Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Pls. help me compose letter to psych

Hey all,
Me again waiting for results of eval. Originally expected it by the 29th, psych just said now it wouldn't be until May 14th. So, I can just suck it up and wait, but there are only 2 weeks of school after that. I want to know if the testing indicates a possible need for some form of acceleration, so that I can go ahead and get that ball rolling--I would like to get that straightened out before the end of the school year if so. I have worked with the principal before with dd14. If the WISC indicates it, they would do achievement testing at the school and then use the Iowa Acceleration Scale to determine if she would be a good candidate for a skip or subject acceleration or something. I would like to get on the calendar at school. I think the psych should be able to give me some sort of indication now--I mean in the past I have gotten immediate numbers so I don't think it is out of line to ask for some info? Thoughts? It is unlikely that anything will be accomplished if I have no information until May 14th. IS this reasonable to ask and if so how do I say it?

You've already asked the psychologist once and he/she has said they they weren't comfortable talking about the report until it was done and they were backed up behind several other reports. At this point I don't see any use in writing for more information. Nothing has changed in terms of the situation.

Actually yes, it has changed, because originally she told me I would have the report on the 29th. So those two weeks could make a difference in getting my child in the appropriate setting for the beginning of the next school year or not.
Edited to add: Obviously right now, even without writing the report, the psych knows if the kid is gifted or not and whether it would make sense to consider acceleration. So, it would take a few sentences and a few minutes of her time to say, no, I don't think that is appropriate, or yes, ask for an appt. with the principal on the 15th now so you can share the report with him immediately after you have it.

I would write and say that you understand the delay in the report, but you're wondering if she can give you some idea of testing results and whether she will be recommending certain modifications at school, so that you can start to set up other tests, meetings, etc.

I think that considering she inititally gave you a date, and is now moving it by a full two weeks, she can at least give you that much. It's not like they are doing this testing/report free as a favor to you. For the money you are paying, you should get a report in a reasonable amount of time.

In my experience, school admins work over the summer so testing, meetings and IAS and stuff can still happen in the summertime. So you may not be in as much of a time crunch as you feel you are.

Also might it be helpful to contact your school and let them know that you have a report "in the pipeline" - to understand if there are are any hard cutoffs for placement for the next year.

In my experience, the school goes into total blackout mode the last day of school. The admins may still be working, but they don't answer any requests, and fat chance getting a meeting, let alone something as complicated as IAS.

I had the same issue a couple years ago. It was more for special ed. I got the report literally 2 or 3 days before school ended. I gave it to the teacher, who gave it to his IEP manager, who stuffed it into a file without looking at it. Then everyone went on summer break for 3 months. They would not meet until about 2 days before school started again, because teachers are not contracted to work until then. They had the report and told me they were dismissing all the findings and would not evaluate my child. By that time it was too late to try to figure out a new school, etc. Total nightmare.

Sounds like this school does not have that attitude, but it still helps to have plans more than 2 days before school starts.

Suggested letter (others probably will have commentary on this, but it will get you started):

Yes, it probably does make sense to tell him now we are waiting for report and do they work over the summer on this stuff or not if it indicates a need. When we went through this with dd14 it seemed like a mad rush to get all the data by the end of the year and the meeting was on the last day of school which gave me the impression that if we didn't get it done by then it wouldn't be in place for beginning of next school year.