I'll not re-post DS7's story but he's HG and dysgraphic. And happy. He loves school. He hates writing. I'll admit, sometimes I can't even see the disability or I doubt the diagnosis. I did see it very clearly last week studying for a spelling test. We did teacher-assigned written spelling homework for three nights. On night four, I gave him a written practice test for homework. He got three out of ten correct. The other seven weren't even close. I don't even know how he came up with what he wrote. He was engaged, but he just couldn't do it...until I got out the Scrabble tiles. We worked for 15 minutes and I quizzed him again the next morning-orally. He got them all right.

The school has been 100% against us. I don't know what else to say about it. They will NOT help him at all. He meets the state standards-case closed. It energized me a bit to see so clearly what he needs when he was working on his spelling test, so I emailed the principal today. I honestly didn't expect her to do anything, but I didn't expect this response either, "I know it can be frustrating to a child (and to the parents) when they have great success in one area and challenges in another as they feel like they "should" be able to do well in every subject." What?? It's not that he feels that he "should", it's that he can't. BECAUSE OF A DISABILITY.

I don't know how to work with this. I had planned on pressing for the 504 accommodations, but now I just feel defeated. Again.

Is there ever a time to let it go? He's happy at school. The work is super easy, so he's getting by with the writing for now. His standardized test scores are through the roof. Teachers aren't complaining. DH and I are the only ones who see an issue. Do I wait until teachers are complaining, his grades do suffer and he's really frustrated? That sounds insane and wrong on every level, but I can't make the school care.

Because he loves it so much, I'd like to make public school work for now. Is there anything else that I can do? Is it ever okay to let it go for a season? Am I crazy for even suggesting that?

Is he 504 eligible? That is, have they found him eligible?

If not-- you've got nothing at the moment, in terms of leverage.

And NO, I would not just let this go.

But think of it this way-- that disability process MUST work forward to back or the school would have every parent breathing down their necks to "adjust" things that their precious snowflakes simply find unpleasant, hard, or unrewarding (to either parents or child). There's a big difference between "I have no readiness or ability for this level of material that is 'advanced' relative to grade, and it's going to be a CONTINUOUS battle to get me through it" and "I can't WRITE my answers or they don't make sense-- I need another way of getting what I know across to those evaluating assessments because I know a LOT if you give me a chance."

The latter is disability. The former is special-snowflake-ism. Schools SHOULD ignore the former, and should at the same time find out ways to accommodate the latter so that those students have the same opportunity to LEARN at school as other children.

But the first step is teasing apart who is who.

"The work is super-easy, so he's getting by" is a clear warning sign in my mind. You can deal with it now, or you can remediate fall-out in a year or two. IMO, you're better off getting the 504 plan in place NOW than waiting until he's in crisis and you're all frustrated and anxious to move things faster than they can reasonably go. (Schools move slowly on this sort of thing.)

ITA. Do you have a written eval from a neuropsychologist? Have you talked to the district-level people, or just the school?

There are things you can do to make a 504 happen even with a recalcitrant school.

Yes, I have a full outside psych eval with diagnosis and recommendations. When we met to start the eligibility process, the assistant principal mentioned the 504 and said we could get one "right now." After several email exchanges, the 504 offer seems to have mysteriously vanished from their minds. I was going to pick up that fight again but I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall.

I have only worked with the school. I was trying to honor the chain-of-command but it seems that even the principal isn't terribly concerned about any of this.

Written documentations-- from here on out.

You need a letter of understanding pronto. Write something up which details your interactions, what you were told and when (and names/titles).

Then lob that into their court with a deadline for them to "correct any misunderstandings" that you may have. For example, your "misunderstanding" that your child IS 504-eligible. (Yes, yes, I know that wasn't a misunderstanding, but it'll get things moving, at least.)

ITA with the above. I took a quick look back through your August post to remember some of what's gone on at school this year. I'm curious - have you tried finding a parent advocate to help you navigate through the school system?

