If you have contacted a psychologist to conduct an IQ test and achievement test for your child to meet DYS requirements, how much did they charge for both tests together? Our son is starting 3rd grade. One psychologist in Massachusetts quoted us something in the $1500-$2000 range for both, which I am reluctant to spend. I would be willing to spend something closer to $1000.

If people tell me that closer to $2K than $1K is the going rate, I may have to bite the bullet.

When I researched this in Columbus OH, I was quoted between 1600 and 2000.

Just got off the phone with GDC in Denver. The going rate with them for the WISC IV and achievement is about 1300. plus post conference of about $500., so $1800. all told.

I believe MA tends to be on the high end of costs for the country, since the cost of living is pretty high out there.

But in the cheap Midwest, our tester--who is younger than many, but did her training with a gifted pro and who specializes in gifted kids--charges $850 to administer both WISC (IQ) and WJ (achievement). We have been very happy with the way she has worked with our kids, including the one who appears to be 2E. Both kids were accepted into the DYS program.

That $850 is all-inclusive. Exit interview and report are all in there.

Bostonian,

Assuming you are, in fact, in or near Boston, have you looked at any of the zillion schools there to see if students at any psych grad programs will administer the tests you need?

Around here (PNW) prices would be around $600-$700. Lots of testers familiar with gifted kiddos since there are several gifted schools in the area that require private testing.

Cheaper to fly here and get it done!!

In CO, the non-GDC price is 600-700 for WISC-IV and WJ-III. Testers were experienced with gifted though not the gold (platinum?) standard of GDC.

I don't know if that would work b/c the tester wouldn't be a licensed psychologist. I don't know about DYS, but organizations like Mensa won't accept IQ scores unless they are on letterhead, with a licensed psych's signature and license number. For those of you who are more knowledgeable about DYS, would they take scores from tests administered by doctoral students?

In Richmond, VA it was $675 for WISC-IV and WIAT-II.

dd5 was admitted to the DYS in based on data obtained by grad students at a uni.

Hmm. Interesting. The first time dd9 was tested, her GAI qualified for DYS, but the doctoral student who tested her didn't even put the GAI in his report. I just looked it up online b/c I knew enough to realize that scores at or above the 99th percentile for both PRI and VCI and avg scores for WMI and PSI were likely to invalidate the composite IQ score he put in his report. He, too, was overseen by a licensed psych at the uni but I assumed that the scores were kind of worthless in terms of using for anything.

Our psychologist we found (we have to travel about 2.5 hours to get to her) does testing for $250.00 for each test and that includes a written report and meeting afterwards to discuss the results of any/all tests. We called several other psych/testers and were given rates of between $575.00 to $1500.00. We were amazed at such a HUGE spread in costs!

I was just going to ask a related question... We are also looking for someone to test my DS10 so we can figure out whether we apply for DYS. Someone told me that healthy insurance should cover psychological evaluations, but when I called my insurance they said there is no coverage unless it is for the diagnosis for mental disorders. Is this the generally the situation?

I wouldn't expect insurance to cover iq testing.

Insurance often pays for IQ testing as part of evaluations for developmental delays, ADHD, Asperger's, etc.

Our insurance didn't cover the cost of dd9's second testing b/c her pediatrician didn't feel that she needed an eval. In order for them to pay, she would have had to have been referred by the ped, had significant delays, and the eval would have needed to turn up a dx other than gifted, which it did not.

Insurance paid for our child's IQ and acheivement testing. He had significant developmental delays and was referred by the pediatrician. I agree that makes sense. However, the last condition (having to turn up another diagnosis) seems very odd to me and I question if that is correct. Wouldn't that be like telling someone if were tested for anemia but turned out to be just fine you'd owe the insurance the money back for the blood test.

The average rate in the Boston area for a full neuropsychological evaluation is between 2500 and 3000. This would include WISC, achievement testing and other cognitive testing.

Some testing centers such as Mass General, Children's and Leslie College may be able to provide the WISC and Achievement only for less money. Commonwealth Learning Center might be another option.

I kind of got the impression from our insurance that they weren't going to be paying and were trying to find a way to make sure that they didn't have to pay. I didn't pursue it b/c it just seemed like it wasn't something that we were going to get our $ back on regardless of the dx. Also, there seemed to be a bit of difficulity with the psych in terms of getting her to play by their rules in terms of making the paperwork look like something the insurance would process.

What the insurance co. said was that they needed an ICD-9 code to even process it as a claim and the psych said that she couldn't put a diagnostic code on the bill when she didn't dx her with anything. The insurance said that, in the absence of a diagnosis, there would be nothing to process -- like a dr's office sending them a bill for $1400 with no code, just what tests they ran.

