Should You Request Special Ed Services from the School? I am tutoring a fifth grader who has dyslexia. On the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, his standard score was 85, his age based percentile was 14-19. He is functioning on the 2.7 grade level for the test. He was given Reading Recovery in first grade and was taught to "guess" at reading. The parent wants the school to provide more help with his reading/language skills. She requested an evaluation for special education but the process seems to have stopped. Should she request this help again? Pam answers: The question is whether anyone will teach him how to read if he goes into special education. Several factors are working against him. * Most special ed teachers are not trained to teach children to read. If they have training, it is superficial or they are working in grades K-3. Colleges that train special education teachers do not teach them to use a specific method, nor do most special ed teachers get intensive training in reading instruction from their school districts. * After 3rd grade, the focus shifts from teaching a child to read to the child reading to learn. With reading skills at the late second grade level, this child will need intensive remediation if he is going to catch up. The parent needs to ask many hard questions before she makes a decision about asking the school to evaluate her child for special ed. Once a child enters special ed, very few children ever leave. Approximately 50 percent drop out of school, and never graduate. If the school didn't teach him to read by the end of 5th grade, who will teach him now? What method will the teachers use? What are the teachers' qualifications? How much training did they receive in this method? When did they receive training? How will the IEP team measure and monitor the child's progress? How much progress will the IEP team view as sufficient? What will the IEP team do if he doesn't make acceptable progress and close the gap between his abilities and his reading achievement? Why did the school use Reading Recovery? There is no evidence that Reading Recovery is appropriate when used with children who have learning disabilities and differences. Has the child had a comprehensive psycho educational evaluation by a psychologist in the private sector who has expertise in learning disabilities, including dyslexia? What would happen if the child had daily tutoring by a tutor who is trained in a multi-sensory language instructional method? Approximately how long will it take to bring him up to grade level, since he is already three years behind? (The evaluator can probably answer some of those questions). We have worked with thousands of youngsters like the boy you describe. If he was my child, and his only deficit was in language skills like reading and spelling, I would never allow him to go into special ed. I would mortgage the house, beg the grandparents, and go into debt to get him tutoring by an expert or place him into a private program that has a proven record of success with children like him. Pete was diagnosed with severe dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other learning disabilities in the early 1950's. The public school staff told his parents that he needed to "try harder," that he "wasn't college material" and that they needed to lower their expectations for him. His parents did not accept this assessment. They searched for a specialist who could teach him and found Diana Hanbury King. In the 1950s, Diana King was an expert in remediating children with dyslexia. Later, she founded the Kildonan School in Amenia NY. Pete had one-on-one tutoring every day after school for two years. He also went to a residential program in the summer. Because he received intensive remediation when he was young, he reads faster and writes more legibly than I do. During that time, his parents were young, just starting their family and careers. It was difficult for them to pay for his tutoring but they knew they had to do it. If they didn't, Pete's future was bleak. I have received so much correspondence from reading specialists and regular education teachers who who tell me how sad they are when a child goes into special ed because they know that child will never learn to read. This correspondence led to me to do some research into what special educators are taught in schools of education. Very few are learning how to teach children with disabilities and other learning difficulties how to read. Before a parent assumes that their child's needs will be met in special education, they need to ask questions about the program that will be used and the training and qualifications of the teachers who will administer the program. They need to ask questions about how progress will be measured and monitored and at what intervals. http wright9685 ktr111 I live in Georgia. I have a son in 5th grade who is dyslexic. He works very hard and makes mostly A's. Because his reading skills are very poor, he can't pass the high stakes test unless the teacher reads it to him. If he fails this test, he will have to attend summer school. If he fails again, he will have to to repeat the grade. At a recent IEP meeting, we were told that the federal government will not allow high stakes tests to be read to children. I don't want my child to be forced to attend summer school for a learning disability that he was born with, and to live with the fear of being retained hanging over his head." Answer: "I don't blame you for being upset but the school isn't telling you the whole story. Schools