It seems pretty clear that the school doesn't want your ds to qualify for services, but it's also somewhat clear that they are using what's essentially a smoke-screen to show he's not qualified. It's easy to say he's meeting standards, but they might not actually be testing the areas he's challenged with. That happened when we were advocating for our ds. I had to be very diligent in relating the info contained in ds' neuropsych testing in a way that correlated to examples of actual work from ds that countered any point the school staff tried to bring up saying ds was "ok" or "meeting standards". Disorders of written expression and related challenges aren't necessarily easy to identify for people who aren't familiar with both the concept and the child. I had to know first of all what I wanted from the school (IEP vs 504, what accommodations etc) and then I had to basically put together a presentation showing that he had those needs. In addition to putting together the data and examples that illustrated ds' needs, I also had to somewhat anticipate the arguments the school would throw back at me and plan ahead to counter them with either work samples or data or research etc.

And I'll be honest about something - we did give up - not on helping ds but on the school he was at. We moved him to a private school which meant moving him out of a program that we felt very strongly we wanted him in (not for the LD stuff but for his academic strengths). We made the decision to give up the IEP and services we'd fought hard to win, because the fight didn't stop with receiving the IEP - once we had the IEP we had to fight to get the services delivered. Over and over and over again. Ultimately changing schools was the best decision we ever made - just in this one instance, for our one ds. The difference for ds was that the staff at his new school accepted what we told them about ds, believed the private reports, and were very eager to help ds in whatever way they could. It was up to us to provide the OT, SLP etc, but the school would *never* have felt ok with saying "our goal is that he meets state standards". The difference in the school's attitude and willingness to help not only made *my* life 1000 times easier, it gave ds his self-confidence back. In some ways, I feel like it saved his life - it made that much of a difference to be in a different environment.

Again, that's just our one situation. We did give up something big - we gave up advocating for and expecting services from ds' public school. But we *never* gave up seeking accommodations, remediation, working toward living with and succeeding with his disability. If we'd said "the fight is too tough now, ds is happy, let's wait a year in first grade", that simply would *not* have worked. It would have instead most likely made it 10 times more difficult to advocate the second time around, and 100 times more difficult for ds because he'd have to fall further before getting help.

While there may be days when the good things about school seem to be everywhere and you're able as a parent for a minute to feel like dysgraphia doesn't exist, I'm guessing the chances are good that for your ds, there is never a day he doesn't think about it. I could be wrong, but that's what it was like for my ds before he had accommodations, even on the days when there wasn't much writing at school. He always felt different and always wondered why he couldn't do something so simple that all the other kids could do. It really hit his self-esteem in a big way at 7 years old. OTOH, having parents who stood up for him and fought for his accommodations etc gave him hope, and by the time we were ready to give up on his school, he'd given up on it too. In 2nd grade he was happy there and didn't want to move, by the end of 5th grade he wanted no more of it. He saw how the school was denying anything was wrong, he knew something was wrong (and he had a name for it by then and an understanding of what it was), and he knew the school staff wasn't helping. Don't discount the message from the school that your child is receiving every day when a teacher is telling you, the parent, that there is nothing wrong - your child is hearing the teacher say the same thing (maybe not the same conversation, but he'll get the same message).

So my recommendation - you can't ever give up or set aside the advocating and seeking what's best for your ds for even a minute, but sometimes you need to step back and reframe what you're seeking, how you're going about it, and look to see if there are alternatives that might work better.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I think you have given the principal a chance - the next step in "honoring the chain-of-command" is to move it up the food chain. I would forward the principal's recent email and a copy of your report with diagnosis and evaluations to central office. Tonight. I would look at your district website and find the director of special Ed, director of special services or director of Pupil Personnel Services. I would reference the prior agreement but only forward the other emails if this person balks at putting a 504 in place.

In second grade my DD (with a laundry list of LD diagnoses including dysgraphia and dyslexia) averaged only 70% when she had to write her spelling tests herself, *above 95%* when she could do them orally. This accommodation was in her IEP all year but it was hard to get the teacher to understand and implement her accommodations. Getting the 504 in place will be a start - it may still take time to get everything worked out and implemented.

I am confident this will work out. And no this is definitely not one I would just let go. If he is dysgraphic his challenges are likely to get worse - you want to get things in place now.

Good luck!

