IEP Myths: What’s the Worst One You’ve Heard?

[Lisa Lightner]

• Schools love to throw out misinformation (“We don’t do that here,” “We can’t provide that,” “Only medical doctors can diagnose that,” etc.).
• What’s the worst or most frustrating myth you’ve heard about IEPs or 504s?
• How did you handle it?

 

[JSD24]

Not a myth but the worst parent request.  I saw a post the other day that went:  I think my child has dyslexia.  What screener should I ask the school to do?  My reply was (1) You don't want a screener.  They aren't accurate.  If you suspect a disability, ask for a special ed evaluation.  (2) You want the school psychologist to do evals (or screeners) that they have been trained to do.  If you request they do a test they aren't familiar with, the results may not be accurate.  Better to ask what tests they plan to do and then do a search on what the evals cover.  If it doesn't cover what you want assessed, more testing can be done.

The big myth I see is that school psychologists can assess for dyslexia.  Their practice act doesn't allow them to diagnose.  The best they can do is determine if a student has a learning disability in reading.  A person who doesn't follow their practice act, can lose their credentials and no credentials means no job and they aren't going to risk their job.  The problem here is you want a program that remediates dyslexia if that's what your child is dealing with .  A student identified with LD in reading might not get that.  There aren't enough teachers who are trained to deal with dyslexia.  How to do this tends to be taught in a masters program and most special ed teachers won't have a masters degree.  I guess this is another myth:  All special ed teachers can remediate dyslexia.  The corollary myth is: Reading specialists can remediate dyslexia.  These teachers are not trained to remediate disabilities - they are general ed teachers.