Reply to IEP for emotional disability vs. OHI?

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[quote=Anonymous]You can definitely ask for more testing.  Do so in writing.  The team may not agree.

The scores are interesting.  It's not possible to draw conclusions without a GAI to compare to.  But, looking at the lowest score -- math fluency @ 111, plus one standard deviation would be 126 and plus two standard deviations is 141.  Although 1 std deviation is "clinically significant," IME in MCPS, the system really doesn't view that as indicative of any kind of adverse impact.  Closer to 2 std deviations, and the system starts to acknowledge the adverse impact, but even with scores 2+ std deviations from IQ, if the achievement scores is above average (which a 11 std score is), the system doesn't really view a need for special ed.  I'm not saying that's right, but in practice, that's what I've seen.  YMMV in your own school system.  Despite that, IMO, you clearly have a lot of anecdotal data about the adverse impact of her ADD and anxiety in the classroom in terms of her behavior and, I presume, inability to independently complete some assignments, that would seem to qualify as "adverse impact on educational performance" and needing "special education" to address the executive function.

I find it interesting that the lower scores cluster mostly around language issues (word attack, letter-word identification, passage comprehension, writing samples, writing fluency) which seem to be her "relative weaknesses". In a high IQ child, I would wonder whether the child high IQ was masking language difficulties.  Yet, you say that your child doesn't have a problem with writing in terms of spelling, grammar, semantics, etc., just in terms of organization.  That is something that I would want to check out more thoroughly with an independent speech/language assessment.

Now that you have mentioned that the 504 was given in 3rd grade on the basis of diagnosed "generalized anxiety disorder," I can see why the IEP team wants to hang an ED label -- it's basically how they have viewed her over the last 3 years.  If she's showing the same kinds of anxiety outside school in family and non-academic extra-curricular life, then the focus on anxiety per se may be more understandable.

But, even so, I see many indications in your previous posts of how un-addresssed ADD is impacting her at school.  There are some indications to me that language may also be an issue, but I don't think you have a full enough language assessment to understand that part clearly (IMO).  Given that, I would think that an OHI label (for the ADHD) would be more appropriate than ED, but with support for the anxiety/emotional aspects.

Further language assessment is difficult to think about because $$ is always a consideration.  You probably have enough data already, especially if you have a supportive IEP team, to get an IEP and some goals for the ADD/executive dysfunction and anxiety management.

Good luck on your IEP meeting.  I'd be curious to hear how it goes. 
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