<p>To add to all the wisdom here, I found that as my child moved from elementary to middle school and now to high school…much vital information was NOT passed from the teachers/specialists at one school to the next regardless of the fact that it was a move across the street in the same district. It felt each time like we were starting at ground zero. In middle school the specialist even started talking about vocational training at the year’s IEP in the fall and I looked at her as if she was from Mars. My “dyslexic” leaves his non-dyslexic brothers in the dust academically. She clearly knew nothing about my son and would have continued to babble on with the “new GC”, the “new principal”, the “new teacher representative.” The system has flaws. Find out what exactly is going on in your school utilizing all the information others here have posted. I rarely need to intervene with my son with the exception of attending each and every annual IEP meeting with my H and “checking in” with the teachers once in the early months of each school year, but for us the annual IEP meeting is key to everything that happens.</p>
<p>Just a quick note about the transition to college: although IDEA does not apply to colleges, Section 504 does. Check out this link for a helpful overview: [Students</a> with Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transition.html]Students”>Students with Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education | U.S. Department of Education). It includes some examples of possible accommodations: </p>
<p>What academic adjustments must a postsecondary school provide?</p>
<p>The appropriate academic adjustment must be determined based on your disability and individual needs. Academic adjustments may include auxiliary aids and modifications to academic requirements as are necessary to ensure equal educational opportunity. Examples of such adjustments are arranging for priority registration; reducing a course load; substituting one course for another; providing note takers, recording devices, sign language interpreters, extended time for testing and, if telephones are provided in dorm rooms, a TTY in your dorm room; and equipping school computers with screen-reading, voice recognition or other adaptive software or hardware.</p>
<p>Some colleges are better than others at accommodating students with disabilities. This may have already been suggested, but you should check out the CC Learning Differences and Challenges forum: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/learning-differences-challenges-ld-adhd/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/learning-differences-challenges-ld-adhd/</a>.</p>
<p>SodiumFree gives an excellent, saltless description of how colleges must accommodate disabled students. Notice, however, that to get a college degree, a student must be able to do college level work. She might need notetakers, a scribe, extended time for testing and so forth, but at the end of the day, she has to take the calculus test or write the history paper. A lot of colleges nowadays are offering remedial math classes and remedial English classes, but those classes don’t count toward a degree. </p>
<p>So when DB is thinking about her son and his potential college career, she needs to consider whether he will, at some point if not now, be able to do math problem sets, or answer essay questions for a political science class, or give a presentation in Spanish, or draw a demand curve. Obviously not all college students do all those things, but virtually all do some of them. Reasonable high-school level math skills and solid writing skills are key attributes of a successful college student. The OP’s son’s grades in high school are less interesting than whether he will be able to do the things college students do.</p>
<p>First, I don’t support in any way the manner in which the teacher has spoken to the child or the OP. Wrong, wrong, wrong.</p>
<p>But…an “A” or a “B” given to a student with an IEP can mean something very, very different than an “A” or a “B” given to a non-IEP student. We may only grade the student against the IEP specifications for that individual student. If the class is assigned 25 spelling words a week, but the IEP says only three spelling words a week and not more than one syllable words, that’s what the student is graded on. Get all three right, you get an A. If the IEP specifies that spelling is not to be taken into consideration when grading an essay, that’s what you do. If the IEP says that the student may use a calculator when taking math tests, then he or she can do so even if the rest of the class may not be allowed to use one. In many states, public high schools can modify state graduation requirements for students with an IEP. So our IEP students get diplomas, but that diploma doesn’t necessarily represent the same level of academic achievement that the regular rules may specify. Some teachers are very unhappy with these modifications to grading practices, and it sounds like one of them is taking it out on your son. </p>
<p>Every high school student with this kind of IEP should be involved (student as well as parents) in planning for a post-high school future. I’m reasonably sure that this is a federal (and not just a state) requirement. This is supposed to be a team process that should involve far more than just one teacher, and should also involve reevaluations. As a parent you are entitled to require a “staffing” and it certainly sounds like one might be very appropriate at this point.</p>
<p>In most (all?) states, developmentally disabled students are entitled to K-12 services through age 20/21. In many cases this can be a godsend, since the K-12 system can often bring tools to bear that most colleges still don’t make available. Dual enrollment programs with K/12 support could allow your son to try a college course with support. Unfortunately, colleges are not bound by IEPs, and the degree to which they will modify curriculum and delivery varies tremendously, and often just as tremendously within a college.</p>
