<p>OK, after having the initial application for accommodations (that he's received forever because of a pretty darned unmistakable LD) turned down by the CB largely without explanation; and after I spent my summer vacation mounting the most exhaustive appeal we could come up with; and after endlessly researching our legal options and every public interest legal group in the continental US that might possibly agree that accommodating gifted students to the national average (e.g. not accommodating them) as opposed to accommodating them to potential could conceivably pose a wee problem under the relevant laws; we (and the cast of professional thousands who wrote letters and filled out forms on Anonykid's behalf) finally convinced the CB to back down and grant him the accommodations his testing, teacher observations, and years of experience demonstrate he needs.</p>
<p>Well, PSAT results are back, and it was all worth it. All that research on colleges that don't require the SAT is out the window; he did great. He did better than great. He did merit money great. (Which is consistent with his GPA and the challenging classes he takes in hs.) </p>
<p>Thanks to everybody on the LD board who offered help, support, and advice, links to relevant websites, and accounts of their own experiences as we were struggling through this. </p>
<p>My word of advice is: Hang tough and do not let your kid take a standardized test without accommodation. Do not. If your kid performs at the national average without, or with limited, accommodations -- even if other tests and school performance shows that your kid is, in fact, intellectually gifted -- you are going to be hard pressed to win an appeal to get the kid sufficiently accommodated so s/he can perform to potential.</p>
<p>Congratulations. As you know, we had the same experience. Lots of hard work on our part, got professional opinions, teacher and SpEd opinions, had a number of conversations and we were ultimately able to get the accommodations consistent with the IEP, common sense, as well as teacher, professional and parent recommendations. </p>
<p>Did you encounter any organizations that wanted to bring a class action lawsuit (I think this is what will be required)?</p>
<p>Hi Shawbridge,</p>
<p>Your help has been invaluable. I haven't spoken directly with legal groups as I didn't want to proceed until I'd exhausted the CB appeals process. But I did find two groups that do this sort of public interest litigation. The first is the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley which did the case that successfully defeated the AMA in its efforts to deny LD students accommodation on their MCATs. I will post the name of the second group later, but it is a federally funded group with locations throughout the U.S. that provides free legal services for LD (and I believe physically challenged) children on issues including inclusion and accommodation. I have their phone number for my state, but the way to locate them in the proper region is to contact NICHCY</a> Home, or to telephone them at (800) 695-0285. This is not the legal group, but an agency that serves as an incredible clearinghouse of information on resources for LD kids, and they have names, numbers, and recommendations state by state. It may be that nichcy will be able to come up with additional legal advocacy groups available to people in different states. They will also find you out-of-state organizations that deal with the issues that concern you when there is no such organization in your state. I spoke with two different people there by phone, and they were stellar.</p>
<p>In terms of lobbying through the accommodate to potential rather than national average thing at the CB, the organization that comes to mind is the active national one for gifted children. When I was last in contact with them, they had no division for gifted, LD children, but were not, in theory, opposed to starting one. I plan to be back in touch with them after the first of the year, and will post when I have info. It is difficult to find organizations that serve gifted LD students, and a division of the gifted children's group might be a good way to start.</p>