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I can request an Assistive Technology Evaluation for my child, right? Any tips or advice on how to go about that? I was thinking of sending the following email to the IEP team to request it:

Dear Team,
DH and I would like to formally request that the IEP team refer DS for an evaluation by an assistive technology specialist. We would like to the evaluation to be documented in DS's IEP during our March ___ meeting, including the expected date to start and finish the evaluation.

Thank you.

Is that sufficient?

I would take the "would like to" out of the letter and just request it I also might replace "refer for" with "provide" an evaluation.

I'd also ask your advocate (I think you have an advocate contact?) how an AT eval is requested and conducted in your district just to be sure you have your bases covered.

Our advocate also always advised us to include a date by which we expected a response to our request, something like "Please let us know by (date ten business days after sending in the note) if an assistive technology evaluation will be conducted.

I'll also warn you that when we were finally granted an AT evaluation, it wasn't all that great and in our ds' case, was more problematic than if we'd never asked for one because it came with a lot of lock-step requirements of proof of need, rather than an admission that ds qualified for AT due to dysgraphia. For example, we wanted the district to provide word prediction, and we knew that Co:Writer was the software that was used in our district (there was already another student in ds' class using it). The AT specialist agreed that ds could "test" using Co:Writer in the classroom, but first they wanted to try non-tech (can't remember the actual term) solutions, such as slanted board, pencil grips, etc - all things that were used with handwriting, even though we had an updated neuropsych report which clearly stated ds would *never* be able to use handwriting for academics. The district argued back that was standard AT eval approach; we successfully argued that didn't need to occur for ds (that was the easy part). Then the district AT specialist refused to allow introduction of more than one type of AT at a time, and each thing had to be tested and meet a certain performance bar to be continued. For example, they wanted keyboarding eval to come before Co:Writer, and ds would have to be able to show that he could meet some predetermined performance requirement (total number of paragraphs written) using keyboarding vs handwriting. DS was also struggling with an expressive language disorder, so no matter how well keyboarding replaced handwriting for him, we were very concerned he would not be able to meet the performance expectations due to his expressive language challenges (which were a possibly-related yet separate issue). We successfully argued past that but then faced the same requirement for testing Co:Writer. Hopefully your school district will not put up the same type of road blocks, but be prepared for them.

We ultimately chose not to go through our school district AT eval and chose to provide ds with a laptop and software from home, and have the AT that we were providing written into his accommodations.

polarbear

Oh gee... maybe I shouldn't request it? Not sure what to do now. I guess I should contact my lawyer? I wasn't going to contact her if I can some free guidance here.... But maybe she will know if this could actually turn out to cause more problems rather than less.


Yikes.

I want to make things better for DS not worse!

But I wonder if having the addition of a physical disability - the EDS ... will help. Point out to them it's not just a brain/neurological problem, he has a physical condition too (and the physician sent a letter to the school saying keyboarding was medically necessary)

Hmmm. Maybe like any other evaluation... I should get a private one done instead and present that to the school ... I mean, I requested an eval last year for DS for dysgraphia and dyslexia and it was completely fruitless... Had to get a private eval anyway.

First, don't get scared off by my experience - I'm not in your school district! But if you can find an *advocate* who works with families going through IEP eligibility etc they might have some good insight into what you'll get through a local AT eval. We have a local parents' advocates group that is totally free of charge (funded through a federal grant) - we found them at wrightslaw on the yellow pages. If there is anything like that in your area, giving them a quick call might yield a lot of info on what you can expect at your specific school.

And I wouldn't *not* request the eval, even if you ultimately find it's not going to be useful or might cause issues. You can always *stop* it once it's in progress - that's what we did. It's a lot easier to put a stop to something like this than it is to get it started in the first place.

polarbear

You have what you need to get the keyboarding accommodation - you shouldn't need anything more at all than the physician's letter. If they try to argue that, they are simply trying to intimidate you - don't be intimidated. Keyboarding is a *very* common accommodation. It's not one you should have to fight for (no matter what your school tells you).

Using specialized software gets more complicated. If you had something written up by a private professional, it might help, or it might not. We paid for a private AT report, and it was helpful for *me* because it gave me a ton of ideas of things I could try for ds - but the school scoffed at it. Note - the actual AT specialist didn't scoff at it - she was really interested in what was recommended - but the IEP team etc didn't put any credence into it because it was done outside of the school, and any AT provided by the school needed to be evaluated through the school district AT eval process.

I know I keep mentioning free resources but... fwiw... another resource I found in our community (also found through wrightslaw) is a group that provides technology evaluations for people with disabilities. They generally don't work with students simply because they are Federally funded and there are other Federal funds directed at AT in school - but .. they were wiling to answer questions for us, give us advice, and let ds try out software etc at their office because we were not being helped by the school. We still ultimately had to purchase what we wanted for ds, but being able to go in and try out different software packages and apps etc was really helpful.

polarbear

Ahhh, okay. Good thoughts. But, hey, I hear you, though... Like I said, last year I requested an evaluation for dyslexia and dysgraphia and not only did the eval yield nothing fruitful really... It actually caused a lot of problems.

Okay, I put a call into the local advocate I used last year (before having to get an attorney), left her a message to see what her experience/knowledge is... I am playing around with spending some money talking to my attorney about it, too. See what she knows about AT in this district.

In the meantime, I am going to go ahead and request and see if I can't get it in the works. Like you said, if I decide to go the private route ... I can just say that I decided to hire a private AT evaluator and stop their eval. Or if I don't like their results I can hire a subsequent private eval.

We have been lucky in that we have not even had to ask for an AT assessment (a formal one, anyway). The former VP at DD's school was an AT guru and her masters work centred around LDs and AT. When DD transferred to the school, they had multiple aid ready for her to try out. When she exceeded the cowriter's abilities, they asked the school board to fund Ginger software for her classroom laptop (we suggested it, as we use it at home). Now that it has been approved, it will be available to her in all of her classrooms for as long as needed. This year, she has an iPad for her own personal use. We paid for the iPad, all the apps (we wanted to try out different ones than could be provided) and a wireless printer (for home use). We did not approach them for this technology as we knew that they were already providing good AT in the classroom. We wanted DD to have the iPad so that she could get used to it before middle school next year.

It can be a positive experience. We had a much tougher fight to get her ADHD adaptations at her old school. This school is fantastic. The principal checks in with her a few times each month and they are often the ones to make suggestions. We rarely have to ask for anything.

Kathleen's mum, I am so jealous - sounds like a nice school!