Autism testing by school without consent

[Anonymous]

Schools have to test students in ALL areas of suspected disability. If they are doing any kind of assessment under social-emotional because they suspect ADHD, for example, and the tests indicate difficulty in socialization and there is a history of a student being tested for autism in the past then they need to do more testing to rule out autism. If they don't then they can get sued for not testing in all areas of suspected disability. It would be a lot easier for the school psychologist not to test. If you don't want your child assessed for autism then don't agree to any social emotional testing by the school.

[Anonymous]

Testing that is less than two years old should be fine for a meeting. I've used similar in my own meetings.

The fact that you are a lawyer doesn't negate your need for one--I'm the pp who recommended using one. I myself have a Phd. I can't imagine having a single meeting with the school system and not having her there. An advocate is an educational specialist. If you sue, then it goes to lawyers obviously but they can do a lot lawyers can't. This is what ours does for us:

--observes DC at school to ensure proper educational placement and make service recommendations
--advises on area resources including which neuropsych testers to use because she knows who writes good reports
--knows all the placement and service options in a school system, not just the few that are being offered to you by the system
--knows school system personnel, down to being familiar with particular personalities and favorite diagnoses (e.g. we have a meeting coming up and she is betting that a person who will attend will be trying to push a particular dx)
--understands educational testing and scoring and recommends particular tests (or not)

FYI Wrightslaw is coming to College Park in March sponsored by PPMD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools have to test students in ALL areas of suspected disability. If they are doing any kind of assessment under social-emotional because they suspect ADHD, for example, and the tests indicate difficulty in socialization and there is a history of a student being tested for autism in the past then they need to do more testing to rule out autism. If they don't then they can get sued for not testing in all areas of suspected disability. It would be a lot easier for the school psychologist not to test. If you don't want your child assessed for autism then don't agree to any social emotional testing by the school.

No, that's not true at all. You don't open the door to all test just because you consent to social/emotional assessment. OP herself states that she was able to withdraw consent for the autism testing.

OPs problem seems to be one more of timing and possibly misunderstanding the eligibility process. She wanted to do the autism testing privately, which I think is totally understandable. Where she might misunderstand is in thinking that if she DID want an IEP for autism (if that was the diagnosis) that she could refuse the school's own assessment. I don't think you have the right to substitute your private assessment for the school's assessment, although they do have to consider the results of the private assessment. What it really comes down to is strategy and timing -- whether you think there's any advantage in having your private test results first.

[Anonymous]

I'm more concerned about the "verbal consent." -in MCPS they give you a form, separate from the IEP forms, for you to sign to consent to the testing. If a school psychologist tested my kid without my specific written consent I'd be pretty mad.

[Anonymous]

Op here, the school claims we verbally consented to a test for autism during an IEP meeting, so yes, we're not happy about that. Regarding the educational advocate, would love to know how to find one, if anyone has suggestions on that. Thanks very much!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, here, I haven't responded yet, despite the above assumptions. Thanks for the helpful responses (for the benefit of future posters, those presuming what a posters true concenrs are, despite the question posed, are not helpful and simply cause more frustration). We have no concern that services will be taken away. We have had quite the opposite problem of having to fight very hard at one time, after kindgarten, to keep my son mainstream when the school wanted him send to a different school and into a class with kids with emotional disabilities. After a phenomenal 1st grade, everyone now admits that taking him out of mainstream would have been a huge mistake. So there is some level of distrust here. I'm not confident this school wants to deal with kids with special needs. We also have had him tested twice for autism privately and have been told he doesn't have it. We will test again. My concern is based on posts, similar to what is on this thread, saying that some school psychologists are not qualified to do this type of testing. Sounds like there is not a clear answer as to what we have consent to and not (which is surprising) and I need to do some legal research to better determine how to proceed. Thanks again.

OP, I think that your history with the school suggests you should get an advocate. You clearly did a good job with keeping him mainstreamed in first, but you aren't an expert at this. I would start bringing an attorney to these meetings and a tape recorder. I only dealt with school professionals in the LD area once and it was a misery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you give permission to evaluate you don't get to say that they can evaluate for x but not y. You basically open the door and the psychologist and others see where the data goes.

