psychologist I have encountered in my 10 years of FCPS has falsified documents/testing and maybe spent 15 minutes with my kid and even said things like "I have never had a student with dyslexia."

Ridiculous. No one falsifies testing.

Then, extremely wishful thinking testing results or improper testing. Granted, this was a while ago, my DC scored a “16” on the DRA at the end of first grade. The following September it was an 8, and we had worked all summer on reading and DC had improved very very slightly- they certainly had not backtracked. The school never ever fully explained what happened, despite being asked directly, but DC was “fast tracked “ into qualifying for an IEP that fall.

Just for clarification, the DRA isn’t a test that a psychologist gives. Those are teacher administered tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

How many hours of testing do you spend with a child when you conduct a school-based evaluation? Case loads are very high and time is extremely limited.

I probably spend 2-3 hours with each child and then observe them.. There’s also an educational assessment that is another 2-3 hours. Private testing might be 4-8 hours, they typically give several tests that measure the same construct, whereas I’ll probably only give 1-2 unless there’s an unanswered question about the child’s performance. Private testing can definitely be more thorough, but I find that testing that takes place in a child’s ecological system is often more accurate to their day to day. I’m also not sure that giving additional tests provides much added utility. I am not saying people shouldn’t get private testing, but if it’s a financial burden for you and not covered by insurance, school based testing can often do the trick of understanding what your child needs.

I worked in several school districts as a school psych. and did not have the ability to spend 3 hours with a student for testing. My caseload was through the roof. I was often interrupted for mental health, behavior, and safety/risk assessment emergencies. Plus, the number of meetings I was required to attend limited my time spent for student testing. Unsure which school system you work that allows you to spend several hours with one student. I was lucky to have 2 uninterrupted hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here! It’s really a semantics question. We are not giving diagnoses in the educational setting, we are giving educational classifications. If I test your child and the pattern is clearly dyslexia, I will tell you that! But there won’t be a piece of medical paperwork for your child’s record that says that. Instead, there will be an IEP under the category of specific learning disability. I would not encourage you to get private testing at this stage, as the school will give many of the same tests for free.

How many hours of testing do you spend with a child when you conduct a school-based evaluation? Case loads are very high and time is extremely limited.

I probably spend 2-3 hours with each child and then observe them.. There’s also an educational assessment that is another 2-3 hours. Private testing might be 4-8 hours, they typically give several tests that measure the same construct, whereas I’ll probably only give 1-2 unless there’s an unanswered question about the child’s performance. Private testing can definitely be more thorough, but I find that testing that takes place in a child’s ecological system is often more accurate to their day to day. I’m also not sure that giving additional tests provides much added utility. I am not saying people shouldn’t get private testing, but if it’s a financial burden for you and not covered by insurance, school based testing can often do the trick of understanding what your child needs.

I worked in several school districts as a school psych. and did not have the ability to spend 3 hours with a student for testing. My caseload was through the roof. I was often interrupted for mental health, behavior, and safety/risk assessment emergencies. Plus, the number of meetings I was required to attend limited my time spent for student testing. Unsure which school system you work that allows you to spend several hours with one student. I was lucky to have 2 uninterrupted hours.

I work in FCPS, which is the district that the poster is asking about. Our caseloads are high but manageable. There are certain busy periods of the year (April-June) where I start having to work a lot from home. It helps that at my school, our administration considers psychological testing important and will pull me from that only for true emergencies. I certainly can't say that all school psychologists have a good situation like that, but I should think that as a school psych yourself, you would be offended to hear people say that we falsify testing when that's just not true.

[Anonymous]

FCPS parent here - go for the private testing. The testing in the schools varies depending on the person(s) administering it. We are at a school that is just an abomination when it comes to testing and special ed. Told us our child was on level with no signs of struggle or learning differences. Neuropsych and tutor (who is a special ed teacher at another FCPS elementary school) both very quickly identified several learning disabilities including both dyslexia and dysgraphia.

Just like when you have a medical issue and get a second opinion, get a second opinion here too. We got 3 and the school was the outlier by a mile. That being said, there are other FCPS schools near us that do a much better job than ours in identifying struggling students and teaching them.

[Anonymous]

Another school psych here, but not in FCPS. The dyslexia/dysgraphia term is a semantics issue - it's not a special ed category and it's actually not a DSM category either. The school message is right that they don't diagnose dyslexia, and you would need a private eval for a diagnosis. However, the school does identify specific learning disabilities. The school eval and school team is ultimately what determines eligibility for special ed, though they will consider private evals.

I always suggest that parents go through the school based evals first. This is sufficient for many kids. If you disagree with their findings, you can then pursue private testing. Private testing has a longer wait and is expensive, which is why I recommend starting with school testing. You could respond to the email and say you are requesting a school-based evaluation for special eduction services because you suspect that your child may have a specific learning disability. Then, the team will have a meeting with you to discuss.

Also, in my experience, there is just as much variability in quality in public and private evals. A high price tag is not always a marker of quality.

[Anonymous]

If you get the school eval and disagree, you can ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation, which will allow you to get the private eval on the school district's dime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you get the school eval and disagree, you can ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation, which will allow you to get the private eval on the school district's dime.

from their approved list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another school psych here, but not in FCPS. The dyslexia/dysgraphia term is a semantics issue - it's not a special ed category and it's actually not a DSM category either. The school message is right that they don't diagnose dyslexia, and you would need a private eval for a diagnosis. However, the school does identify specific learning disabilities. The school eval and school team is ultimately what determines eligibility for special ed, though they will consider private evals.

I always suggest that parents go through the school based evals first. This is sufficient for many kids. If you disagree with their findings, you can then pursue private testing. Private testing has a longer wait and is expensive, which is why I recommend starting with school testing. You could respond to the email and say you are requesting a school-based evaluation for special eduction services because you suspect that your child may have a specific learning disability. Then, the team will have a meeting with you to discuss.

Also, in my experience, there is just as much variability in quality in public and private evals. A high price tag is not always a marker of quality.

I just wanted to flag something that I just leaned and PP mentioned.

Specific learning disability is an educational and legal term (school can identify).

Specific learning disorder is a medical term (psychologist must diagnose, it’s in the DSM).

After “specific learning disorder” the DSM adds “with impairment in…” reading, writing, or math. It also says that SLD with impairment in reading is also known as dyslexia.

Disability = legal terminology
Disorder = medical terminology

Dyslexia

[Anonymous]

Our school attorney has said they love when we do our own testing-- it's easier to build a case when going up against a parent. IEE are also extremely hard to get the district to pay for.

-school psychologist