Lies my IEP Team Told Me- let’s compile

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is true that we are not allowed to name a specific program in the IEP goals because if you were to move or transfer to another school that didn’t offer Wilson or OG they would be unable to comply with the IEP. Instead, we will put in the notes that “student benefits from a multi sensory intensive phonics pattern instruction such one based on Orton Gillingham”. And in the present levels we will put that student is receiving and benefitting from “specific program”. However this can’t be part of the goal or indicated in the service hours.

It’s the same as when we say a student’s reading level will improve from X level to Y level we have to indicate “or equivalent” because schools all over use many different text leveling benchmark systems.
It’s not a lie.

Actually specific programs can be named in the IEP. What you described is a practice or perhaps district policy, but not law.

Hence why it is a lie.

This sounds like McK

"We aren't allowed to" doesn't mean it's law, so saying that you aren't allowed to do something because it's district policy, or because your principal/LEA won't sign off on it, isn't a lie.

[Anonymous]

I think it is interesting that IEP team members aren’t differentiating policy from law in IEP discussions.

Where are these policies written down? They should be discoverable somehow.

And it is definitely unethical to imply that a district policy is the same as the law especially when it is I. Violation of the spirit of not the letter of the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In FCPS, things vary widely from school to school. The district is really trying to get everyone on board in terms of dyslexia. There are specialists atGatehouse that you can call in to help at IEPs. You need to keep giving feedback to those folks if your school isn’t serving those kids well.

I know several kids who have waited a very long time for private placements. The central office staff in charge of that has not been working in a timely manner. Call your school board member and complain up the line. Insist on more staff in the current placement while waiting.

A very long time ago a parent dropped her special needs teenager off at the district special ed office with a packed lunch at nine in the morning and said she’d be back at three for him. He was placed the next day.

Oh my god. She is my hero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

In fact, the law requires schools to locate and identify children for special education. It's called the Child Find requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can’t screen your child for dyslexia before the 3rd grade- reading will click by then.

Nobody can diagnose dyslexia before 3rd grade.

Fountas & Pinnel is great for struggling readers, we’ll just do some RTI activities and they will catch up.

Small group pull outs are effective to catch up struggling readers.

Fundations is a Tier 3 intervention. (This is a more technical issue, but the Wilson program is Tier 3, but Fundations is designed for Gen Ed)

Tier 3 is part of gen ed. Fundations absolutely has models Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, as well as a Tier 1 program to be used with a whole grade level. Wilson is Tier 3, and for kids with IEPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

In fact, the law requires schools to locate and identify children for special education. It's called the Child Find requirement.

I'm a teacher.

The law requires teachers and other school staff to notice when a student's performance indicates that they may be eligible for special education. At the initial meeting the law requires me to present data on the patterns I see. But it's absolutely not either required, or best practice, for me to speculate about the specific disability category. I don't say "I think this child has a learning disability". That's not my place. I say "I notice that her math, and her understanding of science and social studies concepts are much stronger than her reading and writing. I also notice that when we do activities that involve blending and segmenting sounds she struggles. Here are some assessment data, and some work samples that I think illustrate that pattern." Being an observant teacher, with many years of experience, I can guess that that kid is more likely to come back as SLD than as deafblind, for example, but it's not my place to make that comment. And I have absolutely seen kids referred to testing by teachers who have speculated to me that a kid has A, but they really have B. That's why we have testing. Kids with SLDs, and kids with inattentive ADHD, or vision issues, or receptive language issues, or mild hearing loss can be hard to differentiate. If that wasn't true we wouldn't do testing.

As to the term "dyslexia", the obligation of the child find team is to figure out which of the listed disability categories a student falls into. One of the categories is "specific learning disability", and most but not all kids with dyslexia will qualify under that category. I can write the term "dyslexia" into the notes, or the present level of performance, but most teachers will keep it consistent and use the term specific learning disability in the area of reading. Since the terms are synonyms, parents who over focus on this are out of line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

In fact, the law requires schools to locate and identify children for special education. It's called the Child Find requirement.

I'm a teacher.