I'd register unhappiness with using incomplete data to draw a conclusion and ask for an IEE. You can submit your own examination as well. What did your private testing find?

pretty sure that's not true that you have to consent to any testing they want to do.

Read 6:30. She described it well.

She didn't cite to any law or regs. Parents are well within their rights to refuse a specific test.

Actually, that's not the case. A parent can certainly revoke permission or not consent in the first place, but a parent can't tell the school psychologist what instruments and rating scales to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you give permission to evaluate you don't get to say that they can evaluate for x but not y. You basically open the door and the psychologist and others see where the data goes.

I'd register unhappiness with using incomplete data to draw a conclusion and ask for an IEE. You can submit your own examination as well. What did your private testing find?

pretty sure that's not true that you have to consent to any testing they want to do.

Read 6:30. She described it well.

She didn't cite to any law or regs. Parents are well within their rights to refuse a specific test.

Actually, that's not the case. A parent can certainly revoke permission or not consent in the first place, but a parent can't tell the school psychologist what instruments and rating scales to use.

I'm not sure that's true. I would specifically refuse ADOS by a school psychologist because I just don't think they are qualified, if I thought getting a correct result at that point was important.

[Anonymous]

You can refuse specific tests. I have.

OP, definitely get an advocate. Schools have agendas. They are notorious for overusing an educational autism label.

[Anonymous]

Op here, thanks again for all the information and suggestions. If anyone has a recommendation for a special education advocate (Virginia), would love to explore this. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, OP, schools like to pull this shit. They put a bunch of forms in front of you, not clearly explaining what they are looking for. Then they have a hack school "psychologist" with minimal training and supervision do their autism assessments. It's a racket.

Of course, we laughed when they did this to us. Teachers were hounding us about autism, tested DS behind his back, then were shocked when even their hack psychologist found no autism. (We had outside evals saying no to autism, too.)

From then on, we specifically wrote into the IEPs that we did not consent to autism testing.

How's it a racket? What's the play, exactly? Who's getting rich here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, OP, schools like to pull this shit. They put a bunch of forms in front of you, not clearly explaining what they are looking for. Then they have a hack school "psychologist" with minimal training and supervision do their autism assessments. It's a racket.

Of course, we laughed when they did this to us. Teachers were hounding us about autism, tested DS behind his back, then were shocked when even their hack psychologist found no autism. (We had outside evals saying no to autism, too.)

From then on, we specifically wrote into the IEPs that we did not consent to autism testing.

How's it a racket? What's the play, exactly? Who's getting rich here?

In my school district (in the Midwest, not in D.C. now) the autism programs are a lot more robust. They have all the teachers and programming, especially for younger ages. Schools interpret educational autism really broadly and rules vary state by state one what an educational autism label looks like in each state. That's the reason there are such discrepancies of autism rates around the country; the CDC relies on documents from school districts to determine autism rates. Autism in the schools is just a catchall today.

Anyway OP, never trust the schools to diagnose autism. Go to the professionals who specialize in a differential diagnosis. The better diagnosis you get, the better treatment program you can put together for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, OP, schools like to pull this shit. They put a bunch of forms in front of you, not clearly explaining what they are looking for. Then they have a hack school "psychologist" with minimal training and supervision do their autism assessments. It's a racket.

Of course, we laughed when they did this to us. Teachers were hounding us about autism, tested DS behind his back, then were shocked when even their hack psychologist found no autism. (We had outside evals saying no to autism, too.)

From then on, we specifically wrote into the IEPs that we did not consent to autism testing.

How's it a racket? What's the play, exactly? Who's getting rich here?

In my school district (in the Midwest, not in D.C. now) the autism programs are a lot more robust. They have all the teachers and programming, especially for younger ages. Schools interpret educational autism really broadly and rules vary state by state one what an educational autism label looks like in each state. That's the reason there are such discrepancies of autism rates around the country; the CDC relies on documents from school districts to determine autism rates. Autism in the schools is just a catchall today.

