TTM about IEPs/learning differences

[goldengirlz]

DD’s school suggested we get her evaluated for a learning difference in math because she’s been struggling to keep up with grade level, despite working twice a week with a tutor.

I started making some calls, and the first person who got back to me quoted me $4k (which includes a parent meeting and four hours of testing.) Does that sound typical? I had no idea what to expect.

If your child has a learning difference, how was it diagnosed and what happened next?

(For context, our district is kind of a disaster and usually transfers out kids with special needs so I’m not expecting a lot of support.)

[UMaineTeach]

Apr 20, 2021 13:45:51 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

Get the testing done by the school for free.

They should be setting up an initial IEP meeting soon, or you can do a self-referral.

It’s getting late in the year for referrals, so don’t expect much more than deciding what testing to order to get done. Some evaluators will do summer testing, some won’t.

To look at a learning disability the typical testing is Psychological/IQ testing, Academic/achievement testing, and a classroom observation. We usually discuss if speech testing is needed, if we think the academic problems might be due to understanding and using language.

[expectantsteelerfan]

You will probably have to request in writing that the school evaluate her. I would ask the principal/guidance counselor/teacher/whoever's contact you have who you need to send that request to (probably a school psychologist, but most don't have their info. listed!).
I would definitely start with that. If you are unhappy with their results, you can always pursue a private evaluation afterwards, but hopefully you won't have to.

[jinkies]

My daughter has learning differences.in reading and math. She was evaluated for free by the school. I can't guarantee that every state/every school offers that, but I would definitely ask before shelling out any money.

I'm in a fb group for parents of dyslexics and the school evaluation does not seem to be something that schools universally offer, so its hard to know till you ask.

[goldengirlz]

Apr 20, 2021 13:49:02 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

You will probably have to request in writing that the school evaluate her. I would ask the principal/guidance counselor/teacher/whoever's contact you have who you need to send that request to (probably a school psychologist, but most don't have their info. listed!).
I would definitely start with that. If you are unhappy with their results, you can always pursue a private evaluation afterwards, but hopefully you won't have to.

Ahh, okay. Our entire district has ONE psychologist who’s shared among six schools — and she was just hired a couple of years ago. Maybe that’s why this is confusing.

[UMaineTeach]

Apr 20, 2021 13:52:40 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Apr 20, 2021 13:49:02 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

You will probably have to request in writing that the school evaluate her. I would ask the principal/guidance counselor/teacher/whoever's contact you have who you need to send that request to (probably a school psychologist, but most don't have their info. listed!).
I would definitely start with that. If you are unhappy with their results, you can always pursue a private evaluation afterwards, but hopefully you won't have to.

Ahh, okay. Our entire district has ONE psychologist who’s shared among six schools — and she was just hired a couple of years ago. Maybe that’s why this is confusing.

Definitely start with whoever shared their concerns with you, that person can help with the process. In my district, the parent referrals ultimately end up at the Director of Special Services office, who would only contact the psychologist after the team meeting and the parent signs the consent to evaluate.

[nicolewi]

What others said. Plus, take a look at your state laws re: IEPs and special ed, if you can.

Typically, you or a teacher can request an evaluation. The school then has a certain amount of time in which to complete the evaluation. once it's done, they should review the results with you. if your child qualifies for an IEP, they would meet and work through the process of writing the IEP.

My child has an IEP for speech, which was super easy and no big deal. She also has some learning differences (including dyscalculia) and that part has been a confusing struggle every step of the way! Our school is saying they won't do an eval until they have again tried tiered interventions this fall. Many schools first need to show that kids are not catching up with structured intervention. Also, it's possible (here at least) that kids can really be struggling but still not struggle ENOugH to quality for an IEP. It's hard.

We have an outside eval already with diagnosed learning differences, but to qualify for a learning IEP at school she has to test at something like below the 12th percentile (don't quote me; that might not be exactly right) in certain categories.

I'd highly suggest finding a Facebook group that would fit. The IEP process for learning issues can be really difficult and it's very helpful to talk it through with other parents who have gone through it (especially if they are from your state!).

Definitely try the school route FIRST. I was quoted $5K here for an outside eval, but through a parent dyslexia board for my state was able to find someone who does evals for $750. That was way better.

ETA: Our insurance would technically "cover" the private evaluation, but the cost would all apply to our deductible...so we still would have paid 100% OOP anyway. 

[waverly]

I wrote a letter to the school psychologist requesting an evaluation through the school. I dropped it off in person (pre-Covid time) to the main school office. They have 60 days to evaluate (does not include summers). So if you want it done drop off now because school is almost over with. We do also have a Student Services person at the district office that oversees, but I was able to keep it within the school. It doesn't always work out for various reasons through the school. For example, the evaluate based on educational services not medical, so if you truly need a medical diagnosis then you might have to keep going, but it is a good starting point.