ITA with HK, though I'd be wording it a little different, because I wouldn't allow there to be any question of whether the child is 504-eligible. Rather than hinting at a "misunderstanding" that the child may be eligible, I'd take that as a given, and hint that there has been some form of "miscommunication" regarding its implementation, so if someone can provide advice on the next step in the formal process, so we can move it along, that'd be great.

I mean, you have a formal diagnosis from a qualified professional. Eligibility IS a given. There's no reason for further debate.

Excellent point.

I really don't think giving up is the way to go, either. My kid does really well at spelling tests (and it carries over to his writing, as well), but the act of writing itself seems painful. Right now, we are again going back & forth on a dysgraphia diagnosis (after my last post, I decided to follow up again).

Like masterofnone, I am compiling documentation. Worksheets where things are easy for him, vs worksheets where he has to write a lot of sentences. And, like masterofnone, I am explicitly teaching writing and grammar rules to my child. While he may be at grade level now, I think the teachers/principal don't know how much work goes into it. I worry a lot about writing expectations going up through the grades. Typing is one solution that seems to be working better for my child.

Keep researching, keep asking questions, and compile documentation -- don't give up.

Thank you, everyone. I think I needed to hear that I'm not totally insane because that's the way I feel. Thank you also for sharing your experiences.

polarbear, I did look at the yellow pages on Wright's Law. I contacted a couple of local places that actually didn't offer advocacy services. I'm going to have to hire someone, aren't I? This makes me anxious but I'm seeing now that it may be the only option.

Just yesterday I found the Parent 2 Parent organization. I called our state office and the representative was helpful in answering some questions. The 2e angle did stump her though. I asked if he had to be measured against the state standards for services and she wasn't sure. There are also parent mentors as part of this organization and we have one in my county. They are to act as a liaison between parents and the schools. However, they are the school district payroll and I don't have high expectations. Has anyone heard of this organization or used them?

Don't let it go. Even with a dysgraphia diagnosis and an IEP, I've started this school year having to resist math homework for DS8 which is nothing more than a handwriting exercise. I am dealing with the same administrative people as last year, only the classroom teacher has changed, but they all appear to have had their memories wiped over the summer holidays. Because I persisted, DS8 has an IEP and I am able to point to that document, which they signed off on, to address their memory deficits instead of starting at square one every September. It's hard, but worth it.

DD has ADHD and I was also told that she does not qualify for a 504 because she's not failing. I ended up forwarding information about laws and eligibility to the school psych who had told me that. She ignored my email but then a month later she wrote back and said she talked to the special ed director. I also had problems with DS and his IEP and the special ed director started coming to his IEP meetings and made sure things were done correctly by the school. Once you start talking about laws, I think you will see some action. I also smiled and said pleasantly a time or two, that "I hope I won't have to call the State again to clarify this." (the people in the Special Ed dept. for the State in "Compliance" were very helpful over the phone...more helpful, actually, then when I tried an advocacy group.) At one point Compliance actually called the Spec. Ed director. I was never nasty or over-emotional, I just made it clear that I knew about laws. I think that's what got me furthest ahead.

We were in this very same situation about 2 years ago with my older dd. She hasn't tested as gifted but she does have high average cognitive abilities, close to being gifted but not quite. We fought the school for 2 years trying to get her help and they were less than helpful. We had a horrible team where the psych even rolled her eyes when I tried to point out the areas of the test results that showed my dd needed help and had a LD. Even with a diagnosis from Children's they wouldn't even give her a 504. Meanwhile dd continued to fall further and further behind in class. I won't go into a lot of details but in the end the school dropped the ball in regards to getting her help, thinking we were switching schools when we weren't. The second to last day of school we were able to get her an IEP, mostly thanks to her current teacher and a much better IEP team. A team that actually knew what they were doing. They looked at the very same tests the previous team had and were able to see what I had been trying to tell them for nearly two years. It was a relief that somebody finally got it and understood how my dd was struggling to 'access the curriculum' in the classroom.... that's the phrase they would stick to for eligibility determination.

Last year was the first school year she had an IEP but the special ed teacher was useless and didn't accomplish much with her. The only progress dd made was thanks to the outside tutoring we did/do. At the end of last year dd ended up qualifying for more services and it seems crazy that a child with an IEP continues to fall further behind.... It's a constant battle it seems... even with an IEP.