The law requires teachers and other school staff to notice when a student's performance indicates that they may be eligible for special education. At the initial meeting the law requires me to present data on the patterns I see. But it's absolutely not either required, or best practice, for me to speculate about the specific disability category. I don't say "I think this child has a learning disability". That's not my place. I say "I notice that her math, and her understanding of science and social studies concepts are much stronger than her reading and writing. I also notice that when we do activities that involve blending and segmenting sounds she struggles. Here are some assessment data, and some work samples that I think illustrate that pattern." Being an observant teacher, with many years of experience, I can guess that that kid is more likely to come back as SLD than as deafblind, for example, but it's not my place to make that comment. And I have absolutely seen kids referred to testing by teachers who have speculated to me that a kid has A, but they really have B. That's why we have testing. Kids with SLDs, and kids with inattentive ADHD, or vision issues, or receptive language issues, or mild hearing loss can be hard to differentiate. If that wasn't true we wouldn't do testing.

As to the term "dyslexia", the obligation of the child find team is to figure out which of the listed disability categories a student falls into. One of the categories is "specific learning disability", and most but not all kids with dyslexia will qualify under that category. I can write the term "dyslexia" into the notes, or the present level of performance, but most teachers will keep it consistent and use the term specific learning disability in the area of reading. Since the terms are synonyms, parents who over focus on this are out of line.

I had teacher say stuff like that. The problem is that the school didn't initiate the IEP process. I had no idea that it meant my child had a disabity and I didn't even know IEPs existed.

For dyslexia, the problem is even worse. It's not schools won't use the word. It's that they won't use evidence based methods to correct it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

In fact, the law requires schools to locate and identify children for special education. It's called the Child Find requirement.

I'm a teacher.

The law requires teachers and other school staff to notice when a student's performance indicates that they may be eligible for special education. At the initial meeting the law requires me to present data on the patterns I see. But it's absolutely not either required, or best practice, for me to speculate about the specific disability category. I don't say "I think this child has a learning disability". That's not my place. I say "I notice that her math, and her understanding of science and social studies concepts are much stronger than her reading and writing. I also notice that when we do activities that involve blending and segmenting sounds she struggles. Here are some assessment data, and some work samples that I think illustrate that pattern." Being an observant teacher, with many years of experience, I can guess that that kid is more likely to come back as SLD than as deafblind, for example, but it's not my place to make that comment. And I have absolutely seen kids referred to testing by teachers who have speculated to me that a kid has A, but they really have B. That's why we have testing. Kids with SLDs, and kids with inattentive ADHD, or vision issues, or receptive language issues, or mild hearing loss can be hard to differentiate. If that wasn't true we wouldn't do testing.

As to the term "dyslexia", the obligation of the child find team is to figure out which of the listed disability categories a student falls into. One of the categories is "specific learning disability", and most but not all kids with dyslexia will qualify under that category. I can write the term "dyslexia" into the notes, or the present level of performance, but most teachers will keep it consistent and use the term specific learning disability in the area of reading. Since the terms are synonyms, parents who over focus on this are out of line.

I had teacher say stuff like that. The problem is that the school didn't initiate the IEP process. I had no idea that it meant my child had a disabity and I didn't even know IEPs existed.

For dyslexia, the problem is even worse. It's not schools won't use the word. It's that they won't use evidence based methods to correct it.

Then complain about the failure to refer. Don't say that the teacher lied to you by not saying your kid had an LD.

As for the "with dyslexia, the problem is even worse" thing, I don't know why parents of kids with dyslexia think that kids with other disabilities are getting some magical services. Trust me, some kids with dyslexia are underserved, but there are plenty of kids with other disabilities that are also underserved, and are at risk for much more serious consequences of being underserved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

In fact, the law requires schools to locate and identify children for special education. It's called the Child Find requirement.

I'm a teacher.

The law requires teachers and other school staff to notice when a student's performance indicates that they may be eligible for special education. At the initial meeting the law requires me to present data on the patterns I see. But it's absolutely not either required, or best practice, for me to speculate about the specific disability category. I don't say "I think this child has a learning disability". That's not my place. I say "I notice that her math, and her understanding of science and social studies concepts are much stronger than her reading and writing. I also notice that when we do activities that involve blending and segmenting sounds she struggles. Here are some assessment data, and some work samples that I think illustrate that pattern." Being an observant teacher, with many years of experience, I can guess that that kid is more likely to come back as SLD than as deafblind, for example, but it's not my place to make that comment. And I have absolutely seen kids referred to testing by teachers who have speculated to me that a kid has A, but they really have B. That's why we have testing. Kids with SLDs, and kids with inattentive ADHD, or vision issues, or receptive language issues, or mild hearing loss can be hard to differentiate. If that wasn't true we wouldn't do testing.

