FCPS and possible evaluation for special education. I have unanswered questions...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I wouldn't let the school psych anywhere near my kid. They are so unqualified to actually diagnose anything. So often their go-to diagnosis is what they already have programming for. So they tried to shove my learning disabled child into an autism program.

They also like secrecy because they view it as keeping all the power.

I would get my child privately evaluated. You'll learn a lot more.

You are fucking crazy

No, she's not.

I asked our school's team to provide me with the following:

1. What assessments and measures will they use and why?
2. What are the thresholds, rubrics, or standards for scoring the assessments?
3. How do they determine what pattern of results indicates possible or probably identification?
4. Is the intent to "diagnose" or what? Describe the precise purposes of the evaluation, scoring, and evaluation.

F if I couldn't get a straight answer. In fact, the school psych didn't even have a copy of the curriculum standards in hand, nor did she have any sort of rubric for determining if my child was performing far below, below, at, or above any sort of performance standard. I provided her with the information that the "stuff" I was concerned about was, in fact, articulated as specific learning standards across several grade levels, and her response was, "Oh, this is so helpful. Thank you." WTF???

Yeah, so don't assume these folks are fully competent or knowledgeable. We're going private, too.

Parents have to sign off on the testing. Schools by law have to give you a list of tests they want to administer prior to testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The conversation happened a year ago, and his teacher this year hasn't said anything. I requested the meeting last year. On his report card it still says below grade level in math & reading. Effort is all 3's & 4's.

I have a lot to think about. Again, very much appreciate all your helpful responses!

That is reason enough. OP--tell the teacher you want to refer your child for testing. You will be asked to fill out a referral. He's in third grade. Why is below level? Something has got to be getting in the way for him. This isn't about effort--Kids want to learn.

Third grade is when kids read to learn and not learn to read. If he is below grade level, it probably means he's not reading well enough to "read to learn".

Third grade math mostly is about learning the multiplication table. A third grader should be solid in additional and subtraction.

These are foundational skills. If he is below grade level in third, it is only going to get worse.

To give you hope

Our DD was in second grade when the teacher recommended she be tested. She was behind in school. We were confused and not sure what to do. It is overwhelming. The IEP rules are complicated and impossible to decipher. Special Education is a loaded term that hits hard and negative. Surely the teacher was mistaken?

But we cannot thank that teacher enough. Our DD was behind in reading and needed extra help and that FCPS teacher raised the issue. She was assessed and put on IEP at end of second grade. She was on IEP until high school.

DD was behind for most of elementary school. It was not until summer between 5th grade and 6th grade the she really started reading for fun. Until then it was something that she struggled with and as we all know, things that we are not good at we put off. Reading is so fundamental to all the other subjects. An IEP helped immensely. DD got extra help before during and after school. Also, while some criticize the standardized testing, this testing identified our daughter as behind and the FCPS elementary school provided extra tutoring before school to give students extra help.

We did not rely on the school testing. We paid for private testing and you should DEFINITELY do this again. Do not rely on school resources to do this. They will still do an assessment, which I remember also as multiple sessions, and questionaires sent to both parents, and teachers, and doctors. They looked for psych issues, home issues in addition to learning issues. But it was the private testing report that really helped identify learning deficiencies. Cost about $2500 about 10 years ago. We used Dr. Paula Elitov, not sure if she still practices, but she was very good.

I really believe the extra help provided by FCPS made a major difference. IEP forces the school to do periodic meetings with teachers and psychologist and principal to review IEP and progress. The schools definitely respond.

so fast forward to today and I am looking at second quarter high school grades with all A's, AP Calc and AP Gov. DD has caught up and is doing very well. She was "graduated" from IEP program as freshman in high school.

It would not have happened if not for a FCPS second grade elementary teacher who took the time to identify someone that needed help. I


and do not expect a teacher to explain the process to you. It is complicated and legal. they can not be promising something that may not happen. I would expect little help on the process but lots of help with actually helping your child.

I want to repeat what this poster said. My dd's second grade teacher also flagged dd, and we decided to do private testing. She was diagnosed with ADHD and received a 504. Also, because she was behind in reading, she got reading with either a small group or by herself with the reading specialist every day in 2nd grade. By 3rd grade, she is now up to grade level in reading. However, she still continues to struggle, and now we are in the process of a school evaluation for an IEP. When I originally learned that dd might have ADHD, I sat at my desk and cried. But looking back, it is so helpful now to have this information. Now I get why she refuses to do homework, hates to work on her math tables and says that she is bad at math and hates school. We have not yet medicated her, but we are looking into medication as well.

If your teacher is asking you to be referred for screening, that means that she feels like she cannot give your child the resources he needs to learn at his potential. There are a lot more resources available in FCPS that you are not accessing. Here are the ones my dd has, and when she receives her IEP, she will receive more services. She gets extra time on tests, reminders in class to stay on task, daily meetings with the school counselor, check in/check out system, and last year, daily teaching with the reading specialist. In first grade before she had accommodations, she spent the entire year day dreaming and writing in her journal. Her teacher would send home mountains of in class worksheets that dd didn't complete. All of that time was wasted for no good reason. I should have had her tested sooner. Don't be afraid of accessing the resources available in your public school. Your child's teacher believes that your child needs them.

