Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), it is illegal for a school to delay or deny a special education evaluation solely because the student has not yet gone through or completed Response to Intervention (RTI) or similar general education interventions.
This is a common — and illegal — practice in some schools, and it can cause unnecessary delays in getting children the services they need.
🔍 Here's the exact legal guidance:
From the U.S. Department of Education (OSEP Memo, January 21, 2011):
“A Response to Intervention (RTI) process cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation for eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”
That means:
If a parent requests an evaluation in writing, the school must respond with either:
Written consent to begin the evaluation, or
A written refusal (called Prior Written Notice) explaining why they are refusing — and parents can then challenge this.
Schools cannot tell a parent they must wait for “more interventions” before the evaluation can begin.
✅ What this means for you:
If your child is showing persistent struggles despite general education interventions, and you suspect a disability, the school must move forward with the evaluation process once you’ve made your request in writing.
If they try to delay by saying “let’s wait and see how this new reading plan goes,” or “he hasn’t been in the RTI program long enough,” that’s a clear violation of IDEA.
🔒 You can include this language in your evaluation request:
“I understand that under IDEA and guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, a school cannot delay or deny an evaluation based on the child’s participation in a Response to Intervention (RTI) or other general education programs. I am formally requesting that the school begin the evaluation process immediately.”

I really hate when people just post shit from ChatGPT here. Hint: the emojis give it away, loser.

I have dyslexia and run most of my written work through AI. I also have a child with dyslexia and can help OP. What I wrote is still correct, but AI made it better and easier to understand. I think you should embrace AI instead of criticizing a parent for leveraging technology. Is any of this information incorrect?

I would do an independent neuropsych or psycho-educational evaluation. My next step, including Child Study Team assessments and interventions would follow from that. I think your plan seem reasonable, but I would prefer to have independent testing and recommendations done first — in part because some testing done by the school could limit the tests that can be administered by other providers.

Anonymous wrote:Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), it is illegal for a school to delay or deny a special education evaluation solely because the student has not yet gone through or completed Response to Intervention (RTI) or similar general education interventions.
This is a common — and illegal — practice in some schools, and it can cause unnecessary delays in getting children the services they need.
🔍 Here's the exact legal guidance:
From the U.S. Department of Education (OSEP Memo, January 21, 2011):
“A Response to Intervention (RTI) process cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation for eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”
That means:
If a parent requests an evaluation in writing, the school must respond with either:
Written consent to begin the evaluation, or
A written refusal (called Prior Written Notice) explaining why they are refusing — and parents can then challenge this.
Schools cannot tell a parent they must wait for “more interventions” before the evaluation can begin.
✅ What this means for you:
If your child is showing persistent struggles despite general education interventions, and you suspect a disability, the school must move forward with the evaluation process once you’ve made your request in writing.
If they try to delay by saying “let’s wait and see how this new reading plan goes,” or “he hasn’t been in the RTI program long enough,” that’s a clear violation of IDEA.
🔒 You can include this language in your evaluation request:
“I understand that under IDEA and guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, a school cannot delay or deny an evaluation based on the child’s participation in a Response to Intervention (RTI) or other general education programs. I am formally requesting that the school begin the evaluation process immediately.”

I really hate when people just post shit from ChatGPT here. Hint: the emojis give it away, loser.

OF COURSE

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), it is illegal for a school to delay or deny a special education evaluation solely because the student has not yet gone through or completed Response to Intervention (RTI) or similar general education interventions.
This is a common — and illegal — practice in some schools, and it can cause unnecessary delays in getting children the services they need.
🔍 Here's the exact legal guidance:
From the U.S. Department of Education (OSEP Memo, January 21, 2011):
“A Response to Intervention (RTI) process cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation for eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”
That means:
If a parent requests an evaluation in writing, the school must respond with either:
Written consent to begin the evaluation, or
A written refusal (called Prior Written Notice) explaining why they are refusing — and parents can then challenge this.
Schools cannot tell a parent they must wait for “more interventions” before the evaluation can begin.
✅ What this means for you:
If your child is showing persistent struggles despite general education interventions, and you suspect a disability, the school must move forward with the evaluation process once you’ve made your request in writing.
If they try to delay by saying “let’s wait and see how this new reading plan goes,” or “he hasn’t been in the RTI program long enough,” that’s a clear violation of IDEA.
🔒 You can include this language in your evaluation request:
“I understand that under IDEA and guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, a school cannot delay or deny an evaluation based on the child’s participation in a Response to Intervention (RTI) or other general education programs. I am formally requesting that the school begin the evaluation process immediately.”

OP here- thanks everyone for the feedback! I've saved all of your suggestions and am going to explore all of these resources.

I do have the UFLI manual, and I've been using the "home practice" sheets myself, but it would make more sense if I actually used the manual with it. I'm going to keep working on it with him and return all of the Bob books (he hates) to the library lol.

