Local Area Screening within 10 business days?

[Anonymous]

PP is exactly right. The school is required to evaluate a student for sped services, that does not mean testing. Evaluation includes meeting with team members to discuss current data and concerns. At this evaluation meeting it is determined whether testing is needed to determine whether the student has a disability that is having an educational impact and that requires specialized instruction. There is no requirement to test, only to evaluate based on a variety of sources to come to a conclusion about whether testing is warranted.

[Anonymous]

I can see why they won’t let you meet with the teacher unless an administrator is present.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP is exactly right. The school is required to evaluate a student for sped services, that does not mean testing. Evaluation includes meeting with team members to discuss current data and concerns. At this evaluation meeting it is determined whether testing is needed to determine whether the student has a disability that is having an educational impact and that requires specialized instruction. There is no requirement to test, only to evaluate based on a variety of sources to come to a conclusion about whether testing is warranted.

OP, it's helpful to think of the 2 different meetings as follows:

1) First meeting is the IEP eligibility "screening" meeting -- at this meeting you have to show a "reasonable suspicion" of a 1) disorder that 2) adversely impacts education and 3) necessitates special education. When you attend the meeting, you should organize your contribution according to this three-pronged legal test. Explain what disability you think your DC has -- ADHD? A specific learning disability like dyslexia or dysgraphia or dyscalculia? An anxiety disorder? Then explain how this is adversely impacting education -- is DC getting bad grades overall? in specific areas? on state or county benchmarks? is DC below grade in any skills? is DC unable to participate in class in a manner similar to other kids? Is DC unable to pay attention or complete work? Link these "adverse effects" back to the disorder if possible. Then explain what kind of special instruction is necessary -- a dyslexic child needs a special reading instruction program. ADHD kids often need special instruction that teaches them how to organize their work and thoughts to complete assignments. Also, even though this is an IEP meeting, your DC might need accommodations -- things like extra-time, teacher re-directing attention, prompts to remain on task, prompts to check that all parts of an assignment are complete, copy of class notes, etc. The "screening" meeting does not determine eligibility, so you do not have to "prove" that all three elements exist, but you at least have to make a plausible argument supported by some kind of theory and evidence that all three elements may exist, and should be explored via school-provided assessment and data collection. If you "succeed" in making the argument that there is a "reasonable suspicion of educational disability," then the team should continue to discuss during the meeting what kind of testing/assessment/data collection should be done to provide the data to discuss at the next meeting.

2) After a period of time to do the assessment (length of which is determined by law, but usually 60 days), the team will reconvene in an "eligibility determination" meeting. At this meeting, the documentation and assessments will be reviewed (including anything that you provide such as work samples, tutor reports, private psych assessment, doctor's reports, etc.). Together the team, of which you are an equal member, will determine whether there is enough evidence in each of the three categories to determine that the student qualifies for an IEP.

If the team determines that the student is "eligible," then there is a further process for the team (again, including you) to write the IEP goals and objectives.

If the team determines the student is not eligible for an IEP, then you may ask the team to consider instead whether the child is eligible for a 504 plan. A 504 plan requires a 1) disorder that 2) "substantially limits major life activities."

From this, you can see that at the initial meeting, a school could decide that a student/family hasn't shown a reasonable suspicion of disability and thus isn't entitled to any assessment. Of course, in the IEP process you have legal "due process" rights -- which means that you can contest this decision by appealing, filing a state complaint, filing suit or asking for mediation. There are also informal due process procedures like complaining to a special ed supervisor outside the school.

BTW, in this process is it NOT necessary to wait to try RTI. A school cannot use RTI to delay the process timeline which is generally specified in federal law and specifically specified (i.e. exact number of days, whether the days are regular days or business days, etc.) by state law.

HTH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can see why they won’t let you meet with the teacher unless an administrator is present.

A parent has no legal right to meet with a teacher. The school is allowed to determine the manner in which parents meet with students. Meeting alone with the teacher is not a hill to die on. If the school declines to let you meet at all with the teacher, that is going to reflect poorly on the school; document and move on.

A parent does have a legal right to all educational records. A parent does not have a legal right to force the school to provide educational records to 3rd parties; the parents can get the documents themselves and forward them to the 3rd party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local screening for accommodations which I never even asked for. They have been trying to prevent me from asking about any accommodations all year.

And as I start to get close to asking, the principal said I asked two weeks ago and the rule is within 10 business days in fairfax county so we have to meet in early February which is outside of that 10 days.

I’m so confused.

This post is very confusing, OP. Can you please clarify by answering the following question:

Does your child currently have an IEP? Yes or no

no iep. We are trying to gather information for one. Waiting on the school to submit paperwork to pediatrician is as far as I’ve gotten in the process. Hopefully I can atleast get a diagnosis from the pediatrician before the meeting

And dam right we need a 504 and probably an IEP. I am just in the blind as far as what the school is trying to do

Okay. Next question: Have you had a meeting with the school to discuss whether or not to pursue testing your child? If so, did you sign off for this testing to be done? When?

no. They won’t even tell me if the school has ever had anyone with ADHD. They want to jump right to the Local Screening Meeting

Okay. I think you might have a misunderstanding of what the process is. I work in FCPS and this is, more or less, how the process works:
-You or a teacher sees a concern. A request is made to have the child tested. That starts the 10 business day clock. By the end of the 10 days, the local screening committee (sped teacher, classroom teacher, psychologist, social worker, admin and you) meet.

