2 standard deviations from what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:00:52's post is helpful, but two notes:

- The point that divides the sample into two halves is the median, not the mean.
- The standard deviation depends on the distribution of the data; this discussion assumes the distribution is normal, which makes sense here, but is not always the case.

Math teacher here. Standard deviation is based on the mean, not median. The formula for z-score is Z = (x-mean)/st. dev

Box and whisker plots use medians, which I've also seen at times in education, but normal distribution curves are about the mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Thank you to the previous posters. I do understand what a standard deviation is. My question was regarding the role that it plays in the eligibility process. We do have an advocate from AJE.

Legally, it plays no role. The law does not allow the school to set a bar above which a child cannot receive services. Instead, the child is eligible if they has a disability that interferes with their ability to perform at their potential. However, schools set these illegal bars to deny services and save money. They get away with it because many parents do not know the law, and fighting the school can take a lot of time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again: To the poster at 7:53, do you by any chance have a link to the disability worksheets/eligibility questionnaires that you mention?

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to respond to my post.

Sadly, no. They don't seem to be publicly accessible, though someone once suggested they could be FOIA'd... I do have the sheets from about 4 years ago for DD, OHI and SLI though - retyped, below. They're called "disability worksheets" - it's possible AJE has access to them, even just from other case files (obviously they wouldn't show you those kids, but could perhaps cut off identifying information and provide them/do a similar re-type). They may have changed slightly in the past 4 years, though I recall the one we did for my daughters DD last year (which somehow I don't have a copy of...) looking very similar to this DD one. But it shouldn't have been a drastic change. Basically the team has to check "yes" for each # for the child to meet the criteria. You'll note that only DD has a 2SD criteria (though in my experience that's not generally enforced, strictly - even early stages didn't get hung up on that point with us) and that's just because that's how DC has chosen to define DD eligibility. I didn't retype the whole SLI one, it's lengthy, just a few places as examples where there were parentheses provided lengthy detail. The basics are there though.




Developmental Delay:

Eligibility Criteria
1. Student is between 3 and 7 years old at the time of determination
2. Exhibits severe developmental delays: at least 2 years below chronological age and/or 2 SD below the mean in one or more of the following areas:
a. Physical Development
b. Cognitive Development
c. Language and Communication Development
d. Social or emotional development
e. Adaptive development
3. Student does not have autism; traumatic brain injury; mental retardation; emotional disturbance; other health impairment; orthopedic impairment; visual impairment, including blindness; hearing impairment including deafness; or speech/language impairment.
4. Adversely impacts the student’s development to the extent that the student requires specially designed instruction.
5. Impact on developmental or academic functioning is not primarily the result of behavior.


Speech or Language Impairment:

Eligibility Criteria
1. The SLP determines the present of absence of speech and language impairment based on rules and regulations for special education in at least one of the following areas:
a. Articulation impairment (the student’s speech must have atypical production of speech sounds…that interferes with intelligibility in conversational speech and obstructs learning and successful verbal communication in the educational setting…)
b. Fluency impairment (…)
c. Language impairment (impaired comprehension and/or use of spoken language which may also impair written and/or other symbol systems and is negatively impacting the students ability to participate in the classroom environment. The impairment may involve, in any combination , the form of language (…), tbe content of language(…), and/or the use of language in communication (pragmatics) that is adversely effecting the student’s educational performance)
d. Voice/resonance impairment (…)
2. Adversly impacts the student’s educational performance to the extent that the student requires specially designed instruction
3. The team determines that the student is a student with a disability and is eligible for special education and appropriate specialized instruction needed to access the student’s curriculum
4. The team has reviewed documented results of at least two or more measures or procedures administered in the areas of impairment and documentation of adverse effect.



Other Health Impairment

Eligibility Criteria:

1. The impairment is due to a chronic or acute health problem such as asthma, ADHD, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, …. Identify the specific condition that limits strength, vitality, or alterness, that results in limited alterness to the educational environment and has an adverse effect on educational performance.
2. The health impairment adversely affects a student’s educational performance. Identify the source of current data used to make a determination regarding this criterion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again: To the poster at 7:53, do you by any chance have a link to the disability worksheets/eligibility questionnaires that you mention?

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to respond to my post.

Also I found this on CLC's website, a compilation of OSSE policies (which should apply to charter LEAs too) - the second document in, 34 page doc, eventually lays out the criteria for eligibility for each category. I can't guarantee it, but I believe this tracks the disability worksheets pretty closely (the ASD criteria seems to match with what I vaguely recall the one time I saw that sheet...). A few documents later there is one on related services and the criteria for getting it (necessary to help a child benefit from special ed) - it's the proper standard, no matter what arbitrary cut off the school has decided to use. So you might be able to use that as well, the OSSE policy, to back up your argument. Nowhere in that doc does it say there's a line the kid needs to be below...

http://www.childrenslawcenter.org/sites/default/files/attachments/resources/Tab%203%20Bundle.pdf


This one has disability worksheets for ED, SLD and OHI, also from 5-6 years ago:

http://www.childrenslawcenter.org/sites/default/files/attachments/resources/Tab%208%20Bundle_0.pdf


Also this from OSSE for related services (doesn't add much, other than clearly doesn't say only available to kids below certain line/level):
http://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/Related%20Services%20Policy%20Guidance_Final_v.6.2010.pdf

[Anonymous]

OP here: Wow, thank you, that is amazingly helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Thank you to the previous posters. I do understand what a standard deviation is. My question was regarding the role that it plays in the eligibility process. We do have an advocate from AJE.

Legally, it plays no role. The law does not allow the school to set a bar above which a child cannot receive services. Instead, the child is eligible if they has a disability that interferes with their ability to perform at their potential. However, schools set these illegal bars to deny services and save money. They get away with it because many parents do not know the law, and fighting the school can take a lot of time and money.

Ha, that would explain why my kid didn't qualify for basic speech services. MoCo said he has autism and his IEP should reflect that, but they still wouldn't give him speech services. OP, cut to the chase and hire a lawyer.