[Anonymous]

On our FCPS elementary report cards (several years ago, there were still grades) some students received the notation, "student requires modified curriculum". They hadn't had any testing. These students were not in Spec Ed but, I've got to believe, the school was pushing them in that direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I wouldn't let the school psych anywhere near my kid. They are so unqualified to actually diagnose anything. So often their go-to diagnosis is what they already have programming for. So they tried to shove my learning disabled child into an autism program.

They also like secrecy because they view it as keeping all the power.

I would get my child privately evaluated. You'll learn a lot more.

You are fucking crazy

No, she's not.

I asked our school's team to provide me with the following:

1. What assessments and measures will they use and why?
2. What are the thresholds, rubrics, or standards for scoring the assessments?
3. How do they determine what pattern of results indicates possible or probably identification?
4. Is the intent to "diagnose" or what? Describe the precise purposes of the evaluation, scoring, and evaluation.

F if I couldn't get a straight answer. In fact, the school psych didn't even have a copy of the curriculum standards in hand, nor did she have any sort of rubric for determining if my child was performing far below, below, at, or above any sort of performance standard. I provided her with the information that the "stuff" I was concerned about was, in fact, articulated as specific learning standards across several grade levels, and her response was, "Oh, this is so helpful. Thank you." WTF???

Yeah, so don't assume these folks are fully competent or knowledgeable. We're going private, too.

Parents have to sign off on the testing. Schools by law have to give you a list of tests they want to administer prior to testing.

No, they don't have to give you a list of tests. They can ask for blanket approval. Lots of districts trick parents this way.

[Anonymous]

Hold the teacher's feet-to-the-fire to teach to the range of "normal". Even the low end. Make sure DC isn't labeled for the instructional convenience of teacher and school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a third grade boy and he is below grade level in math and reading. Last year was his first year in FCPS and his teacher suggested that we might consider having him evaluated for learning disabilities in the next school year. She offered to get the referral process started, but I wanted to wait it out and work with him some more. I just feel like they will not give me the information I want to know about regarding the evaluation processes. I asked questions about how they evaluate students and they just told me they pull them out of class and assess them in certain areas and that there is a psych evaluation. They were so vague about the whole process and I feel like if I knew more about what they do, I might feel more comfortable moving forward with requesting a referral. Until they provide more information, I am not comfortable with doing this.

Does anyone here know what goes on during these evaluations? I'm also curious about the psych evaluation and why they do this. My child's main problem seems to be with paying attention and general boredom with what is being taught or how it's being taught. He does really well in subjects that he is interested in, but he just HATES math! I practice with him at home, but he just can't seem to remember anything that is not interesting enough to him. This is why I'm reluctant to have him pulled from class to be evaluated when I don't even know anything about all of this and they seem unwilling to inform me of it.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I am not a doctor, but it sounds like my son. The difference, is my son loves Math and Reading, and HATES WRITING.
We did independent evaluation. Child turned out 2E. Extremely gifted in math, very high IQ and has mild ADHD (for subjects that he does not like -WRITING, very low processing speed)
If you do not trust school, and I would not trust it. Go for independent evaluation, and then see what to do next.
In our case school tried to say that there are no concerns and I knew that my child had problems with writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I wouldn't let the school psych anywhere near my kid. They are so unqualified to actually diagnose anything. So often their go-to diagnosis is what they already have programming for. So they tried to shove my learning disabled child into an autism program.

They also like secrecy because they view it as keeping all the power.

I would get my child privately evaluated. You'll learn a lot more.

You are fucking crazy

No, she's not.

I asked our school's team to provide me with the following:

1. What assessments and measures will they use and why?
2. What are the thresholds, rubrics, or standards for scoring the assessments?
3. How do they determine what pattern of results indicates possible or probably identification?
4. Is the intent to "diagnose" or what? Describe the precise purposes of the evaluation, scoring, and evaluation.

F if I couldn't get a straight answer. In fact, the school psych didn't even have a copy of the curriculum standards in hand, nor did she have any sort of rubric for determining if my child was performing far below, below, at, or above any sort of performance standard. I provided her with the information that the "stuff" I was concerned about was, in fact, articulated as specific learning standards across several grade levels, and her response was, "Oh, this is so helpful. Thank you." WTF???

Yeah, so don't assume these folks are fully competent or knowledgeable. We're going private, too.

Parents have to sign off on the testing. Schools by law have to give you a list of tests they want to administer prior to testing.

No, they don't have to give you a list of tests. They can ask for blanket approval. Lots of districts trick parents this way.

Ah, that's too bad. When our school did a psychoeducational eval, they gave us a list of tests that will be administered and we had to sign to give them permission. We are at a DC charter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hold the teacher's feet-to-the-fire to teach to the range of "normal". Even the low end. Make sure DC isn't labeled for the instructional convenience of teacher and school.

This is how it should be.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

11:51
The new FCPS web page is awful...
See if this works,
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/procedures.pdf

Here you'll find the FCPS Special Education
Procedures.

[Anonymous]

If you do private testing, it is up to you what you chose to disclose to the school. Kids with mild ADHD or LD aren't put in segregated classrooms any more. What is most likely to happen is access to additional services and accommodations. From what you say, I would look into evaluation.

The only advantage of testing through the school is monetary. Private testing can cost around $3k with minimal reimbursement from insurance. But out of private testing you will get a very detailed.report of testing, results, and recommendations.