Reply to IEP for emotional disability vs. OHI?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My DC has been undergoing testing at school for the IEP qualification process. She already has a 504 for "other health impairment". The school psychologist strongly hinted today that she would qualify for an IEP under the ED classification. She "may" qualify under OHI, but almost certainly under ED. There are no LDs, the issues are all emotional and social. Some speech and pragmatic concerns but not enough to qualify for an IEP for those.

My child is in middle school in FCPS. Is there any particular reason why I would want OHI or ED? Is there any advantage/disadvantage to one or the other? Thanks![/quote]

My DC in MCPS has MERLD, specific learning disability and ADD/Inattentive.  The school also "hinted" to me that it would likely qualify him as OHI due to the ADD, but I made it clear that I would fight categorizing him as OHI, as ADD/Inattentive was his most recent additional diagnosis and, IMO, his academic troubles were primarily a result of the SLD/Language Impairment.   During the IEP meeting he qualified as LD.

The school system refused to consider him as speech/language impaired, because it refused to find that the SLI had an "adverse impact" on his education.  I think they were able to refuse to see this adverse impact of the SLI because there are basically no formal grades for speech/language activities in the younger grades.  (Grades on presentations, class discussion contributions, class participation, etc. don't begin until middle school at the earliest.)  Yet, IMO, the speech/language impairment (including pragmatic speech difficulties) was a MAJOR cause of anxiety and frustration in those years.  IMO, many of the problems due to his expressive language difficulty were mis-categorized as behavior issues.  We are lucky he did not get to the point of having so many behavioral/anxiety issues that he became qualified for ED, but I have heard of a number of other speech/language impaired kids being qualified as ED instead, with the school arguing "it doesn't matter what the code is, the child is entitled to all appropriate students regardless of the code."

At the end of the day, for us, the school's refusal to recognize the SLI meant that our child got an IEP but no goals related to SLI.  Sadly, we pulled him to attend a SN school specializing in language learning disabilities, and, surprise, surprise, his anxiety has virtually disappeared.  His teachers know how to support and develop his expressive language needs, so what seemed to be "behavior" issues have now also largely disappeared.

If the only way you can get an IEP or 504 is with the ED designation, I would sign the plan with a note that you are appending a signing statement that disagrees with the underlying basis/code for qualification for the 504.  Then write a clear letter explaining why you believe the ED issues are really a result of the underlying speech/language or OHI issues.  (If you believe that.)

FWIW, I think that it is really fishy that your child has "some speech and pragmatic concerns but not enough to qualify for an IEP for those."  IME, the school-based testing for speech and language is very poor.  It often relies on non-standardized non-normed testing or on "assessment" that is primarily observational.  The school's testing of our DC showed that there was no or only very mild speech issues, while private testing (twice) revealed significant problems, and, ultimately, and SLD.  If all you have had so far is school-provided testing, I would seriously consider private testing.  I know it's expensive but you can disagree with the school's assessment findings and request that your school system pay for an Independent Educational Evaluation(IEE -- your right under IDEA/IEP process) or you can see if your health insurance will pay for any of it.  (Anxiety and speech/language problems are not merely "educational issues" that an insurance company can refuse to cover.)  You also can call around to neuropsych offices, explain that your DC has already had XYZ tests at school, but you want to know what specific tests at what costs the neuropsych would recommend to fully rule in/out speech, language and learning disability issues.  [/quote]

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