Anyway OP, never trust the schools to diagnose autism. Go to the professionals who specialize in a differential diagnosis. The better diagnosis you get, the better treatment program you can put together for your child.

I agree with this. The school clearly wanted to put my child in the "autism" box because they did not have the resources or energy to actually deal with him properly. I am NOT scared of an autism diagnosis or in denial at all (my child has been fully screened, but privately). But they basically wanted to take him out of mainstream classrooms because they were too lazy to do otherwise. A year on his issues are really clear, and they are not autism.

At the end of the day, it's really a matter of trust. If you trust your school and school psychologist, then you'll trust their evaluations. If you don't, then you need to have your own team on your side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools have to test students in ALL areas of suspected disability. If they are doing any kind of assessment under social-emotional because they suspect ADHD, for example, and the tests indicate difficulty in socialization and there is a history of a student being tested for autism in the past then they need to do more testing to rule out autism. If they don't then they can get sued for not testing in all areas of suspected disability. It would be a lot easier for the school psychologist not to test. If you don't want your child assessed for autism then don't agree to any social emotional testing by the school.

No, that's not true at all. You don't open the door to all test just because you consent to social/emotional assessment. OP herself states that she was able to withdraw consent for the autism testing.

OPs problem seems to be one more of timing and possibly misunderstanding the eligibility process. She wanted to do the autism testing privately, which I think is totally understandable. Where she might misunderstand is in thinking that if she DID want an IEP for autism (if that was the diagnosis) that she could refuse the school's own assessment. I don't think you have the right to substitute your private assessment for the school's assessment, although they do have to consider the results of the private assessment. What it really comes down to is strategy and timing -- whether you think there's any advantage in having your private test results first.

Our school used the results and recommendations of our privately done neuropsych eval for DS's 3 yr IEP re eligibility. The school did not do any testing of their own because there was no reason and it saves them money. DS has ASD, ADHD combined type, developmental coordination disorder and a LD. He has always been fully mainstreamed in 4th grade now because that is what his testing results (including ADOS at Children's), neuropsychologist and developmental ped recommends. His school and teachers agree.

As long as your child has a full battery of private testing to submit to the school, you should be fine.

If OP does not trust

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools have to test students in ALL areas of suspected disability. If they are doing any kind of assessment under social-emotional because they suspect ADHD, for example, and the tests indicate difficulty in socialization and there is a history of a student being tested for autism in the past then they need to do more testing to rule out autism. If they don't then they can get sued for not testing in all areas of suspected disability. It would be a lot easier for the school psychologist not to test. If you don't want your child assessed for autism then don't agree to any social emotional testing by the school.

No, that's not true at all. You don't open the door to all test just because you consent to social/emotional assessment. OP herself states that she was able to withdraw consent for the autism testing.

OPs problem seems to be one more of timing and possibly misunderstanding the eligibility process. She wanted to do the autism testing privately, which I think is totally understandable. Where she might misunderstand is in thinking that if she DID want an IEP for autism (if that was the diagnosis) that she could refuse the school's own assessment. I don't think you have the right to substitute your private assessment for the school's assessment, although they do have to consider the results of the private assessment. What it really comes down to is strategy and timing -- whether you think there's any advantage in having your private test results first.

Our school used the results and recommendations of our privately done neuropsych eval for DS's 3 yr IEP re eligibility. The school did not do any testing of their own because there was no reason and it saves them money. DS has ASD, ADHD combined type, developmental coordination disorder and a LD. He has always been fully mainstreamed in 4th grade now because that is what his testing results (including ADOS at Children's), neuropsychologist and developmental ped recommends. His school and teachers agree.

As long as your child has a full battery of private testing to submit to the school, you should be fine.

If OP does not trust

That's good. But I think that if a school district still wanted to do its own testing, you could not refuse and replace it with your own. I mean, you could refuse, but the result might be a denial of the IEP. They have to consider private testing; they don't have to take the recommendations.