-The purpose of this meeting is to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant testing. It’s not enough for anyone to just say, “This kid needs to be tested.” There has to be evidence of difficulties and interventions tried.

-IF the committee decides that testing is warranted, then a 65 (regular) day clock begins. Within that time frame, all testing needs to be completed.

-When testing is completed, the school psychologist will meet with you to explain the results.

-Soon after, the local screening committee meets again with you in what’s called an eligibility meeting to determine if the testing results warrant a special education disability designation for your child.

-If yes, your child meets the criteria for a disability, then a smaller team (just the sped teacher, classroom teacher and you) have 30 days to meet and agree on an IEP that includes goals, accommodations and how & where services are delivered. When you sign off on that, it in effect immediately for the next year. You can call a meeting at any time if you think adjustments are needed.

If you’ve just mentioned a concern and desire for testing , then meeting in early February for local screening is fine. February begins next Friday.

That doesn't seem right. They can't deny you the full IEP eligibility determination just because they don't think you need testing. They also can't require that you try other interventions before doing the eligibility screening. It is probably best practices to start interventions before the whole IEP process is over (RTI) but there's no obligation to wait for RTI.

What??? So you’re saying that any parent can just walk into their kid’s school and say, “Hey my kid missed an answer on the quiz. I think he has a learning issue. I want a full battery of psychological and educational testing done.” And according to you, the local screening committee should be obligated to agree to that.
Nope. The school isn’t and shouldn’t be obligated to do testing just because the parent wants it.

I'm not sure, but there has to be some way for a parent to appeal the decision not to test, and get to the IEP eligibility meeting. They don't have the right to create a procedural step that effectively blocks your right to a full consideration of the matter for eligibility. I'm not sure what the law is on declining to test -- I guess that could be considered a failure to properly identify disabled children? While it's true that the school district's duty to evaluate children does not mean that every kid gets the cadillac of testing, they can't just say "no we won't test" and the parent has no ability to appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local screening for accommodations which I never even asked for. They have been trying to prevent me from asking about any accommodations all year.

And as I start to get close to asking, the principal said I asked two weeks ago and the rule is within 10 business days in fairfax county so we have to meet in early February which is outside of that 10 days.

I’m so confused.

This post is very confusing, OP. Can you please clarify by answering the following question:

Does your child currently have an IEP? Yes or no

no iep. We are trying to gather information for one. Waiting on the school to submit paperwork to pediatrician is as far as I’ve gotten in the process. Hopefully I can atleast get a diagnosis from the pediatrician before the meeting

And dam right we need a 504 and probably an IEP. I am just in the blind as far as what the school is trying to do

Okay. Next question: Have you had a meeting with the school to discuss whether or not to pursue testing your child? If so, did you sign off for this testing to be done? When?

no. They won’t even tell me if the school has ever had anyone with ADHD. They want to jump right to the Local Screening Meeting

Okay. I think you might have a misunderstanding of what the process is. I work in FCPS and this is, more or less, how the process works:
-You or a teacher sees a concern. A request is made to have the child tested. That starts the 10 business day clock. By the end of the 10 days, the local screening committee (sped teacher, classroom teacher, psychologist, social worker, admin and you) meet.

-The purpose of this meeting is to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant testing. It’s not enough for anyone to just say, “This kid needs to be tested.” There has to be evidence of difficulties and interventions tried.

-IF the committee decides that testing is warranted, then a 65 (regular) day clock begins. Within that time frame, all testing needs to be completed.

-When testing is completed, the school psychologist will meet with you to explain the results.

-Soon after, the local screening committee meets again with you in what’s called an eligibility meeting to determine if the testing results warrant a special education disability designation for your child.

-If yes, your child meets the criteria for a disability, then a smaller team (just the sped teacher, classroom teacher and you) have 30 days to meet and agree on an IEP that includes goals, accommodations and how & where services are delivered. When you sign off on that, it in effect immediately for the next year. You can call a meeting at any time if you think adjustments are needed.

If you’ve just mentioned a concern and desire for testing , then meeting in early February for local screening is fine. February begins next Friday.

That doesn't seem right. They can't deny you the full IEP eligibility determination just because they don't think you need testing. They also can't require that you try other interventions before doing the eligibility screening. It is probably best practices to start interventions before the whole IEP process is over (RTI) but there's no obligation to wait for RTI.

What??? So you’re saying that any parent can just walk into their kid’s school and say, “Hey my kid missed an answer on the quiz. I think he has a learning issue. I want a full battery of psychological and educational testing done.” And according to you, the local screening committee should be obligated to agree to that.
Nope. The school isn’t and shouldn’t be obligated to do testing just because the parent wants it.

I'm not sure, but there has to be some way for a parent to appeal the decision not to test, and get to the IEP eligibility meeting. They don't have the right to create a procedural step that effectively blocks your right to a full consideration of the matter for eligibility. I'm not sure what the law is on declining to test -- I guess that could be considered a failure to properly identify disabled children? While it's true that the school district's duty to evaluate children does not mean that every kid gets the cadillac of testing, they can't just say "no we won't test" and the parent has no ability to appeal.

The next step is a due process hearing