As to the term "dyslexia", the obligation of the child find team is to figure out which of the listed disability categories a student falls into. One of the categories is "specific learning disability", and most but not all kids with dyslexia will qualify under that category. I can write the term "dyslexia" into the notes, or the present level of performance, but most teachers will keep it consistent and use the term specific learning disability in the area of reading. Since the terms are synonyms, parents who over focus on this are out of line.

I had teacher say stuff like that. The problem is that the school didn't initiate the IEP process. I had no idea that it meant my child had a disabity and I didn't even know IEPs existed.

For dyslexia, the problem is even worse. It's not schools won't use the word. It's that they won't use evidence based methods to correct it.

Then complain about the failure to refer. Don't say that the teacher lied to you by not saying your kid had an LD.

As for the "with dyslexia, the problem is even worse" thing, I don't know why parents of kids with dyslexia think that kids with other disabilities are getting some magical services. Trust me, some kids with dyslexia are underserved, but there are plenty of kids with other disabilities that are also underserved, and are at risk for much more serious consequences of being underserved.

I don't say the teacher lied. I don't even blame the teacher. I think the administration tells them they can't make an IEP referral or at least discourages it.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 kids with special needs, 1 dyslexic and one with different needs.

I think it feels like the obfuscation is worse for the dyslexic kids. The disability is so common (1 in 5) and the support strategies are so well known that it is ridiculous how hard it is to get the necessary support.

Effective reading instruction should be like fluoride in the water- everybody gets it and all benefit.

And adults in education should use SLD- Reading such as dyslexia in order to make themselves understood to parents.

Adding to the list of lies- we can’t write the word dyslexia in an IEP. There is a specific letter addressing this one. But it still happened to me at my first IEP meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids with special needs, 1 dyslexic and one with different needs.

I think it feels like the obfuscation is worse for the dyslexic kids. The disability is so common (1 in 5) and the support strategies are so well known that it is ridiculous how hard it is to get the necessary support.

Effective reading instruction should be like fluoride in the water- everybody gets it and all benefit.

And adults in education should use SLD- Reading such as dyslexia in order to make themselves understood to parents.

Adding to the list of lies- we can’t write the word dyslexia in an IEP. There is a specific letter addressing this one. But it still happened to me at my first IEP meeting.

PP here- my other child’s disability, while not uncommon, is more complicated to support. So there is more uncertainty about the best approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids with special needs, 1 dyslexic and one with different needs.

I think it feels like the obfuscation is worse for the dyslexic kids. The disability is so common (1 in 5) and the support strategies are so well known that it is ridiculous how hard it is to get the necessary support.

Effective reading instruction should be like fluoride in the water- everybody gets it and all benefit.

And adults in education should use SLD- Reading such as dyslexia in order to make themselves understood to parents.

Adding to the list of lies- we can’t write the word dyslexia in an IEP. There is a specific letter addressing this one. But it still happened to me at my first IEP meeting.

DP. This is ridiculous too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

In fact, the law requires schools to locate and identify children for special education. It's called the Child Find requirement.

I'm a teacher.

The law requires teachers and other school staff to notice when a student's performance indicates that they may be eligible for special education. At the initial meeting the law requires me to present data on the patterns I see. But it's absolutely not either required, or best practice, for me to speculate about the specific disability category. I don't say "I think this child has a learning disability". That's not my place. I say "I notice that her math, and her understanding of science and social studies concepts are much stronger than her reading and writing. I also notice that when we do activities that involve blending and segmenting sounds she struggles. Here are some assessment data, and some work samples that I think illustrate that pattern." Being an observant teacher, with many years of experience, I can guess that that kid is more likely to come back as SLD than as deafblind, for example, but it's not my place to make that comment. And I have absolutely seen kids referred to testing by teachers who have speculated to me that a kid has A, but they really have B. That's why we have testing. Kids with SLDs, and kids with inattentive ADHD, or vision issues, or receptive language issues, or mild hearing loss can be hard to differentiate. If that wasn't true we wouldn't do testing.

As to the term "dyslexia", the obligation of the child find team is to figure out which of the listed disability categories a student falls into. One of the categories is "specific learning disability", and most but not all kids with dyslexia will qualify under that category. I can write the term "dyslexia" into the notes, or the present level of performance, but most teachers will keep it consistent and use the term specific learning disability in the area of reading. Since the terms are synonyms, parents who over focus on this are out of line.

