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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Resources for any parent - I'm a former MCPS parent - wrightsaw.com and Parents Place of MD.  I'm not affiliated with either.
Someone referenced a report where a psychologist or examiner said the child needed an IEP. Examiners should only say that the information on the report should be considered by an IEP team. One examiner alone does not dictate eligibility. An IEP team is the legally designated entity to determine eligibility. 
While writing a letter and including "due process" may sound like putting in legal buzz words that may get attention, that doesn't necessarily equate to proceeding to due process and prevailing. I've been in due process in more than one situation.  It's routine for their attorneys and they deal with very extreme cases of egregious special education violations such as no services for a student found eligible, etc. I recommend speaking to Parents Place because it can be resolved at the school level it's cheaper and less time consuming.  If they return right now to the table for a new IEP meeting they won't have much new data.  [b]Adverse educational impact is required and it's early in the year to see that[b]. Good luck to anyone in this process. [/quote]

I am the poster who drafted the suggested email.  I get really frustrated when I see statements like the bold.  “Adverse educational impact” is not shown just by what happens in the classroom.  B[b]y definition, if you have a kid who has been tested by a tester on nationally normed, standardized testing and that testing shows that the student is reading below grade level - that is demonstrated adverse educational impact (absent some other explanation like below average IQ).[/b] And when you have a kid diagnosed with dyslexia who is scoring below grade level even though they have been exposed to the same general reading education as everyone else most of whom are scoring at grade level (because that’s the object of a grade level benchmark - it’s set at a place where almost all children will achieve it at the end of the year), then below grade level IS adverse educational impact.

Also, timeline matters in this situation.  If the parents accept the “determination” and wait for time to pass and then make a new request in November, the timeline starts all over again - the school has 30 days to set the first meeting, and another 60 days to collect data and then another 30 days to write the IEP.  By contrast, if the parents write a letter that says at the first meeting you, the school system, made a mistake and terminated the process in error, and we, the parents are asking you to either make the determination and move straight into IEP writing OR come back to the table and begin the 60 day evaluation period, the timeline clock has been ticking the whole time, keeping the pressure on the school and pushing the process to be finished more quickly.

I also get frustrated by the notion that it’s too early in the year to see impact.  If that were the legally correct way to assess educational impact, no one could get an IEP between September and November. That’s not the intent of the law.  Adverse educational impact can and should look back at the last year.  Even if there aren’t teacher reports from last year, there are grades, assignments, incidents, email concerns, testing, etc. to look at plus the private standardized testing which objectively assesses below grade level skills.

As to your comments on “due process” as a buzz word - the entire point of referring to due process at this stage is precisely to signal that it’s better for the school to solve this problem or it has the potential to enter into due process, and to frame the issue as a series of vulnerabilities on the school side in due process.  Honestly, nobody wants to get to due process - it’s expensive and time-consuming for both sides.  But the school is betting that 99% of the people whom it turns away don’t have the knowledge to know they’re getting screwed nor the time, knowledge or money to fix it.  And the school system is also betting you will be too afraid that asking for your rights will anger the people upon whom you depend for help.  But, that balance shifts somewhat when they know that you are not going to give up and slink away and that you will make specific complaints grounded in the law by name to superiors who are supposed to know and enforce legal obligations.
[/quote]

No, I don't think it's true that you can show adverse educational impact only by testing in the absence of any apparent educational impact in the classroom.  It's true that being on grade level doesn't preclude an IEP; but you'd expect to see the impact of the LD in the classroom, not just in the psychologists office.  I think the better tactic is likely to look beyond tests and towards functional ability to participate.  By way of example, my DS (ASD/ADHD) always does well on tests - they are a strong point for him.  He's above or very above district averages in all testing areas.  However he will refuse work, be disruptive, and produce basically nothing in writing during seatwork/homework, unless given a LOT of support.  And of course any sort of group work is a big problem for him.  These are all educational impacts even though he still scores well on tests (both in the psychologists office and at school.)  So the idea is to expand "on grade level" beyond tests, because tests are just one small aspect of the curriculum.

I can't really speak to the grades part -- my DS's report cards have always been totally out of sync with his test scores and reports on his school behavior and work, so they don't really relate to accessing the curriculum at all, as far as I can tell.  [/quote]

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