My son is in 11th grade and he was recently evaluated through the school system. He has fairly severe motor issues and has been using assistive technology for years rather than handwriting. He even types math. He also has ADHD. They were required to give an achievement test and chose the Woodcock Johnson. Since he has painful writing, they allowed him to keyboard the test, for instance writing fluency, and because he scored 96th percentile on that subtest (he types 42 wpm and it's a timed test) his overall score was too high to qualify in categories like Physically Impaired and SLD-written expression. They say according to State law if a student has a motor disability they need to give accommodations on achievement tests because they are assessing written expression not handwriting.. In my mind, it invalidates the score.
They also claimed that no services are needed because even though he can only handwrite 7 words per minute he can access the curriculum and does well by using accommodations. The same argument was made for ADHD. His grades are good because late work is accepted, so therefore his education is not impacted by the disability and he can succeed with accommodations. They also ignored the fact that when they saw him and deemed him focused, he was medicated.
Thoughts?
