Reply to COMAR 13A.05.01 Determination of an SLD -- Has it changed?

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Reply to "COMAR 13A.05.01 Determination of an SLD -- Has it changed?"

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[quote=Anonymous]14:40/10:22 here.  Glad your team seems to be moving along.  I am a little concerned you mention the "EMT" team.  Are you in the IEP process or not?  Have you written a letter requesting an IEP?  If so, you should be in the IEP process which has specific 30/60/90 day deadlines to complete the process.  (Thirty days to hold the first IEP meeting to determine "reasonable suspicion" and 60 days to assess and have the final "determination" meeting, and no longer than 90 days total.)

If you have not specifically asked for an IEP in writing, some schools will steer you to a non-IEP process where the EMT meets and decides to provide some additional supports in class.  This is often called "intervention" and the response (or lack thereof) is called "response to intervention" and can be used as evidence if an IEP process subsequently develops.

BUT, by LAW, "response to intervention" cannot be used to delay or deny IEP evaluation.  I have seen some schools use the "intervention" process to make parents think they are doing all they can, but in reality these interventions are nowhere near what a kid with SLD usually needs.

Have you read the MCPS publication "Problem Solving for Student Success"?  It will explain how all these processes fit together (RTI, IEP, 504, etc.) see -- http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/specialed/resources/ProbSolv.pdf
 
If you aren't sure you have all the evidence you need for an IEP determination, there might be a reason to piddle around in the EMT process until you have your ammo together.  Or, if you think some mild intervention might be enough, then the EMT process might serve you well. But, the end of the year is coming, and since the IEP process usually takes 90 days, plus another 30 to write the goals, if you really want to have an IEP (or 504) in place by the beginning of next year, the clock is ticking.  It is typically more difficult to "prove" a child is entitled to an IEP over the summer when the school teachers are not present.  They are key to documenting the "adverse impact" part of the IEP test.

Re the ACT scoring.  I'm not sure exactly how it works either, but it can't be too far off what is already mentioned in the MSDE technical guide you cited.  If you look on p. 47 there is a chart which correlates IQ with the educational discrepancy range. The basic theory, which is still valid even with the ACT tool, is that the IQ is the theoretical ability, but it's not reasonable to expect that a child perform at exactly that level, so a little bit below that is the "educational expectancy" range and then if a child is falling 1 1/2 standard deviations or more below that -- that is a significant discrepancy.  Also, the appendices in the MSDE technical guide tell you which tests are considered "achievement" tests and can be compared to the IQ test in order to assess educational discrepancy.  I don't think this is a comprehensive list, so you may have something that's not on there.  But, basically any WISC score can be compared to any WJ-III for the ability vs. achievement discrepancy analysis.  Plus the MCPS ACT tool paper tells you that MCPS also can use the Terra Nova, MSAs, MAP-Rs etc.

The difference between a WISC score at the 99th percentile and a 47th percentile on the WJ-III (although you don't say exactly which one) is definitely a "significant discrepancy".  A 99th percentile IQ is anything from a 133 up and a 47th percentile WJ-III is at least 2 standard deviations.  This random bell curve chart from the internet shows the standard correlations between standard deviation, standard scores (which is how the IQ is reported) and percentiles.  See -- http://www.concordspedpac.org/Bell-curve-ss.htm  So, "100" is always the 50th%ile, and every 15 points in either direction is one standard deviation.  On the chart above, the standard score scale is given for a particular speech test (the CELF-R composite scale) but is the same for all standard scores, which are reported on that 100+or- scale.  The sub scales are reported with 10 as the 50th percentile and 1 standard deviation is 3 points.  (this is the CELF-R subtest scale listed on the graph but, again, the same scale is used for all these ability and achievement tests).  The Wrightslaw website has some good pages about testing and testing results.

I mention all this statistics stuff because what school systems often do is try and focus on the "cluster" or "composite" score, which can often be decent overall even while there are abominable scores in the individual subscores.  As an example, my child's alphabet writing fluency was in the 8th percentile, but his spelling and some other writing functions were better, pulling his overall composite just a bit over the 50th %ile, thus eliminating the "educational discrepancy".  But this is actually not a professionally accurate way to view the scores and the school MUST consider variations in the sub-scores if they are significant differences between them. This is called a "pattern of strengths and weaknesses" that can be relevant to the SLD determination.

IME, the psychologist in the room is the only one who understands the scoring in detail; the rest of the team just looks to see if the overall score is "average" and if so they think there is no problem.  They are also the only one in the room who has a independent professional obligation to represent your child's best interests.  They also have a professional obligation to explain any testing results that they have done to you and to provide a written report (not just the test scores alone). In my child's IEP eligibility team meeting, I had to go line by line thru the testing with the psychologist pointing out each significant difference and the discrepancies both in composites and in subscores.  By the end of the meeting, the psychologist was forced to agree that there was a problem.  
 
good luck.  please post back how your process proceeds. [/quote]

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