Luckily this year seems to be going better. They fired the old special ed teacher and the new one is awesome and dd loves her. So I'm trying to stay optimistic.

The point I'm trying to make is that be prepared to be in a constant battle. You need to follow through and get your child the help he deserves. And imo even with a 504 or an IEP you are always gonna have to be aware and fight for what your child needs. The documentation isn't a given that they will get what they need.

Oh, and my dd (diagnosed with dyspraxia, dyslexia, and dyscalculia) was the very same way in 1st and 2nd with spelling tests. If she wrote them out she'd miss nearly all of them, but if the teacher tested her orally she'd get them all right.

So, the speech therapist from the school just called me and apparently DS is being fast-tracked through RTI for speech. I knew his teacher last year had been doing some informal work with him on pronouncing R, but I had no idea that they were moving through RTI. She acted like moving through tier 3 and onto a speech IEP was no big deal.

Is there a way that I can leverage this to get him some help with dysgraphia? Has anyone else tried this?

Yes-- note that they are OFFERING HIM SERVICES/ACCOMMODATIONS.

Ask "where is this in his plan?"

They are trying (potentially, probably) to get around formal identification so that they aren't on the hook for anything that they don't feel like doing down the road.

Make them follow the process. Getting accommodations/interventions in place BEFORE identifying what his needs are (via the procedure that they've established for the school/district) is technically not kosher under the law. Just so that you know that.

Actually, it IS kosher and standard practice now. Response to Intervention (RtI) is supposed to be done with any student who struggles-- you differentiate and try to meet the needs, take data on what works, and then write that all into a plan so that you continue doing what has been established as actually helpful.

However: RtI is NOT allowed to be used to delay writing the plan. I'd use this as an occasion to ask them (in writing) to start a formal educational evaluation toward reconsidering an IEP, listing everything you're concerned about.

And thank them for seeing the need and offering the services in the meantime.

I think my concern is how to connect the two. Dysgraphia and pronouncing the letter R aren't in the same ballpark. How do I make the connection?

Again-- ask where they are in the process.


Understand, also-- that while RTI is an appropriate thing in suspected LD's under an IEP, it's NOT okay with a condition that requires "accommodations" or a change in placement-- both of which have to be determined to be "needed" by a group/team.

I'm pretty sure that dysgraphia can't be considered a thing that could be "remediated" so much as a stable thing that is "accommodated" by modifications to policies/practices/procedures. In that instance, you're not looking at "what progress has the student made toward goal X as we've done Y and Z" but "is this working for the student so that s/he has the same access as unaffected peers?"

(Not sure if I'm explaining that well-- but the point is that access-based interventions like that aren't necessarily things that have to be empirically determined-- get the right people together in a room around a table, and they can KNOW what to do for that student. Because the impairment is stable and predictable.)

If RTI is being invoked, then they've already started the process. So the real question is then-- why aren't they telling YOU that? (That's the part where legality gets weird here.)

Did they ever actually complete an educational evaluation? You wrote:

I recall that you have a private dx of dysgraphia, right?

You can certainly leverage the fact that they've opened an RtI conversation to request a complete formal eval. They are required to evaluate in all areas of suspected disability.

You can give them the private dysgraphia info to include in their eval. (They are not required to believe it, but they would be silly not to.)

Working around dysgraphia is a little unpredictable, HK-- it is reasonable to figure that there will be trial and error to see which workarounds the child can actually use. (Speech recognition software vs. typing; what kind of technology on which to type, and in what application; some kids can't learn to type either; etc.) An AT evalution is very helpful in this case.

There may also need to be services, not just accommodations; teaching AT, teaching typing, these are services. Speech is a service, so you're looking at an IEP anyhow.

But getting them to acknowledge the reality of the disability is step 1, IMO. Make the need understood; then set about determining accommodations/services.

Yes, I have a private dx for dysgraphia.

