MCPS IEP when kid turns 8

[Anonymous]

If MCPS believes that attention is affecting academic performance, you should use the OHI code, then you can also have academic goals and services. It will become very difficult to justify academic goals with an SLI code---this is very rare for good reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Phew, what a relief.

I should ask though since all three of you mentioned evaluation/assessment.

Kid had the three-year review last year and got speech only for this academic year. This year, I had to request the "re-evaluation planning" meeting in order to get the reading and writing services added, which is now the new IEP for next academic year.

So next year, I thought that in theory a full re-evaluation wouldn't need to be conducted... unless MCPS needs it for a specific code? I wasn't anticipating needing to have my kid to go through tests and the like again. Does kid have to go through all the testing again before turning 8?

Thanks again.

I don't know about age but we just have speech diagnosis. We had to do a full battery of testing to get it. Our private SLP did most of it and we submitted it and the school supplemented with their own tests to prove academic need. It wasn't a huge amount of testing.

.

With the SLI code, does your kid other supports like help in reading or just ST, PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Phew, what a relief.

I should ask though since all three of you mentioned evaluation/assessment.

Kid had the three-year review last year and got speech only for this academic year. This year, I had to request the "re-evaluation planning" meeting in order to get the reading and writing services added, which is now the new IEP for next academic year.

So next year, I thought that in theory a full re-evaluation wouldn't need to be conducted... unless MCPS needs it for a specific code? I wasn't anticipating needing to have my kid to go through tests and the like again. Does kid have to go through all the testing again before turning 8?

Thanks again.

I don't know about age but we just have speech diagnosis. We had to do a full battery of testing to get it. Our private SLP did most of it and we submitted it and the school supplemented with their own tests to prove academic need. It wasn't a huge amount of testing.

.

With the SLI code, does your kid other supports like help in reading or just ST, PP?

We didn't get say in the IEP so I don't remember what it said as I only saw it when we reviewed it at the meeting. I think they work on reading comprehension but I'm not sure. Reading and writing isn't an issue. We spent a lot of time last summer working on handwriting and writing at home. I'd work on it at home and put him in a reading program over the summer. We find the IEP a waste of time but child's is not having academic issues (which is why we didn't bother to argue it and we do private services). I think you can get reading but it probably depends on the therapist. Our private SLP does reading comprehension as part of speech therapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS believes that attention is affecting academic performance, you should use the OHI code, then you can also have academic goals and services. It will become very difficult to justify academic goals with an SLI code---this is very rare for good reason.

I don't think its very rare. We got one. First year on an IEP. Speech can impact reading as they expect kids to read out loud for reading level checks. My child's teacher rates him much lower due to articulation and fluency even though he's a very strong reader. It also impacts answering questions quickly and smoothly as he may need extra time to form his answers. So, technically for school academic purposes it is impacted, but when we work at home it doesn't seem to be as much as they claim it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Phew, what a relief.

I should ask though since all three of you mentioned evaluation/assessment.

Kid had the three-year review last year and got speech only for this academic year. This year, I had to request the "re-evaluation planning" meeting in order to get the reading and writing services added, which is now the new IEP for next academic year.

So next year, I thought that in theory a full re-evaluation wouldn't need to be conducted... unless MCPS needs it for a specific code? I wasn't anticipating needing to have my kid to go through tests and the like again. Does kid have to go through all the testing again before turning 8?

Thanks again.

I don't know about age but we just have speech diagnosis. We had to do a full battery of testing to get it. Our private SLP did most of it and we submitted it and the school supplemented with their own tests to prove academic need. It wasn't a huge amount of testing.

.

With the SLI code, does your kid other supports like help in reading or just ST, PP?

We didn't get say in the IEP so I don't remember what it said as I only saw it when we reviewed it at the meeting. I think they work on reading comprehension but I'm not sure. Reading and writing isn't an issue. We spent a lot of time last summer working on handwriting and writing at home. I'd work on it at home and put him in a reading program over the summer. We find the IEP a waste of time but child's is not having academic issues (which is why we didn't bother to argue it and we do private services). I think you can get reading but it probably depends on the therapist. Our private SLP does reading comprehension as part of speech therapy.

