I have been thinking lately about trust and school personnel giving subjective opinions. Every parent who I know came into special education with trust toward school personnel. Many parents, including myself trusted special education personnel when our children were young, because we thought that they cared for our children, and knew what was best for them. We continued to trust them when they made blanket statements about our children’s abilities and/or disabilities, but hopefully this will be your wake-up call!  If you are a parent of a child with a disability reading this blog do not trust special education personnel that make blanket statements and opinions about your child’s abilities without backing up their statements with standardized testing (to the amount possible).

I learned this early with my son Shaun, who is now a tall 25 year old. When Shaun was 2 and ½ years old he was diagnosed with severe ADHD and speech delays. When he was 6 years old he was reevaluated for special education. It was obvious to me, that Shaun may have other disabilities that would explain his academic difficulties. I believed after a lot of research that Shaun was also Learning Disabled. I became convinced of this especially when I learned that 75% of children with ADHD have learning disabilities! I approached the school before the evaluation and made very clear that I wanted Shaun tested for Learning Disabilities. I brought it up at the testing meeting, and if I can remember correctly I wrote them a letter also. An LD teacher was part of the evaluation, but I did not learn until much later that she actually never tested Shaun for Learning Disabilities.

 I was shocked when I went to the IEP meeting and found a box of Kleenex in the middle of the table—it was my prediction that we were in big trouble, and I was not wrong.

The school psychologist tried to convince me that my son had Mental Retardation and not Learning Disabilities; which I absolutely did not agree with!! I ran out of the room crying only 1 of 2 times I ever did that.  Remember I did not know at that time that the LD teacher had never tested him—so I was really confused about how the school could say that my son’s IQ was so low, when it was obvious that it was not. When I disagreed with the opinion of the school psychologist he tried to say that I was in denial and needed to face the truth.

 This is when I first learned about the importance of Independent Educational Evaluations (IEE), which I took my son for shortly after the school testing. The Clinical Psychologist found that my son did have several Learning Disabilities, and that the school had lost over 50 points of my son’s IQ (They said his IQ was 70 plus and the independent evaluator found that his true IQ was over 120).

I immediately sent a copy of the evaluation to the school and asked for an IEP meeting. I will never forget the reaction that I received from the special education personnel when I walked into the IEP meeting. The special education director looked like she was going to burst in tears when she asked me what I wanted! I told her that I want my son found eligible under Learning Disabilities, and I want him taught to do academics just like other children—they gave me everything I asked for and changed his “label.”

Since that time, I have dealt with this issue many times with other children. Special education personnel making blanket statements and opinions, about children’s disabilities or abilities, without testing the child. Below are two further examples:

1. School psychologists stating that a child does not have Autism, without giving them a rating scale, or doing any other type of evaluation. What I mean is using an ADOS which stands for Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale, etc. I am not specifically recommending this type of evaluation, just giving examples of types that are available. I actually prefer the CARS, because it is easy for parents to fill out and easy for trained personnel to score.
2. Special education personnel stating that a child is making academic progress, without standardized testing to prove it. I have seen this many times and it causes harm to children; that need more intensive special education services.

 Parents do not accept subjective opinions about your child’s disabilities or academic and educational progress, only accept standardized testing! Why? It is my opinion that many school personnel are biased and do not want to provide more intense special education services—so they state that the child is making progress, even though they may have no standardized testing to prove the progress. Many school personnel also state that grades can determine progress, which in my opinion, is not true. Grades are subjective and should not be used to determine if a child is making progress. Though downloading your states core standards, and using those to determine progress, is less subjective than grades.

For diagnosis of some disabilities, you may need to depend on a person’s experience or training, but I would not depend on school personnel for this; only independent personnel. I recommend independent evaluations with either a Clinical Psychologist or a Neuropsychologist. Opinions are subjective and can be changed by pressure from school administration or by other special education personnel.

Standardized testing is the way to determine if your child has a particular disability (whenever possible) not a subjective opinion from special education personnel. Even if they test a child for a particular disability, they may not test the child correctly. For Example: A child that is suspected of Dyslexia must be tested in specific areas for the testing to be accurate.

A wonderful document that I use often that contains great information about school evaluations as well as independent evaluations  is entitled “How to Prepare a Psychoeducational Evaluation Report &Testify as an Expert Witness”by  Margaret J. Kay, Ed.D, NCSP, DABPS, Licensed Psychologist, Nationally Certified School Psychologist. Dr. Kay has given me permission to reprint some of her document in this book. Dr. Kay can be reached at: http://www.MargaretKay.com or 717-569-6223.

Dr. Kay States that: . . “Psychologists who are aware of current, best practice guidelines for assessing dyslexia know that the assessment must contain measures of phonological processing, rapid naming, phonological memory, nonsense word reading, real word reading, reading comprehension, spelling and written expression.”

I have seen many testing for Dyslexia that does not test the areas that Dr. Kay mentions. How can the testing be accurate if the needed tests are not conducted?

Parents, do not trust school personnel who make blanket statements about your child’s abilities and disabilities, without conducting appropriate standardized testing on them. Children should also undergo progress monitoring on a regular basis to allow school personnel to change curriculum if a child is not learning.

Would love to hear your comments, questions and experiences in this area! Feel free to leave a comment! JoAnn