For dysgraphia, the school told us that technically he is at tier 1. However, the teacher completed a rubric showing him to be meeting or exceeding the second grade standards for writing. The psychologist (special ed rep) in our meeting also made it clear that his WJ scores indicated grade-level performance so nothing further is needed. Given this, they have never completed any educational evaluation. They don't see a need. I also haven't requested it because I don't understand what difference it will make if their standard of measurement is the state grade-level standards. He will likely not fall below any grade-level standards.

For speech, she is sending home a form to sign to approve tier 2 interventions. She made it clear that this was a formality. She "only needs two data points from the teacher" to get him to tier 3 and under her care. That is her goal. She said that the teachers don't have time for tier 2 speech interventions and my impression was that she just wanted to check that off the list and keep moving.

Since the speech therapist seemed eager to help, I was wondering how to piggyback the writing into the equation here.

That's not the legal standard. You might look at wrightslaw.com.


The full educational eval is your best bet.

For my DD the connection came because her articulation problems WERE affecting her writing. And her use of AT.

Voice recognition software was having trouble understanding her and she was writing/typing words as she pronounces them. She routinely mixes up "R" and "W", hard "TH" and "D", soft "TH" and "S", etc. Her college level vocabulary was tested only as "high average" by the literacy specialist because of things like reading "eager" as "eagle". She has been identified with just about every possible LD so her situation is more complex but it points to the need for a thorough evaluation.

If I understand correctly you now have a private psych report that should qualify him for a 504 to address dysgraphia and in school SLP saying he can qualify for an IEP for speech. This tells me you don't have the complete picture yet. As DeeDee said a full evaluation and an AT eval are probably a good idea. He is still little - the full extent of his difficulties may appear gradually. I think it's a good idea to get out in front of it.

DS initially had a speech IEP written in preschool since he was scoring so low for articulation. I was always told that since it was a speech IEP he did not qualify for OT or other special ed services. Ultimately, they took his developmental coordination disorder diagnosis and wrote a "physically impaired" IEP and were able to add all kinds of things to his IEP. They dropped the speech IEP and added speech to his "physically impaired" IEP. He also gets OT, a special ed teacher works on him with writing, he gets adapted phy ed, a social skills group, etc. Honestly, i'm a bit mystified by the whole thing and what each category can get a child, but the speech IEP was pretty much useless except for speech. Dysgraphia would be considered "Disorder of Written Expression" but they would have to show inadequate school performance in writing. In our state there is a "discrepancy model" where if there is a large enough gap between ability and achievement, a kid can still qualify even if their performance is at grade level. He should still be able to qualify for a 504, though. I think I posted this before but here it is again...I found it helpful.
http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/3/3/2158244013505855

I would agree.

However, I would also proceed with the speech IEP. There is no legal difference between a speech IEP and an LD IEP, it's just a question of what qualifying disability is on the document. The main functional difference is that the standard for communication disability has not had as much litigation or regulatory interference (kind of goes together), so the decision to identify a child as having a communication disability is much more up to the judgement of the clinician. Once on an IEP, it doesn't matter what your classification is, only what your needs are. And that's something the team can discuss. Only the speech teacher can kick a kid off a communication disability IEP (as the qualified evaluator), so as long as you have buy-in from the SLP, you can use this as an avenue for addressing other needs.

RTII can be used to service children through general ed, diagnostically, and as evidence-gathering for a special ed eval. Quite a number of my colleagues nation-wide use RTII as the main source of data for eligibility. For NT/LD and low-cognitive kiddos, this actually works pretty well (actually, slightly on the generous side). Not quite as well for high-cognitives.

In general, I also view the prereferral process (which was the process that filled this niche before RTI--still exists in modified form) as an opportunity to identify additional accommodations that may be effective. That's why I ask teachers what strategies they've tried, and what the outcomes were.

Absolutely.

Thanks everyone. Looks like we'll be working on this from a new angle. I'm bewildered to say the least.

I did speak with the state department of education today. She clarified some things and suggested I take it up to the district level. It is clear this process has not followed protocol.

Great recommendation. I would be ready to show them the documentation (the private dx and any evidence you've collected that writing is a serious problem).

The school should never have stonewalled you in the first place. It's time to set it right.

I'm really glad that you phoned the state. Hopefully things will start moving in the right direction now.