are required to measure reading, math and science skills and report their progress in teaching children these basic skills. Reading a test aloud may measure the teacher's reading skills or the child's listening skills, but it does not measure a child's reading skills. The federal law does not prevent schools from providing a read aloud accommodation. The law does not allow schools to count these scores in their annual progress report. Please read this article about "Accommodations on High-Stakes Tests" - it may explain the situation to you more clearly than I have. http://www.wrightslaw.com/heath/highstake.accoms.htm However, you need to focus on another, more important issue: ensuring that your child learns to read. If he doesn't learn to read, many doors will be closed to him when he leaves school. He is a bright kid. No one will read to him in college or in the workplace. Many teachers don't think kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities can learn to read. Too many parents accept this. If he has an appropriate program and a teacher who is trained in teaching children with dyslexia, your son will learn to read. "I live in Kansas, a state that does not recognize dyslexia. Where in IDEA 2004 does it say dyslexia is a disability?" Answer: Section 1401. We just checked the Kansas special ed regulations - dyslexia is included as a specific learning disability. Go to this page: http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=448 Scroll down a screen or two to the special ed regs, click this link: http://www3.ksde.org/cgi-bin/searchregs?citation=91-40-1&rpttype=2&search=&maxres=10&andor=AND Definitions are the first regs that pop up. "We are in the process of obtaining an IEP for our 12 year old daughter. According to the evaluation we obtained from an outside psychologist, she has dyslexia/major reading fluency issues. The school accepts that she has problems in reading comprehension but they refuse to accept dylexia as the underlying causal factor." - Dad "Look up the definition of "specific learning disability" in Section 1401 of the IDEA 2004 statute. "Dyslexia" is listed as a specific learning disability. Although schools often say dyslexia is not covered by IDEA, it is and always has been." - Pete When Judge Marvin Shoob ruled that the Atlanta Public Schools "failed to provide Jarron Draper with a issued a decisionJarron Draper, a 20 year old with dyslexia Article David Moss Monde, Esq. Jones Day-Atlanta 1420 Peachtree Street, N.E. Suite 800 Atlanta, Georgia 30309-3053 Tel: 1.404.521.3939 Fax: 1.404.581.8330 http://www.jonesday.com/ David Monde was selected as one of Atlanta's "Super Lawyers" by Atlanta Magazine (2006) and as one of Georgia's "Super Lawyers" for 2007. He is particularly active in community organizations devoted to disability and special education issues, including Families of Children Under Stress (FOCUS) (board of directors and former president), Fulton County Schools Advisory Special Education Advisory Council, and Challenger Little League Baseball. David regularly represents on a pro bono basis children with disabilities and their families in special education administrative proceedings and litigation and in related litigation involving boards of education. Mr. Monde has appeared as lead counsel before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals; the U.S. District Courts in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas; the Georgia Court of Appeals; state courts throughout Georgia; state courts in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas; and the American Arbitration Association. Bio: http://www.jonesday.com/dmmonde/ Jones Day Atlanta Office Wins William B. Spann Jr. Award For Special Education Advocacy Project October 2006 Jones Day's pro bono commitment in the area of special education has already received media attention and community awards. In October 2006, Jones Day Atlanta's Special Education Advocacy Project (jointly with another pro bono project focusing on pre-school children) was selected for the William B. Spann, Jr. Award presented by the State Bar of Georgia. This is an annual award given to a "local bar association or a community organization in Georgia which has developed a pro bono program that has satisfied previously unmet needs or extended services to the underserved segments of the population." In response to the acute shortage of attorneys willing to represent low-income families with disabled children, the Atlanta office of Jones Day partnered with two local legal services organizations, the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation and Atlanta Legal Aid, to create the Jones Day Special Education Advocacy Project. Attorneys from all of the Firm's practice areas represent these families to ensure that the schools provide the "free and appropriate public education" to which each child is entitled to receive under federal law. With the assistance of experts who understand the child's condition, attorneys advocate for the child in meetings with school officials and promote development of an Individualized Education Program that will satisfy federal law. Cases that cannot be resolved through mediation or other informal means go to litigation. Doug Towns, partner in the Labor & Employment Practice and Pro Bono Coordinator for the Atlanta Office, spearheaded the Project and serves as coordinator for the dozen or more active special educations cases. In total, more that thirty attorney and paralegals have participated in this Project since its inception in the Fall of 2004.