Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools have to test students in ALL areas of suspected disability. If they are doing any kind of assessment under social-emotional because they suspect ADHD, for example, and the tests indicate difficulty in socialization and there is a history of a student being tested for autism in the past then they need to do more testing to rule out autism. If they don't then they can get sued for not testing in all areas of suspected disability. It would be a lot easier for the school psychologist not to test. If you don't want your child assessed for autism then don't agree to any social emotional testing by the school.

No, that's not true at all. You don't open the door to all test just because you consent to social/emotional assessment. OP herself states that she was able to withdraw consent for the autism testing.

OPs problem seems to be one more of timing and possibly misunderstanding the eligibility process. She wanted to do the autism testing privately, which I think is totally understandable. Where she might misunderstand is in thinking that if she DID want an IEP for autism (if that was the diagnosis) that she could refuse the school's own assessment. I don't think you have the right to substitute your private assessment for the school's assessment, although they do have to consider the results of the private assessment. What it really comes down to is strategy and timing -- whether you think there's any advantage in having your private test results first.

Our school used the results and recommendations of our privately done neuropsych eval for DS's 3 yr IEP re eligibility. The school did not do any testing of their own because there was no reason and it saves them money. DS has ASD, ADHD combined type, developmental coordination disorder and a LD. He has always been fully mainstreamed in 4th grade now because that is what his testing results (including ADOS at Children's), neuropsychologist and developmental ped recommends. His school and teachers agree.

As long as your child has a full battery of private testing to submit to the school, you should be fine.

If OP does not trust

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools have to test students in ALL areas of suspected disability. If they are doing any kind of assessment under social-emotional because they suspect ADHD, for example, and the tests indicate difficulty in socialization and there is a history of a student being tested for autism in the past then they need to do more testing to rule out autism. If they don't then they can get sued for not testing in all areas of suspected disability. It would be a lot easier for the school psychologist not to test. If you don't want your child assessed for autism then don't agree to any social emotional testing by the school.

No, that's not true at all. You don't open the door to all test just because you consent to social/emotional assessment. OP herself states that she was able to withdraw consent for the autism testing.

OPs problem seems to be one more of timing and possibly misunderstanding the eligibility process. She wanted to do the autism testing privately, which I think is totally understandable. Where she might misunderstand is in thinking that if she DID want an IEP for autism (if that was the diagnosis) that she could refuse the school's own assessment. I don't think you have the right to substitute your private assessment for the school's assessment, although they do have to consider the results of the private assessment. What it really comes down to is strategy and timing -- whether you think there's any advantage in having your private test results first.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, OP, schools like to pull this shit. They put a bunch of forms in front of you, not clearly explaining what they are looking for. Then they have a hack school "psychologist" with minimal training and supervision do their autism assessments. It's a racket.

Of course, we laughed when they did this to us. Teachers were hounding us about autism, tested DS behind his back, then were shocked when even their hack psychologist found no autism. (We had outside evals saying no to autism, too.)

From then on, we specifically wrote into the IEPs that we did not consent to autism testing.

How's it a racket? What's the play, exactly? Who's getting rich here?

In my school district (in the Midwest, not in D.C. now) the autism programs are a lot more robust. They have all the teachers and programming, especially for younger ages. Schools interpret educational autism really broadly and rules vary state by state one what an educational autism label looks like in each state. That's the reason there are such discrepancies of autism rates around the country; the CDC relies on documents from school districts to determine autism rates. Autism in the schools is just a catchall today.

Anyway OP, never trust the schools to diagnose autism. Go to the professionals who specialize in a differential diagnosis. The better diagnosis you get, the better treatment program you can put together for your child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, OP, schools like to pull this shit. They put a bunch of forms in front of you, not clearly explaining what they are looking for. Then they have a hack school "psychologist" with minimal training and supervision do their autism assessments. It's a racket.

Of course, we laughed when they did this to us. Teachers were hounding us about autism, tested DS behind his back, then were shocked when even their hack psychologist found no autism. (We had outside evals saying no to autism, too.)

From then on, we specifically wrote into the IEPs that we did not consent to autism testing.

How's it a racket? What's the play, exactly? Who's getting rich here?

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, OP, schools like to pull this shit. They put a bunch of forms in front of you, not clearly explaining what they are looking for. Then they have a hack school "psychologist" with minimal training and supervision do their autism assessments. It's a racket.

Of course, we laughed when they did this to us. Teachers were hounding us about autism, tested DS behind his back, then were shocked when even their hack psychologist found no autism. (We had outside evals saying no to autism, too.)

From then on, we specifically wrote into the IEPs that we did not consent to autism testing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you give permission to evaluate you don't get to say that they can evaluate for x but not y. You basically open the door and the psychologist and others see where the data goes.

I'd register unhappiness with using incomplete data to draw a conclusion and ask for an IEE. You can submit your own examination as well. What did your private testing find?

pretty sure that's not true that you have to consent to any testing they want to do.

Read 6:30. She described it well.

She didn't cite to any law or regs. Parents are well within their rights to refuse a specific test.

Actually, that's not the case. A parent can certainly revoke permission or not consent in the first place, but a parent can't tell the school psychologist what instruments and rating scales to use.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you give permission to evaluate you don't get to say that they can evaluate for x but not y. You basically open the door and the psychologist and others see where the data goes.

I'd register unhappiness with using incomplete data to draw a conclusion and ask for an IEE. You can submit your own examination as well. What did your private testing find?

pretty sure that's not true that you have to consent to any testing they want to do.

Read 6:30. She described it well.

She didn't cite to any law or regs. Parents are well within their rights to refuse a specific test.

Anonymous wrote:OP, here, I haven't responded yet, despite the above assumptions. Thanks for the helpful responses (for the benefit of future posters, those presuming what a posters true concenrs are, despite the question posed, are not helpful and simply cause more frustration). We have no concern that services will be taken away. We have had quite the opposite problem of having to fight very hard at one time, after kindgarten, to keep my son mainstream when the school wanted him send to a different school and into a class with kids with emotional disabilities. After a phenomenal 1st grade, everyone now admits that taking him out of mainstream would have been a huge mistake. So there is some level of distrust here. I'm not confident this school wants to deal with kids with special needs. We also have had him tested twice for autism privately and have been told he doesn't have it. We will test again. My concern is based on posts, similar to what is on this thread, saying that some school psychologists are not qualified to do this type of testing. Sounds like there is not a clear answer as to what we have consent to and not (which is surprising) and I need to do some legal research to better determine how to proceed. Thanks again.

Anonymous wrote:Schools have to test students in ALL areas of suspected disability. If they are doing any kind of assessment under social-emotional because they suspect ADHD, for example, and the tests indicate difficulty in socialization and there is a history of a student being tested for autism in the past then they need to do more testing to rule out autism. If they don't then they can get sued for not testing in all areas of suspected disability. It would be a lot easier for the school psychologist not to test. If you don't want your child assessed for autism then don't agree to any social emotional testing by the school.