I'm also really thankful that I have good support from a dear friend/neighbor, whose son is good buddies with mine and is having somewhat similar struggles. We are both encouraging one another!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for the additional feedback. We don't have a school focused on teaching kids with Dyslexia, and while there are tutors....there are not that many that are readily accessible. There is only one private school that I would ever consider for my children, and I'm not sure it would even provide a better educational outcome, honestly.

I have asked my child's tutor to see if they would be open to creating mini lesson plans (10-15 minutes) at home that are easy for me to do with my child. I will pay them, of course, for their work. I know it needs to be provided in small chunks, every day.

My child was motivated to do a lot of practice yesterday, and they worked SO hard!! They worked on reading this decodable UFLI passage (which they had previously read in school and partially read with their tutor as well). This is the passage - https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/44_Decodable_UFLIFoundations.pdf It took him about 10 minutes to read it and had to sound out everything.

I have some ideas if his tutor isn't able to do lesson plans, but we are going to keep chipping away at it.

Hi OP - reach out to his former private SLP and see if they are trained in Lindamood Bell or another reading program. Copays for speech would probably be less expensive than a reading tutor (and there might be some overlap with the original speech problem). Both of my kids worked on reading (one decoding, one comprehension) with a private SLP.

OP here - thanks for the suggestion! I can definitely try to explore that, but I'm not sure how they would bill for that, but it's worth checking out. Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Have you had a full neuropsych eval?

OP here - I have not had a full neuropsych eval done. I am going to go ahead and get him on the waitlist(s) for the decent ones. It is often 12+ month waiting list in my area.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for the additional feedback. We don't have a school focused on teaching kids with Dyslexia, and while there are tutors....there are not that many that are readily accessible. There is only one private school that I would ever consider for my children, and I'm not sure it would even provide a better educational outcome, honestly.

I have asked my child's tutor to see if they would be open to creating mini lesson plans (10-15 minutes) at home that are easy for me to do with my child. I will pay them, of course, for their work. I know it needs to be provided in small chunks, every day.

My child was motivated to do a lot of practice yesterday, and they worked SO hard!! They worked on reading this decodable UFLI passage (which they had previously read in school and partially read with their tutor as well). This is the passage - https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/44_Decodable_UFLIFoundations.pdf It took him about 10 minutes to read it and had to sound out everything.

I have some ideas if his tutor isn't able to do lesson plans, but we are going to keep chipping away at it.

Hi OP - reach out to his former private SLP and see if they are trained in Lindamood Bell or another reading program. Copays for speech would probably be less expensive than a reading tutor (and there might be some overlap with the original speech problem). Both of my kids worked on reading (one decoding, one comprehension) with a private SLP.

I agree with the PP who posted and wanted to add while you are getting the process started, please do not depend on the school to help, especially if they have 12 kids in an intervention group! It’s a bonus if they do but at this point, you don’t want your child to continue not making progress.

If the school is using UFLI, I highly recommend also becoming familiar with the program, or showing the resources to your tutor.

I’m trained in multiple interventions (OG, Wilson, RGR, etc.) and I love UFLI. Everything (Google slides for each lesson - perfect for working with your child, all the decodables, etc.) is free except the manual. The manual is only $70 but definitely spend some time reading all the intro pages if you do not have a SOR background.

UFLI Resources: https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/foundations/toolbox/
Scroll down and you will see the lessons arranged by category - but keep in mind you need the manual for it to make sense. Each lesson also has decodable texts, games, etc.

You want to start off by administering an assessment to determine where to start and to identify any gaps. UFLI recently developed their own screener; you can use screeners from LETRS or Core Phonics.

I promise it’s very user friendly but if you have a tutor, pass along the info.

Another resource is to look into David Kilpateick and the PAST. Simple to administer and provides one minute phonemic awareness drills (ex. of the one min drills: Say bat. Now say bat but change the /b/ sound to a /p/ sound. What’s your new word? Pat!). Quick and easy way to work on PA skills.

Last, check out Projectread.ai

You can adjust the settings to mirror the lessons for UFLI, OG, CKLA, etc. You can create additional decodables for your child to practice fluency and get to automaticity. Seems like there are some red flags for dyslexia, or an aud processing disorder resulting from the hearing loss as another PP mentioned but either way, your child sounds like they would benefit from repeated exposure to the phonics concepts previously learned — hence the rec for having them read additional decodables.

Good luck. So tricky to navigate this as an employee and as a parent but you must advocate for your kid because the school doesn’t seem to have an issue with your child not making progress!

Have you had a full neuropsych eval?

That's great that you're working with the tutor to practice at home!! Always such a lift for us parents, but it does pay off.

I also remember hearing that Lindamood Bell provides online instruction, and here we go: https://lindamoodbell.com/online-instruction

My kid is solely online with his OG tutoring, and it's worked very well. Would it have had a more lasting effect in person? I'll never know. But if you hit a moment where you want to try a different approach (which I'm not saying you should, but if), there you go.