Does anyone know the "average" amount of assessments administered to a student to determine eligibility for sped ed due to dyslexia and dysgraphia?

[catmom3]

My son has done a total of 21 assessments (16 himself, 5 parent/teacher questionnaire). This is 5 more assessments than last school year (first year of IEP). Because the school he used to attend committed a ton of violations, I'm a bit concerned they're trying to pull something shady. 

Thanks in advance!

[Lisa Lightner]

This isn't going to be something you'll find defined anywhere. Sure, psychologists, neuropsychologists and the like will all have their opinions. And, there are always the assessment protocols which may not be being followed.

 

But keep it focused on your son. How is this affecting him? Is it affecting him? How? How is it affecting his education? Do you agree with the assessments or the evaluation reports? If not, time to consider an IEE.

 

https://adayinourshoes.com/iee-independent-education-evaluation/

[JSD24]

I view assessments as the 'tests' the school psychologist would do 1:1 with a student.  While Rating Scales (questionnaires) can be part of these 'tests', I'm not aware of any that would be done to determine if a student has dyslexia - neither ones a student would do alone nor tests that parents or teachers would do.  Dyslexia is defined as follows:  “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by the difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge” (Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003, Annals of Dyslexia, p. 2).

Note the part about 'in relation to other cognitive abilities'.  This means that a person with low IQ cannot be dyslexic.  If their reading ability is on par with their other abilities, it's by definition not dyslexia.  IQ testing should be part of an initial diagnosis so the school can tell what cognitive abilities the student has.  Since IQ is fairly stable after age 8, there really isn't a need to redo IQ testing.  I feel the best types of tests for dyslexia involve listening to the person read and seeing what sort of errors they make.  Or reading what they've written to see if the errors are indicative of dyslexia.  A dysgraphia assessment would be done by an OT.

Testing is required triennially so it's not typical for a school to do this every year.  If we had the names of the tests, we could see what the tests assess.  Or, you could search the internet and look at this yourself.

Did you sign a permission form for this testing?  Could they be testing for something that would be in addition to dyslexia?