Did your private SLP diagnose from the evaluation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS believes that attention is affecting academic performance, you should use the OHI code, then you can also have academic goals and services. It will become very difficult to justify academic goals with an SLI code---this is very rare for good reason.

I don't think its very rare. We got one. First year on an IEP. Speech can impact reading as they expect kids to read out loud for reading level checks. My child's teacher rates him much lower due to articulation and fluency even though he's a very strong reader. It also impacts answering questions quickly and smoothly as he may need extra time to form his answers. So, technically for school academic purposes it is impacted, but when we work at home it doesn't seem to be as much as they claim it does.

Maybe not yet. That's why is said "It will become very difficult". You may not find this yet as you have a young DC, but this won't fly for long because it doesn't make sense long term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS believes that attention is affecting academic performance, you should use the OHI code, then you can also have academic goals and services. It will become very difficult to justify academic goals with an SLI code---this is very rare for good reason.

I don't think its very rare. We got one. First year on an IEP. Speech can impact reading as they expect kids to read out loud for reading level checks. My child's teacher rates him much lower due to articulation and fluency even though he's a very strong reader. It also impacts answering questions quickly and smoothly as he may need extra time to form his answers. So, technically for school academic purposes it is impacted, but when we work at home it doesn't seem to be as much as they claim it does.

Language also has a huge impact on reading. Good readers, at least good young readers, don't memorize or sound out every word. Instead, they do lots of problem solving where they integrate syntactical/semantic cues with phonetic ones. A child with an expressive language disability who has poor syntax and semantics will almost certainly struggle with that. Similarly, a child who has a receptive language disability, and has difficulty understanding spoken language, will almost have the same difficulty understanding written language.

Often kids for whom language is the number one issue in elementary school, and who get an SLI coding, will be switched to an SLD coding at some point, but not always. Sometimes, especially if there are other speech and language issues, SLI continues to be the best description.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Phew, what a relief.

I should ask though since all three of you mentioned evaluation/assessment.

Kid had the three-year review last year and got speech only for this academic year. This year, I had to request the "re-evaluation planning" meeting in order to get the reading and writing services added, which is now the new IEP for next academic year.

So next year, I thought that in theory a full re-evaluation wouldn't need to be conducted... unless MCPS needs it for a specific code? I wasn't anticipating needing to have my kid to go through tests and the like again. Does kid have to go through all the testing again before turning 8?

Thanks again.

I don't know about age but we just have speech diagnosis. We had to do a full battery of testing to get it. Our private SLP did most of it and we submitted it and the school supplemented with their own tests to prove academic need. It wasn't a huge amount of testing.

.

With the SLI code, does your kid other supports like help in reading or just ST, PP?

We didn't get say in the IEP so I don't remember what it said as I only saw it when we reviewed it at the meeting. I think they work on reading comprehension but I'm not sure. Reading and writing isn't an issue. We spent a lot of time last summer working on handwriting and writing at home. I'd work on it at home and put him in a reading program over the summer. We find the IEP a waste of time but child's is not having academic issues (which is why we didn't bother to argue it and we do private services). I think you can get reading but it probably depends on the therapist. Our private SLP does reading comprehension as part of speech therapy.

Did your private SLP diagnose from the evaluation?

I don't think she did a specific diagnosis but made it clear it was receptive, expressive, articulation and stuttering. They refused to provide for receptive saying it was low average and good enough. However, most of the speech work is more receptive and little with receptive or articulation from the sheet coming home. The group we are in is not really geared/catered to my child. Honestly I think school speech is a waste of time as its only 30 minutes/2 weekly of group. We wanted it more for the classroom supports but they aren't doing them in the classroom so the entire IEP is a waste of time (yes, we could fight it but child is passing everything so its a non-issue to us).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS believes that attention is affecting academic performance, you should use the OHI code, then you can also have academic goals and services. It will become very difficult to justify academic goals with an SLI code---this is very rare for good reason.

