We were told by advocates that since my son is designated as Highly gifted, he should be compared to his highly gifted peers in determining whether his dyslexia significantly impairs his ability. Somewhere on Wrightslaw, there's an article explaining how to make the argument.
Is this it?
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/2e.index.htmThe second item down is a 2010 letter from the acting director of the Office of Special Education Programs saying:
"With regard to students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), the Analysis of Comments and Changes in the regulations implementing Part B of the IDEA (71 Fed. Reg. 46540, at 46647 and 46652, August 14, 2006) contemplates that there will be some students with high cognition who need special education and related services:
Discrepancy models are not essential for identifying children with SLD who are gifted. However, the regulations clearly allow discrepancies in achievement domains, typical of children with SLD who are gifted, to be used to identify children with SLD...;
No assessment, in isolation, is suficient to indicate that a child has an SLD. Including
reading fluency in the list of areas to be considered when determining whether a child has an SLD makes it more likely that a child who is gifted and has an SLD would be
identiied.
"
and a point that is very key to our situation:
"
Moreover, it has been the Department's long-standing position that, in general, it would be appropriate for the evaluation team to consider information about outside or extra learning support provided to the child to determine whether the child's current academic achievement reflects the service augmentation, and not what the child's achievement would be without such help. "
