Cola,
I don't agree with what the school is telling you. You should not need an outside expert to diagnose a learning disability. From what I have read on your threads, your son is having problems with english and math, but no behavioral concerns or other problems (language, sensory, speech etc.)? This would fall firmly in a learning disability camp, and not a medical condition. Have they indicated that they had specific concerns in another area?
I had a similar situation with my daughter at her school. Because she is gifted, and recognized as such, I had a much higher bar to meet in their eyes regarding her difficulties at school. However, since your son is failing subjects, that should be an immediate indication that he is struggling with a learning disability. I did see somewhere that you live in Arizona? I did a quick scan of their Dept. of Education web site and didn't see what I was looking for. In my case, when the school refused to do an evaluation, I filed a mediation request with the State Department of Education. The mediation request required the school to meet to resolve the issue within 30 days of my request. Let me tell you, it was a whole different ballgame after that. That puts the school on a legal time clock for progressing your son's evaluation and requires them to document their decisions or refusal to do additional testing.
You can also file a request for the school to pay for outside testing. They are claiming that they cannot diagnose him with anything? If they evaluated him in an area, and you feel their assessment of him is wrong or incorrect, you can ask them to pay for an outside evaluation. Furthermore, if you get an outside evaluation at your own expense that finds a disability in an area the school refused to evaluate, IDEA would require them to pay for that evaluation as well. IDEA has many of these safeguards to keep the school from stonewalling you.
I don't know if you have special education advocates in your area. I would look into getting one. They tend to be low cost special education experts (in most cases former special education teachers) that you can pay an hourly fee and who will accompany you to any meetings regarding your son. They can really be a good resource in helping you understand the law and deciding what testing is best for your son. I would not settle for a 504 plan if you feel he has a learning disability. Though a 504 would list accommodations for your son, it doesn't have any metrics requiring them to improve his learning problems. In a situation where the school isn't providing appropriate accommodations, progress towards improvement can be difficult under a 504. Imo, a 504 could be okay for accommodations like extra testing time or a behavioral plan for ADHD, but would not be as good as an IEP for a learning disability in a specific area like dyscalculia, especially if the child is failing a subject and already behind his peers.
I second master of none's comment around verbal communication with the school regarding this stuff. Start documenting conversations by email or in writing. If you are going to move forward with this process, you are going to need evidence of denials, poor decisions, testing results, etc. to put pressure on the school.
kitkat24