<p>Sorry if this is repetitive because I’ll admit, I didn’t read the whole 7 pages of this thread, but you may want to contact someone at Landmark College. Landmark may or may not be an option for your son, but the staff there have a great deal of LD expertise and may be able to advise you:
[About</a> Landmark College](<a href=“http://www.landmark.edu/about/index.html]About”>http://www.landmark.edu/about/index.html)</p>
<p>arabrab, yes again it depends on what the OPs IEP says. For instance my son’s IEP has only the stipulation that he be allowed extra time on standardized timed testing required by the state. The IEP specifically states he is to not have accomodations on any classwork or class testing. It also stipulates that teachers must correct spelling, punctuation and sentence structure on any written work and that he should be graded on his work in accordance to the remainder of the class. We wrote it that way so that we could gage his progress against other students unblinded by various teacher vagaries or interpretation of “what accomodations are.” This is a very different situation from an LD student that is not working at 50th% or below average work for their grade/age. My point is simply that IEPs are extremely flexible and can be worked out depending on the desires of the parents (and of the older LD student.) I think the OP is this case is very unclear exactly what is happening and how her child is being accomodated or not accomodated and to what degree his coursework reflects his actual abilities.</p>
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<p>A developmental delay is used to define a disability that really is unclear or unable to get a differential diagnosis in YOUNG children. The federal legislation allows this to be used UP TO the age of nine, but states set their own regs regarding the use. In our state (CT) a differential diagnosis…in other words a diagnosis of one of the 13 disabilities recognized in the fed legislation, must be in place by a child’s sixth birthday.</p>
<p>A developmental DISABILITY encompasses an array of disabilities most of which are on the more significant side of the disabled spectrum. Developmental disabilities include intellectual disability, multiply disabled, autism to name a few. In most cases, these folks have both learning and adaptive (self help, etc) issue.</p>
<p>I see. So a developmental *delay *happens when a child is late reaching some milestones; perhaps she doesn’t walk until she’s two, or talk until she’s three. A developmental disability happens when someone is projected to never reach a normal milestone. Is that right?</p>
<p>A developmental delay designation is used in younger students. In some cases, their development is delayed but it is difficult either to discern whether there is a true disability, or which one it might be, OR the child is young enough that with some good interventions (that is the hope), they will learn and develop with their peers. </p>
<p>A developmental disability encompasses the type of disabilities that typically are more long term, and also can affect the daily living skills of the individual.</p>
<p>I appreciate all the valuable advice I received here tonight. I have an appointment to meet with the principal tomorrow morning. I’ve written down a lot of questions to ask, based on what I’ve learned here. I’ve gone over my son’s IEP again tonight, and could not find a diagnosis or an eligibility section anywhere on it, so that’s going to be one of my questions for the principal tomorrow. </p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, here are the answers to the questions you asked: As far as Jonathan’s speech/language is concerned, the IEP says Jonathan requires frequent prompts to focus on the most important features of the object being defined. He is able to compare and contrast abstractions when prompted by an adult to keep only the most important details. He is able to listen to a paragraph and usually answer 4-5 questions related to that paragraph without having to listen to the paragraph over again. It says he needs to practice and apply his speech/language goals and objectives across all settings including academics, pre-vocational and social and that he needs to develop clarity and consistent quality to his work. He also has problems with abstract concepts in math when solving story problems. At home, he seems to do better with abstract concepts when they include things he is familiar with. He has minimal difficulty with concrete concepts. According to his IEP, he is able to read at a seventh or eighth-grade level. However, he is able to read his history book fluently without evidence of spatial problems. As far as his social skills, he is courteous to both teachers and students, is not disruptive, is independent in his studies, is able to interact well with teachers and students, follows directions, is able to accept constructive criticism but tends to cry easily. </p>
<p>I’ll let you know tomorrow how my meeting at the school goes. Thanks again for all the support.</p>
<p>It might not be a bad idea to get him tested for an autism spectram(sp) disorder.</p>
<p>It was just a thought. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the idea. I’ll mention it at my meeting with the principal this morning.</p>
<p>Sounds like a deeper language processing disorder, and the question is whether, with accommodations and support, he can understand grade appropriate material, or not.</p>
<p>Children with significant language deficits like this have increasing trouble as they get older because conversations, lectures, etc. can move too quickly. By the time they have organized their thoughts with something to add, the class, conversation, etc. is two steps beyond. This is enormously frustrating and upsetting, particularly if the student has trouble understanding and not just keeping (due to slower processing and word finding issues).</p>
<p>College is not for everyone. I have no idea whether it is a possibility for the OP’s son, but some people will find greater success and happiness in their lives by pursuing other options after high school.</p>