I don't think its very rare. We got one. First year on an IEP. Speech can impact reading as they expect kids to read out loud for reading level checks. My child's teacher rates him much lower due to articulation and fluency even though he's a very strong reader. It also impacts answering questions quickly and smoothly as he may need extra time to form his answers. So, technically for school academic purposes it is impacted, but when we work at home it doesn't seem to be as much as they claim it does.

Language also has a huge impact on reading. Good readers, at least good young readers, don't memorize or sound out every word. Instead, they do lots of problem solving where they integrate syntactical/semantic cues with phonetic ones. A child with an expressive language disability who has poor syntax and semantics will almost certainly struggle with that. Similarly, a child who has a receptive language disability, and has difficulty understanding spoken language, will almost have the same difficulty understanding written language.

Often kids for whom language is the number one issue in elementary school, and who get an SLI coding, will be switched to an SLD coding at some point, but not always. Sometimes, especially if there are other speech and language issues, SLI continues to be the best description.

You are right for some kids but not mine. Mine was reading/decoding new words before he was talking. Reading came much easier than talking (I think partly to speech therapy where everything was visual). He learned mainly from memorization, some sound it out. Later he learned phonics at preschool but he rarely used it as he was reading well when that happened. He also understood words written over hearing them. If he is given directions, he has a much easier time if they are written down than if he hears them. Teachers supposedly give him a list of tasks of example in writing as a checklist vs. just telling him. He had severe receptive and expressive language issues. I think due to the strong reading, he has progressed as well as he has. Logically what you are saying makes sense but that isn't how my child is wired. I'm assuming in the next year or two we will lose the IEP.

School refuses to recognize receptive language issues. Its clearly partly impacting him but he's found strategies to work around it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS believes that attention is affecting academic performance, you should use the OHI code, then you can also have academic goals and services. It will become very difficult to justify academic goals with an SLI code---this is very rare for good reason.

I don't think its very rare. We got one. First year on an IEP. Speech can impact reading as they expect kids to read out loud for reading level checks. My child's teacher rates him much lower due to articulation and fluency even though he's a very strong reader. It also impacts answering questions quickly and smoothly as he may need extra time to form his answers. So, technically for school academic purposes it is impacted, but when we work at home it doesn't seem to be as much as they claim it does.

Maybe not yet. That's why is said "It will become very difficult". You may not find this yet as you have a young DC, but this won't fly for long because it doesn't make sense long term.

I don't have a young child. I have an older elementary school aged child. Its our first year with an IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS believes that attention is affecting academic performance, you should use the OHI code, then you can also have academic goals and services. It will become very difficult to justify academic goals with an SLI code---this is very rare for good reason.

I don't think its very rare. We got one. First year on an IEP. Speech can impact reading as they expect kids to read out loud for reading level checks. My child's teacher rates him much lower due to articulation and fluency even though he's a very strong reader. It also impacts answering questions quickly and smoothly as he may need extra time to form his answers. So, technically for school academic purposes it is impacted, but when we work at home it doesn't seem to be as much as they claim it does.

Maybe not yet. That's why is said "It will become very difficult". You may not find this yet as you have a young DC, but this won't fly for long because it doesn't make sense long term.

I don't have a young child. I have an older elementary school aged child. Its our first year with an IEP.

I you have a kid in elementary--that's a young child.

[Anonymous]

"If" you have...

[Anonymous]

Exactly. This is the kind of thing that happens in elementary schools. Kids are pushed onto SLI because it is easier. Middle schools won't accept this label for long. The vast majority of students at MS/HS level will either no longer qualify or will be covered under SLD or OHI. Just a heads up to push for the testing that is needed to determine what your child's needs really are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. This is the kind of thing that happens in elementary schools. Kids are pushed onto SLI because it is easier. Middle schools won't accept this label for long. The vast majority of students at MS/HS level will either no longer qualify or will be covered under SLD or OHI. Just a heads up to push for the testing that is needed to determine what your child's needs really are.

Do private testing and submit it and then let the school supplement. They often dismiss concerns, or at least in our experience.

(we will no longer qualify at MS/HS level. I'd be surprised if we qualify next year.)

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks all for your input, including other PP.

It has been insightful to learn about the process for next year as well as in MS/HS. Thanks all for your comments.