In any case (and re the original question), as I mentioned, we paid $1400.

We have a large HMO and our pediatrician said he was willing to refer us for testing but that we'd have to be willing to say we were trying to rule out ADHD. At that point, I didn't want any mention of anything in his medical records because we knew his teacher was off her rocker. That was the only way the ped said he was able to get it done.

We paid out of pocket for IQ (2x) and achievement (1x). Our total, including a private consultation with the tester each time the IQ was completed was about $900. Our tester has a very small private practice and is also a school psych for a very large school district near us. She had plenty of experience testing gifted children and did a fabulous job.

Our University charges $75 for a GT evaluation (IQ only). It's hit or miss if you'll get a good tester, someone who has experience with little kids (ours did not) or someone who is even interested in gifted issues, let alone has tested a gifted child before.

Try calling Boston Neuropsychological Services. If I remember right, it $600 for the IQ test. We had our youngest tested there. We dealt with Dr. Kelly Karl, she was wonderful.

Here's the link. Here

Good luck!

Thanks, everyone, for answering the question on insurance coverage. It looks like it's gonna be out of pocket. The psych that we found has lots of experience with GT kids but we are looking at around $800 for IQ and evaluation (I haven't asked about achievement testing). I'm not certain yet that we will test, the sole purpose for getting the scores is to apply for DYS. It's very unlikely that our school district will care--that's just their attitude. Of course we won't know until we test, but it is a bit of an expense.

FWIW, part of the reason you see such a huge spread in costs is that providers are repeatedly warned never to discuss fees with each other because of antitrust laws. (Don't get me started on how managed care "negotiates" (= dictates) fees because they are exempt from those same laws, grrrr.) I can tell you that my fees are within what is being discussed as typical for MA and/or for someone who is expert with working with GT and possibly-2E folks. I'm not cheap, but I like to think that the value I provide to clients is worth it.

In general, most insurance will not pay for achievement testing at all -- they say that schools should do that for free (of course, the schools tend not to agree, leaving the parents in the lurch).

In general, also, insurance tends not to want to pay for something unless there is a pretty clear case to be made that there's a Big Problem Worthy of Psychiatric Diagnosis. "Oh, we just want to rule out ADHD," will often meet with the response, "Okay, so just do a questionnaire for the parents and the teachers and ask them if they think the kid shows symptoms of ADHD." I had a kid I filled out insurance forms for at my internship (I had to make a strong case literally test by test), kid was obviously seriously depressed, and they said, "So just send him to a psychiatrist and give him antidepressants, he doesn't need testing."

Note that many private providers don't take insurance, because the reimbursements are so low (and getting lower all the time).

Note also that school-based testing is answering a different question from private testing. School-based testing tends to be about the numbers, not the collection of rich data and interpreting it in a thoughtful way. So it depends on what kind of questions you are asking and who your intended audience is.

University-based testing can be very hit-and-miss, as others have noted. You might get someone who is only in the clinic because they have to fulfill a requirement, and you're unlikely to get anyone who has specialized knowledge about giftedness... or you might luck out and get someone terrific with a fantastic supervisor and get a gold-plated comprehensive evaluation for pennies on the dollar. (After all, I was an intern in my school's clinic last year (grin), taking on the most complex cases I could.)

If you only want to know, "Does my kid have a 145 IQ and achievement so he can qualify for DYS?" then one could argue that if you could convince the school to test for free, there would be little reason not to take that route. You wouldn't know much more about your kid when you were done than you did already (you probably already knew he was smart because that's why you were testing), but sometimes that's all people actually care about. I'm not shy about telling people when they can get something cheaper someplace else. Most folks who work with me or someone like me are looking for more of a comprehensive and thoughtful analysis, with a question more like, "What is my kid like as a learner, what would be the best ways to help him learn, where would be some good directions to go next?" or even, "If my kid is so smart, why on earth can he not do <whatever the problem is>, and what can we do to help him?"

In Oklahoma the WISC IV was $150... I can't recall the prices of the others... but for about $650 you could get round trip tickets from Logan to Tulsa, add on another $350 for your WISC IV and an achievement test and still save a big chunk of change. I used to live in Boston and I know the cost of living is high... but it sounds like they are trying to rape and pillage in the testing market. That is just insanely high.

Or fly into Dallas for cheaper tickets and then drive. There are a ton of interesting museums in OKC and Tulsa and the DFW area.

Did you have a good tester you'd recommend? (Feel free to PM.)