School is refusing to evaluate for SLD written expression

[laurag]

My son started Kindergarten with an IEP for Developmental Delay. He received OT, Speech, PT, and special instruction in reading (all weekly).

In 1st grade he was reevaluated and moved to a Speech Only IEP as he was meeting all benchmarks.

Now he is in 3rd grade and I am very concerned about his writing and spelling skills. I submitted a written letter asking for an evaluation for SLD in written expression and included multiple data points/examples - flagged as high risk on literacy screener for spelling/encoding last spring and this fall, teacher says handwriting/spelling make some work unintelligible, report from private OT evaluation showing low visual-motor integration and poor handwriting, previous achievement testing that showed very low scores for sentence building, copies of his written work, and results from a K-3 spelling screener given by the teacher on which he scored a 3/19 correct.

The school sent me a PWN stating the evaluation is denied because, "previous psycho-educational evaluations and current academic achievement due not warrant suspicion of a specific learning disability in writing or additional evaluations. Student does not display any areas of psychological processing weakness."

In Virginia, SLD identification requires the student to have a documented disorder in one of the basic psychological processes (see worksheet below).

His testing from two years ago evaluated most (but not all) of these categories and showed no weakness. He does have a low visual motor integration score but the school says this means his disabilities are due to a motor impairment, which is excluded from SLD. 

Can the school refuse to evaluate because two-year old testing did not identify a psychological process weakness, which they say makes it unlikely he has a SLD?

How do students who struggle with handwriting and spelling, but not reading, make it past this roadblock since none of the processes listed below target the processes used in producing written language?

Thank you for any advice you can provide, 

Laura

 

 

 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

This Virginia requirement seems to be in contradiction to the IDEA which has no such requirement for SLD.  I would reach out to your state department of education and ask for advice in this scenario.  I would concurrently request an IEE from your school district because you disagree with the previous evaluation (insufficient because testing wasn't done in all areas) and because the previous evaluation has outdated data.  If you can afford it, you might get an outside evaluation.  Start with your pediatrician for a referral and see if insurance might cover it.

Finally, take a look at your state standards and see if you son is meeting them in the area of writing, because it appears he is not.  If this is the case, see if there is any type of intervention (outside of an IEP) that can be provided to your son to help him meet the state required standards.  The school has to fulfill this obligation.

[JSD24]

With handwriting being unintelligible, I'd suspect that the disability is dysgraphia which is related to motor planning.  Spelling issues do tend to be associated with dyslexia.  There are different skills that need to come together for reading and writing fluency.  It is possible to be able to decode fluently but not encode fluently.  Encoding disabilities (SLD writing) can also be associated with dysgraphia.

I have 2 thoughts on moving forward.  One says to request the school look at dysgraphia & motor planning issues.  The other says that the school saw this a did not assess in all areas of suspected disability as required in IDEA where the next step is to ask for an IEE.

Be aware that if you ask for an IEE, the school has 2 ways to respond.  One is to say 'yes'.  The other option is to take you to due process.  You might want to figure out a special ed attorney in case they do the latter.