[orval]

We are in private school, so we had to be evaluated privately. We used a Educational Psychologist (Psych Ed.). She tested for appox. 4-6 hours over 2 days and then a results meeting the parents for a couple hours. She was very thorough. It was about $1500 (MCOL). Our insurance did not cover it.

[186momx]

The school has done all testing for DD at no cost to us. If the school suggested you have her evaluated why isn't the school district evaluating her? They do have X number of days once formal submission to call a meeting and then another 60 days if testing is agreed upon.  Our district only has 1 psychologist for the 8 elementary school 4 middles schools and 2 high schools.

[hocus2]

Apr 20, 2021 13:41:11 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

DD’s school suggested we get her evaluated for a learning difference in math because she’s been struggling to keep up with grade level, despite working twice a week with a tutor.

I started making some calls, and the first person who got back to me quoted me $4k (which includes a parent meeting and four hours of testing.) Does that sound typical? I had no idea what to expect.

If your child has a learning difference, how was it diagnosed and what happened next?

(For context, our district is kind of a disaster and usually transfers out kids with special needs so I’m not expecting a lot of support.)

 This is around what a private evaluation costs here but it is curious that your school has not offered to test. School testing is usually not as comprehensive but is free to the family. Our was very long and required multiple sessions as kids have a limit how long they can do such intensive testing. The actual tests they do will depending on your interview and possibly on forms the teachers fill out. When it is done you'll get a diagnosis and likely suggestions for next steps for the school setting and possible outside school as well. 

We had testing done when the school's testing was completely insufficient. We used to the results to compel the school to offer more services and when that was not sufficient to support my kid we used them to compel the district to pay for a private that specialized in the learning differences we're facing. It was a long slow processes and the path families walk depends on the challenges a student face and the district. We love our current school and while it is a headache to do the legal steps to get tuition covered it worth it for us given where we were at. Right now we're still working on reading but the other school topics are all at grade level because they do not require reading to asses them like other schools might.

[goldengirlz]

Thanks, everyone. I did speak with another person who quoted me $1400; she doesn’t do testing but she will do an initial evaluation and will recommend tutors and other strategies to pursue. We could still do the formal testing through the district.

Given how underfunded our district is, I’m tempted to get a private assessment too just to make sure everyone is on the same page — like @kar was saying. And to get the ball rolling a bit sooner.

I really liked this person, and what she was saying made a lot sense. She was talking how some people have difficulty with spatial planning like knowing right from left and I was like, YES! That’s DD! She’s always mixing up right and left and for the longest time, she’d confuse her lowercase “b”s and “d”s.

Maybe there is something there ...

ETA: Also, we just found this out yesterday so I’m learning as I go along. I did confirm today though that our district WILL do the testing.

[hocus2]

Apr 20, 2021 18:56:56 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Thanks, everyone. I did speak with another person who quoted me $1400; she doesn’t do testing but she will do an initial evaluation and will recommend tutors and other strategies to pursue. We could still do the formal testing through the district.

Given how underfunded our district is, I’m tempted to get a private assessment too just to make sure everyone is on the same page — like @kar was saying.

I really liked this person, and what she was saying made a lot sense. She was talking how some people have difficulty with spatial planning like knowing right from left and I was like, YES! That’s DD! She’s always mixing up right and left and for the longest time, she’d confuse her lowercase “b”s and “d”s.

Maybe there is something there ...

ETA: Also, we just found this out yesterday so I’m learning as I go along. I did learn today though that our district WILL do the testing.

  Seems like a lot of money for what you're getting. Such an informal assessment won't really move your school to act if that is what you want. Confusing B and D is very common until about 3rd grade so depending on how old your kid is this might mean nothing. If you want to have a different tutor this might work but is just seems like an expensive half measure.

[goldengirlz]

Apr 20, 2021 19:01:51 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

Apr 20, 2021 18:56:56 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Thanks, everyone. I did speak with another person who quoted me $1400; she doesn’t do testing but she will do an initial evaluation and will recommend tutors and other strategies to pursue. We could still do the formal testing through the district.

Given how underfunded our district is, I’m tempted to get a private assessment too just to make sure everyone is on the same page — like @kar was saying.

I really liked this person, and what she was saying made a lot sense. She was talking how some people have difficulty with spatial planning like knowing right from left and I was like, YES! That’s DD! She’s always mixing up right and left and for the longest time, she’d confuse her lowercase “b”s and “d”s.

Maybe there is something there ...

ETA: Also, we just found this out yesterday so I’m learning as I go along. I did learn today though that our district WILL do the testing.

