e-mail to Special Education pre k director

[Ktllc]

Here is the e-mail
Mrs. -----,

Thanks for taking the time this morning to have a phone conversation with me about V's difficulties, assessments and implications on his education.

I completely understand that the School District cannot provide services to individuals unless their education is negatively and significantly impacted by their disability.

Like we talked about, I have attached a copy of V's complete private psycho-educational evaluation report done by Dr. -------.
I believe it to be a quite accurate picture of V's current strengths and weaknesses.
As you will see, V's main issues are visual-spatial skills, communication (being at a "borderline level"), academic achievement, socialization, activities of daily living, withdrawal and anxiety.

Giving his significant delay in social communication (despite good verbal skills), I really appreciate your scheduling a language screening by the school Speech Language Pathologist (SLP). I will also work on getting a private speech and language evaluation.

I also look forward to your answer regarding the "15 point discrepancy" law being an automatic IEP or not.

Should you have any questions regarding the report or any other matter, feel free to contact me.

If we keep working as a team and keep having an open communication, I feel confident that V will have the help he deserves for a successful school experience.

Sincerely,

What do you think? As you would have guessed she gave me a bunch of BS saying that his education would have to be affected and that is not the SD conclusion on THEIR assessment. She implied that they don't have to take that new report into account but still wanted a copy.
I nicely exlained that I wanted to work as a team but still mentioned that 15 point discrepancy law (advocate told me about it and assured me it was a garanteed IEP). She first avoided to answer and when I asked her again she said she would have to look into it.
I am good at "playing dumb" and I don't think she suspects my attentions: WAR if V does not get what he needs.
I am planting seeds and living a paper trail.
Anything else I should be doing?
by the way, she went from from "we can't do anything" to "let's do a speech screening" scheduled Feb. 26th. I asked about a cmplete evaluation but she claims they have to do screening first. Is that right?
Input welcome!

 

[buddy]

a screening will be 15 minutes of watching him in a setting... I would ask for a complete evaluation and as one of the speech/language protocols that should be listed is a video taped and transcribed communication sample with adults and peers. It takes a long time to do these so many people avoid them but they are vital for a social communication evaluation. It should be done during an interactive time in school. I would write the assessment request and keep on doing what you are doing too.... write it as was suggested with TeDo's words or they will keep putting this all off with the double talk about it not affecting his school work. I have had many successful (academically) kids with Aspergers/Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) IEP's in grade K. It is silly to say that in this day and age, but we live in a world of silly and I am living right now in the world of the ridiculous so I feel for you. Just MHO, but yeah, you are on to them now.....

 

[buddy]

oh ps..... no they do not have to do a screening first. They often DO do this esp for an easy thing to spot like a distorted S sound.... but there is now way to screen for a pragmatic communication disorder. Just NO WAY... they would have to see him in a social situation where he struggles, and since it is a brief screening...she is likely to miss anything of consequence.


when a screening is good??? You have a kid that the teacher comes to the child study team and says.... Something may be up here can someone give me an idea if we should assess or anything I should do differently in the class to support this kid??? then you get to see the kid and have a better clue as to whether a full assessment is needed. but to replace an assessment, would not be appropriate. Let them screen him, but ask for the assessment anyway.

 

[Ktllc]

ok.... The screening is schedules for end of February (after ear surgery and audiology testing). I have just sent the e-mail before writing the thread.
How do I go about requesting full speech evaluation (with the suggested protocols below) without being obviously at war??
Mrs---- is still not over my certified mail with R/R from last year (the one to request school evaluation), she keeps on mention it like an old trauma.
I want to keep it a "friendly battle" as much as possible.
Or should I get private evaluation (done properly even if I have to drive to the big city nearby) and then request thorough school language evaluation in May since a complete school evaluation is already scheduled for that time?
Ps: Buddy, I do realize the screening will not reveal anything.
I feel that the way I present my requests is just as important as WHAT I request. Or am I just being an idiot about it and should forget about being polite? But the old say "one does not catch flies with vinegar" is dancing in my head.

 

[buddy]

I can completely relate to that, and yes it does matter how you present it. But in terms of asking for a complete evaluation thru a certified letter, that is just procedure. Not a confrontational thing. I have done this often thru the years and have (until now) had a good working relationship with staff....

Dear X (sp ed director), As we discussed, V recently had a private evaluation that indicated several concerns which impact his social emotional development and academic growth in all settings. V's father and I want to ensure that he is receiving all interventions appropriate to make sure that he is able to reach his potential and overcome his neurological challenges. My understanding is that in order to do that, we will be looking at a screening for communication issues and I would also like to request that we complete a full special education evaluation to include ability, achievement, communication (focusing on social communication interaction, an autism evaluation (if you want to include that specifically it is fine to ask, because if there is a suspicion of autism they are supposed to have a specialist on the evaluation team), sensory/motor.

I appreciate your time in helping me sort through all of these issues. I have been told that these are significant challenges that can have a negative impact on school performance in all areas including social emotional growth and so am looking forward to having the school specialists share their perspectives on how to best provide educational services for him.

Thank you kindly for your attention in this matter. I will look forward to hearing what the assessment plan will be.

sincerely, warrior mom.

Just a draft, obviously if it hits you too strongly change it to what you want it to say.


For some reason I thought you maybe already said that he had the "full" speech evaluation? I wonder if it might be good to have him assessed for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) along with the pragmatic communication and language evaluation....Just in case the specific Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) is not as skilled as an Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) specialist in seeing the social communication issues. Just a thought... but of course you do what is comfortable. you have a long relationship with these people and I do believe that if they are moving forward appropriately and not pushing your concerns to the side...then it is fine to be kind of gentle in the approach.

As you may have read in my journey, that has worked great for me and now I am at a point where it is not working so I am having to change that...as you said, if they dont do what you need, then it is going to be war. Can be a polite war but war none-the-less.... I am losing my polite desires at this point but you are far from that point right now....

 

[TeDo]

Dear X (sp ed director), As we discussed, V recently had a private evaluation that indicated several concerns which impact his social emotional development and academic growth in all settings. V's father and I want to ensure that he is receiving all interventions appropriate to make sure that he is able to reach his potential and overcome his neurological challenges. My understanding is that in order to do that, we will be looking at a screening for communication issues and I would also like to request that we complete a FULL and thorough special education evaluation to include ability, achievement, communication (focusing on social communication interaction), an autism evaluation ....... , and sensory/motor.

I appreciate your time in helping me sort through all of these issues. I have been told that these are significant challenges that can have a negative impact on school performance in all areas including social emotional growth and so am looking forward to having the school specialists share their perspectives on how to best provide educational services for him.

Thank you kindly for your attention in this matter. I will look forward to hearing what the assessment plan will be.

sincerely, warrior mom.

I think that sounds wonderful and PLEASE do not send it email. Send it the "proper" way so it is more official.

Yes, do your own independent as well and bring the results with you so when they say there are no issues you can specifically ask "then why did THIS evaluator find x, y, and z to be issues? Did you evaluate a, b, and c like they did?" I LOVE watching them backpedal.