Those of you with 2e children how did they qualify for an IEP? Did they meet the requirements of 16th percentile in testing areas? My district is using this as a reason NOT to qualify my 8yo dd for an IEP.
My ds qualified by agreement of the "team" (parents, teacher, school district psych, school special ed staff member, and school's IEP rep - in our case, the school VP). I would say first that, going into that meeting - the only people who were on board with approving eligibility were us (parents). I believe that his teacher saw how our ds desperately needed help, as well as the school VP who'd been ds' teacher the year he first obviously struggled in school - BUT - I think that we had several things that were heavily weighing against finding him eligible that really had nothing to do with his needs: 1) the school we were at does not like to provide services, 2) our district is terribly strained with providing services to all the students who need them - not enough staff, not enough budget - it's not only tough to qualify as a 2e kid, it's tough for *any* kid to qualify for services here... and 3) being 2e. It was repeated over and over to us that the team had never seen a kid before with such high ability scores.
Soooo - we went into a meeting where the odds were (as far as I can tell) against us, but we came out with an IEP. I think these are the key things that got us there:
1) DS truly had a need.
2) We didn't rely on the school's test scores to demonstrate that need; we had private testing as well as I researched and researched and asked questions of anyone anywhere I could think of until I felt like I really understood each test and each set of scores we had for our ds as well as I tried my best to understand how they related to ds' challenges.
3) I thought through every possible argument I could think of that the school staff might put forward as a reason *not* to grant eligibility and came up with a "comeback" to each - not just a snappy something to say but a response that had a piece of evidence to go with it.
4) I narrowed down to a few things that I felt were most effective in arguing in favor of eligibility for ds, and brought them up repeatedly (and calmly) during the meeting. For instance, ds (writing disability) was not able write enough words to have his TOWL scored. When the school staff tried to say that ds could clearly write at grade level because his state assessment was within "average" range we reminded the school what skills the state test required, then reminded the staff of the difficulty ds had on the TOWL. When the district tried to use cleverly contrived classroom exercises as ways of showing that there was not a disability, we brought up the TOWL. It was direct testing like this that was very difficult for the district to argue.
5) We consulted with an advocate. I think that was by far the most valuable resource and time spent in the entire process. We didn't bring the advocate to our school meetings, but called with questions while prepping for school meetings and found that having advice from a local person who understood our state policy as well as local school district politics was invaluable.
6) The report the school psychologist put together for ds' eligibility meeting didn't have him falling below the %ile cutoff necessary to qualify for an IEP under SLD - but that report had skills/test scores averaged before the percentile was calculated. If you looked at specific subtests, ds was clearly below the percentile, and I'm guessing your ds is too from the scores you've mentioned above. We requested a copy of the psych's report with all subtest scores and we brought that to our meeting, and requested specifically that the subtest in which our ds is most challenged be included in the IEP eligibility report. We had to bring it up several times, and explain what the test measured (the psych never mentioned any of this, but he couldn't disagree with us when we brought it up because we weren't making anything up and we'd done our research to fully understand the test). Although the team at first glance saw the averaged-out report scores and thought ds wouldn't qualify, after we'd explained the subtest situation 2-3 times, as well as continually mentioning the TOWL, the team understood better what was going on.
7) We brought lots of writing examples with us, both from school and from home, so that whenever the school tried to show a piece of ds' writing to prove he was capable, we were able to produce a sample showing the challenges and struggles. We also knew enough about the assignments given during class from having talked to our ds about them that we were able to ask specific questions re the school's examples which showed there was significant support given at school in completing the assignments.
8) Eligibility was a *team* decision. At the end of our eligibility meeting, there was only one person on the team who voted "no" re eligibility - and that was... the special ed staff person (honestly, the ONE person I think should have understood how much he needed help!)... but it didn't matter - the rest of the people on the team voted yes.
9) I ate a ton of chocolate. I still do
and NO... I did not bake muffins and take them to the meeting, like they recommend at wrightslaw and like our advocate kept telling me to do. The last thing I wanted to do was feed these people who I felt like I was in battle with!
Because her math and reading are not that low. However on the wisc she had two 16%, one 9%, and one 2% in the WMI and PSI areas. And she was also right on the cut off with her Receptive Language score on her speech/language eval with a 16%. Not to mention multiple percentiles between 7 and 15% on CTOPP and WJ-III, but these tests were done by a reputable outside testing hospital and my feeling is they don't want to acknowledge these scores.
Whether or not you are ultimately able to get your dd an IEP, I hope you'll be able to get her help - from those scores I'm guessing she has some very real struggles. I think that most of us parents of 2e kids never fully get everything our kids need through school and most of us rely a lot on private tutoring/therapy/etc. Even though we were able to get an IEP for our ds, we were still fighting/advocating/eating chocolate throughout the next school year and he actually got very little in the way of help from having an IEP; the largest strides he's made have been through private therapy and private school where we weren't constantly fighting the battle of the school wanting to prove ds didn't have any challenges - and truly, they did not stop trying to prove that even after he had an IEP.
My dd is dyslexic and also has seen a drop in IQ score from 2 years ago, particularly in her verbal index score which I feel can be related to the dyslexia. Is it true that the verbal portion of the wisc tests more crystallized intelligence than fluid?
My dd doesn't have an official dyslexia diagnosis but fits most of the picture of a stealth dyslexic as defined by the Eides, and he's also clearly a visual thinker/learning style - it's like pulling teeth to get him to read for school, and although he occasionally finds books he likes to read for pleasure, he doesn't read anywhere near as frequently for pleasure as most of his friends and my daughters. He's also seen a drop in his VIQ scores on the WISC which I suspect is related to reading.
Can you let us know where you're at re school? Did you have an eligibility meeting? What stage are you at in the process?
polarbear