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<p>Listen again…you are NOT looking for a diagnosis or eligibility section to find the disability. You should be looking for the DISABILITY. It is a required field on ALL IEP documents. Your child’s disability MUST be noted on EACH IEP document.</p>
<p>thumper1: Weirdly, though, it looks as if Ohio’s forms kind of skip the requirement of specifying the disability. I went to the Ohio webpage (I think Db is in Ohio), figuring I could just look at the form and say where that information would be. But look at the IEP form on [url=<a href=“Special Education | Ohio Department of Education and Workforce”>Special Education | Ohio Department of Education and Workforce]this</a> page<a href=“there’s%20one%20for%20the%20current%20school%20year%20and%20a%20modified%20one%20for%20the%20upcoming%20school%20year”>/url</a> – the word “disability” does appear once or twice on the form, but there’s no space that I can see for spelling out what the disability is. Maybe I am just being too literal, though; maybe the information can be gleaned from, say, Step 3 (“Identify needs that require specially designed instruction”) on the 2008-09 form or Step 2 (“Special Instructional Factors”) on the 2009-10 form?</p>
<p>I mean, I agree that it should be clear from the form what the child’s disability is, but I don’t see it. </p>
<p>Db, I would just repeat what others have said here, which is that you should tell the school that you want your son evaluated so that you do know exactly what his disability is. As Cardinal Fang said in post #72, you need a current diagnosis that you understand “well enough so that you could explain it to the rest of us.” Or putting it another, slightly different way – you need to understand his diagnosis well enough that you can explain it to yourself. </p>
<p>Db, another source of information might be your son’s pediatrician – at least as a starting point. What does he or she say your son’s diagnosis is?</p>
<p>Form PR-06 has a space on Part B for the disability to be specified. Realize that the disability is the educational disability, and one of the (however many; don’t remember) disabilities that are recognized as being educational.</p>
<p>Whether or not the disability is listed on every IEP form must be a state-by-state determination. It most certainly is NOT listed on my state’s IEP forms. </p>
<p>Many parents wouldn’t want “Serious Emotional Disturbance” or “Cognitive Disability” trumpeted on every page of the IEP form, for instance. The IEP is supposed to be about individual needs, and to trumpet the disability on every page (for any teacher involved with the student to see) would be to perpetuate stereotypes about that disability. The label is not supposed to determine services, but in reality it often does. </p>
<p>The only time the disability ever has to be mentioned in my state is the initial determination of eligibility. At least that is the way it was; sped laws have undergone recent revision to mirror the reauthorization of IDEA in 2004.</p>
<p>Ah, OK, I was looking at PR-07, the IEP form. </p>
<p>So PR-06 is the form you need to focus on, db.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, db. It sounds like your son would have trouble, say, reading a newspaper article and summarizing it.</p>
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<p>Spatial ability has to do with understanding things in two and three dimensions. I’m not sure how relevant it is to reading a history book. Someone who has good spatial ability would be able to fix things-- for example, fixing a bicycle. They’d be able to read maps easily and pack a car, a dishwasher, a packing box or a suitcase efficiently. They’d find geometry easier than algebra. A person with poor spatial ability (like me!) would get lost a lot and wouldn’t be able to figure out how two pieces of equipment fit together.</p>
<p>I second the idea of investigating whether your son has an autism spectrum disorder. The problems with abstraction and understanding the main point suggest that might be where he is.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks. I’ll need to find the PR-07. I was looking at the PR-06. Thanks for correcting me, Cardinal Fang. I thought spatial problems were related to dyslexia. </p>
<p>I had my meeting with the principal this morning. Jonathan’s diagnosis based on his last academic achievement test (in middle school) is cognitive impairment/disability. He’s to have the OEDI test sometime this summer or early fall. His regular classes are reduced in content to the major or key concepts, and his tests reflect this modification. He is also given extended time when taking tests and has access to teachers’ notes.</p>
<p>We’re going to have another meeting Friday with Mr. S, the guidance counselor, the principal and myself regarding the other issues.</p>
<p>To blank with political correctness/euphemisms- they all change when people realize negative connotations. ■■■■■■■■ means slow, just because kids on the playground use it in a derogatory fashion doesn’t mean the term shouldn’t be used among physicians and educators, plus the parents. The important fact is that now we no longer lump all forms and degrees into the same one-size-fits-all box. So many kids with learning disabilities of one kind or another have been helped by the understanding of the specific problems. </p>
<p>On a lighter note- they changed the wording (in Wis) when the gifted and talented folks wanted to cash in on the euphemistic term “special ed”- the low end of the curve gets the funds but not the high end that also needs special education.</p>
<p>The local schools here are now into giving each child an APPROPRIATE education- this covers all ends of the spectrum (but still no mandated federal/state, etc dollars for all). I’m sure you are in search of that for your child- college may not be appropriate, finding out other ways for him to maximize his aptitude and interests are why you have tackled this issue now. Kudos to you for getting the ball rolling so he has a positive direction after HS instead of just a series of rejections.</p>