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[quote=Anonymous]The 2 SD is an arbitrary cut off that some DC schools use to refuse to provide services to some children.  That said, it shouldn't be used for eligibility (it shouldn't really be used for services either) - except for DD, which as currently written requires a 50% delay or a delay of 2SDs.  But with an ADHD and other diagnosis, other disability eligibility categories should be considered - namely, OHI and SLI, possibly ED for the GAD, all depends on what's impacting the educational piece.  So the 2SD shouldn't be an issue at the eligibility stage (is there a disability?  is it impacting the child's educational performance - which in this case, particularly at PreK level, includes behavior, peer relations, social emotional, group learning skills, etc, not just academics).  That's not part of the question, at all.  There are disability worksheets - eligibility questionnaires - force the team to work through those.  You'll see (and the school won't be able to defend) that there is no 2 SD requirement.

Then, there's no requirement, written anywhere, that to receive specialized instruction, speech, OT, PT whatever that there needs to be a 2 SD delay.  They made it up and it's not legal to use that arbitrary number.  They need to provide the child with the services required to access the curriculum, and then to benefit from specialized instruction, regardless of the SD on some test.  Particularly since, at this age, formal standardized testing could very well fail to capture the issues that occur in the classroom (such evals are terrible at picking up functional deficits - that is, deficits in performing skills (behaviors, etc) IN THE CLASSROOM, versus on some isolated evaluation - particularly where issues that might trigger behavior aren't even remotely present in the evaluation context).  This is where classroom observations, teacher comments, etc come into play.

Also it's a huge issue that the evaluators recommend services and the principal/SEC overrode that - the evaluators are the ones with expertise in their particular area, the principal really has no particular expertise (and I'd guess the SEC either) to override those recommendations.  I think you have a good chance with your complaint, it's a very strong position, but as others have said, collect anything you have regarding the issues that are showing up.  Also request IEEs - then you'll have two sets of evaluations (including hopefully the independent set which will better document the deficits to get around the arbitrary 2 SD thing) that say services needed.  Contacting AJE is probably a good idea, help never hurts, or getting your own advocate.[/quote]

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