  Seems like a lot of money for what you're getting. Such an informal assessment won't really move your school to act if that is what you want. Confusing B and D is very common until about 3rd grade so depending on how old your kid is this might mean nothing. If you want to have a different tutor this might work but is just seems like an expensive half measure.

Yeah, it’s a good point, and something I mentioned to H. Like, what are our goals here? Is it to match her with someone (a tutor) who will help her with learning strategies? (We’ve already been paying for private tutoring and it’s not really helping.) Or is it to get her on an IEP and more time for tests and whatnot?

But you’re right. Maybe we should start with the testing and see what it shows. (The problem is, H doesn’t really trust our district. We’ve had so many issues, we’ve even been thinking about moving.)

[scribellesam]

If you’re in California and disagree with the initial district evaluation, you can request an independent evaluation that they pay for (IEE). You can suggest your own evaluator at that point if you have one in mind, or they may provide you with a list of choices.

[maudefindlay]

I would check your district's rules on outside evals. I'm Midwest and here the schools still have to evaluate to qualify and start services, they won't do that off of an outside evaluation. Not saying to forgo an outside evaluation, but you might need to be pursuing the school evaluation too if you think she will qualify and need services.

[CloudBee]

We live in a HCOL area. A friend of mine recently went through this with her son, and she paid around $2k. She said she could have gone through the school (started that route) and may be been able to get some insurance coverage. In the end, it was much faster and more efficient to do it herself.

[savan]

We went straight to a private eval after having an initial discussion with DS's teacher about his suspected dyslexia. The teacher told me that he couldn't be dyslexic because he was great in math and didn't mix up numbers, so that should tell you what I was working with there. I wasn't willing to put in the time to fight the school when I could get it done much quicker.

If you are going to go private, I'd recommend getting testing done with an educational psychologist who does not also sell services. That way there is no conflict of interest. Our testing cost $2400. I was then able to bring that eval back to the school and had stronger ground to stand on. The private eval isn't going to get you services through the school but DS was never going to qualify an IEP anyway. We did all private tutoring and sought a 504 for accommodations instead.

[Ashley&Scott]

My 3rd grader has dyslexia, it was just diagnosed a few months ago. He had been in private speech therapy for a year so I talked to his SLP about it and she did a formal evaluation. The only cost to us was an office visit copay. ($20) At the SLP's recommendation we also had him evaluated for vision therapy. That evaluation revealed that he does have eye tracking and focusing issues that make it difficult for him to read and write because text moves and blurs together. This was classified as a specialist copay. ($40) He goes to vision therapy once a week and does exercises at home as well. He also got glasses for reading and other near work, which have helped immensely. 


Before we had these private evaluations we had started the IEP evaluation process at his school. Once we received the private reports we forwarded them to the IEP team. The IEP team identified similar struggles as our private evaluations, however they don't diagnose. They happily added the recommendations from the private evaluations into his IEP. 

[lessel]

We just did a private assessment for ADHD and other learning differences. The person we used was a Psy.D who specialized in "pediatric neuropsychological assessment, evaluation, and testing." She was fantastic. I called around to a few places before landing with her and definitely got some $3-4k quotes, don't take insurance, etc. etc. And, I got some feedback from a friend that a couple of those places use college kids as proctors to do the testing and then they have the PhD/PsyD write/present the report. (Which might be a completely fine method, but my friend disagreed with some of the findings in one of the reports and the doc she was talking with hadn't really had any first-hand experience with her kid... I didn't love that setup personally). So she steered me to someone who did the testing herself and wrote the evaluations and that's the person we went with... who, coincidentally and thankfully was on our insurance. It was a total OOP of $45 for us for a total of 3 visits with her--parent interview; testing DS (about 4hrs broken up in 2); and parent meeting. We then gave her report to our school, pediatrician, and now a child psychologist we'll hopefully establish care with.

[UMaineTeach]

Apr 22, 2021 15:31:07 GMT -5 lessel said:

We just did a private assessment for ADHD and other learning differences.

This is an important note. While the school can say that for the purposes of school your child has a ‘specific learning disability’ (although, it’s more of a generic specific, they won’t nail it down as dyslexia, etc), they can only do behavior rating scales to look at behavior in multiple settings. They cannot diagnose ADHD or any other mental or physical health condition. You must go to a qualified medical professional.

If you suspect a medical condition is interfering with learning, try to get just that diagnosis done before the meeting to review the results of the school evals. That way all disability categories can be considered at one time, rather than you taking the school results to a doctor and having to meet again.

When requesting school evaluations, add on behavior rating scales, if you think there is a medical condition at play. Sometimes they can’t take only the medical diagnosis, they have to “prove” it’s also a problem at school.