The school is unwilling to do any testing because DD is above level overall. What kinds of private evals do you suggest, and what kind of tester should I look for?
MWM, we've had the same issue with both of our 2e kids. The first thing to know is, that you may be able to argue the school into testing if you put your request into writing, and phrase your request in a way that points out the specific concerns - you can get advice on how to write the request from either wrightslaw.org, or from an advocate if you have one locally, or you can ask those of us here on the 2e board who've successfully navigated the IEP eligibility process what we did.
That said, going through the school for an eval is a long process and in our case even though we eventually got an IEP our ds didn't get the help he needed through the school so we didn't even try going through school for our dd. The other gotcha with a school eval (at least it's a gotcha here) is there is potential that the school has an interest in not finding an issue, as well as our schools do not offer up a diagnosis, but instead will offer up many alternative possibilities.
To get a private eval, my recommendation is to seek out a pediatric neuropsychologist for an educational eval. This will include ability (IQ) and achievement testing, as well as additional tests depending on the challenges the neuropsych observes during testing and from parent/teacher input. Our neuropsych evals have also included behavioral surveys filled out by parents and teachers as well as an interview with parents where we were asked to give our children's history from birth as well as given an opportunity to share classwork etc that we were concerned about. The neuropsych made recommendations for accommodations, remediation, and further evals/therapies as needed.
Another option you might be able to find privately are providers who will do targeted testing - either ability vs achievement or a reading-specific dyslexia screening. The challenge with using that approach is you might end up with more questions and wish you had the full neuropsych eval anyway.
Gotta run, this was in a bit of a hurry so I hope it makes sense!
polarbear
