Posted by Elaine Austin

In Reply to: Summary of the IEP Process posted by David M. Venable

Mary:

As amother of TWO Ld children, beleive me you need to start law school
very soon to get through this.

A child is referred for testing. Either by teacher, because they are
noticing difficulties, or by parent, because they are noticing
difficuties. If a parent requests this testing to be done, it has to be
done in 30 days.

While every state has differnt Administrative rules governing Special
Education, the IDEA law (spec ed law) is federal. It basically says,
each child has access to a free public education.

The tests and catagories of testing that need to be addressed in a solid
special education evaluation is:

Cognitive (IQ, what is this child's capabilities)
Achievement (what is this child doing right now)

Speech and Language (oral and written)
Physical Therapy
Occupational Therapy

AND as of this past year, every child is to have an assistive technology
evaluation (can a computer helpm electric toothbrush, homework folder
etc)

A main focus is the cognitive/achievement and what we are looking for is
a standard deviation of 1 ..... 15 points. So if the full scale
cognitive is 100 - and the math acievement is 2 grades behiond, we ahve
a problem. Or any other catagory.

Now, this is where you need a degree in statistics. If the speech and
language evaluation shows an overall score within the standard, and
avergae range, and the subtests are 3 yrs behind in one test, and a
little above in another subtest...that does not mean these child does
not need the deficit addresssed. One must look at every subtest
separately.

After all the results are done an IEP is held. The IEP should be
written AT the meeting, and includes input from the parent as a part of
the multidisciplinary team.

They have to notify you of every person attending the meeting. You can
bring anyone youwant. Including, docs, counselors, lawyers, and special
education advocates. A commen trick I have run into is not having all
the participants available...then rescheduling. My son't last IEP took
4 motnhs to complete because they kept having the "come back to it" for
one reason or the other. The last time, I said, have everyone there,
and they all stay till we are done! It took 3.5 hours! and that was
oafter the 3 hr one the month before.

that is more than you can chew if you are new to the system. Please
write me personally for more specifics.

Mom, Nurse, and IEP Grinder.

Follow Ups:

• Re: More Complete Summary of the IEP Process Lisa
• It's hard to add to the answer Elaine gave, but I'll try. Ted Rosenberg
• This time around I'm a bit more educated about the system. Should be interesting to see what happens. Pamela Fitzpatrick

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