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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My expectation is that if I see my child struggling for 3 years and I continue to tell my child’s teachers that something is going on - that they take notice and stop telling me my child is meeting expectations. I shouldn’t have to pay for outside private testing and put my child in private school because Nottingham failed to help my child whom we ultimately found out has dyslexia. What if we had spent those 3 years actually providing my child with the needed help rather than now trying to catch up.[/quote]

This kind of thing is not unique to Nottingham, or to APS.  The reality for just about every school system is that special education needs exceed the special education funding provided to schools, so they basically are forced to ration special education resources.  No decent educator honestly believes that "meets grade level expectations" is a deciding factor on whether a student has an education-related disability and thus whether they should be evaluated for services, but in practice is has to be because (1) students who aren't meeting grade level expectations typically have greater educational needs, and thus a greater need for the limited resources, and (2) testing to assess where a child could be performing and then measuring their actual performance against that is complex and very resource-intensive, beyond what schools generally can dedicate to it without severely compromising other areas.

So this is an issue everywhere.  If your child is below grade level, it is fairly easy to make a case for testing.  But if you child is meeting (and especially if they are exceeding) grade level expectations, it is very difficult to make a case that your child is not meeting their actual potential and that some sort of disability likely is preventing them from doing so, and thus to make a case for why the school should test.  It sucks.  It's an awful system.  I know, because I've been there.  But public schools didn't create the system, and they have a very limited ability to change it.  If you want it to change, your advocacy needs to be directed at federal and state lawmakers, because they have the real power here. [/quote]

I'd buy that argument more at high needs schools like Carlin Springs, Barcroft, etc.  But not at schools like Nottingham.  Those schools do not have the high percentage of students with big special needs schools with high FRL and high% ELL have.  They should absolutely be able to test more kids in the middle, especially when the parent is consistently expressing concerns.  APS keeps telling us parents know their children best....until we ask APS for something.  Then suddenly the teacher knows our kid better.[/quote]

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