What about when we are told the school can't diagnose dyslexia as a reason to not even evaluate? I don't care what it's called, but why can't they test for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

The problem is that, as a matter of policy, schools don't want teachers to make suggestions like that. I found this out with my own ASD kid. We had a lot of issues in K and 1st grade. School staff worked with us, but they never suggested seeing a doctor or getting an IEP. After we requested an IEP, they told us they suspected autism.

I don't fault the schools for not saying anything. Some parents would become extremely upset if the school said their kid has a disability. It's not worth risking the anger of those few parents even if most parents would be grateful.

Mmmm your school isn’t very good then. They don’t have to say something like we suspect your child has ‘x,’ that is very rude and illegal.

But they can compile data, show you your kid is behind others in academics or social-emotionally. They can show you what supports they have tried that are equal to general education standards and how those supports didn’t work.

Then they can ask to test your child, yes some parents will refuse but in those cases they’re the idiots. I have seen parents who want supports but don’t want their child to be ‘labeled...’
what is more important a diagnosis of autism but your kid gets the support they deserve or them falling behind?

No general education teacher will or should make accommodations that require a 504 or IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as co-taught honors classes, you can either have sped support or honors classes.

Teachers don’t have to be trained I. The program to administer it with Fidelity- they can just read the teacher guide.

There is no such thing as certification in teaching OG programs.

Teachers can’t say the word dyslexia in parent teacher conferences, it is illegal.


To be fair- I think some of the people saying these things believed them. But the mysterious district policy trainings seem to be the source.

Some of these seem like just a miscommunication. At the schools where I’ve taught there are no cotaught honors sections because there isn’t the enrollment to justify it. If 10 kids needed cotaught honors algebra then sure it could be created, but for 1-3 kids they can’t use the staffing for it. FAPE doesn’t require honors cotaught, just an “appropriate” course. Some schools don’t offer honors at all in certain subjects, others it’s only honors. It just depends on the demands.

For the last one, teachers aren’t allowed to diagnose or suggest. If your child has dyslexia then I will happily talk to you about it, but if it hasn’t been diagnosed all I can share is factual observations of what I’m seeing. We can then test reading and comprehension ability, but I will never say I think a kid might have xyz in any meeting.

This is true. For the same reason, teachers cannot tell a parent "I think your kid has ADHD" because they aren't qualified to make a diagnosis.

Teachers can’t diagnose, that is correct. But is is absolutely NOT ILLEGAL for them to suggest that a child be screened for a learning disability such as dyslexia based on their observations. More than 1 teacher has told me that suggesting screening is illegal, when in fact Child Find is required by law. If there are concerns, a child should be screened.

I am not sure if they are hearing this in teacher college or from their admins. But it needs to be fixed. K and 1st grade teachers are on the frontlines for identifying kids with learning challenges.

In fact, the law requires schools to locate and identify children for special education. It's called the Child Find requirement.

I'm a teacher.

The law requires teachers and other school staff to notice when a student's performance indicates that they may be eligible for special education. At the initial meeting the law requires me to present data on the patterns I see. But it's absolutely not either required, or best practice, for me to speculate about the specific disability category. I don't say "I think this child has a learning disability". That's not my place. I say "I notice that her math, and her understanding of science and social studies concepts are much stronger than her reading and writing. I also notice that when we do activities that involve blending and segmenting sounds she struggles. Here are some assessment data, and some work samples that I think illustrate that pattern." Being an observant teacher, with many years of experience, I can guess that that kid is more likely to come back as SLD than as deafblind, for example, but it's not my place to make that comment. And I have absolutely seen kids referred to testing by teachers who have speculated to me that a kid has A, but they really have B. That's why we have testing. Kids with SLDs, and kids with inattentive ADHD, or vision issues, or receptive language issues, or mild hearing loss can be hard to differentiate. If that wasn't true we wouldn't do testing.

As to the term "dyslexia", the obligation of the child find team is to figure out which of the listed disability categories a student falls into. One of the categories is "specific learning disability", and most but not all kids with dyslexia will qualify under that category. I can write the term "dyslexia" into the notes, or the present level of performance, but most teachers will keep it consistent and use the term specific learning disability in the area of reading. Since the terms are synonyms, parents who over focus on this are out of line.

What about when we are told the school can't diagnose dyslexia as a reason to not even evaluate? I don't care what it's called, but why can't they test for it?

Strangely we really can’t diagnose dyslexia. DCPS has some supports for it but they call it ‘specific learning disability’ As a teacher I find this very odd but there’s a long and frankly political reasons for this.