ADVOCATING 4 KIDS

The school must evaluate your Child in ALL the areas of suspected disability. Below are some specific areas of testing that you may request:

Educational Evaluations

Educational evaluation should assess areas of reading, written language, spelling and math skills.  Educational testing will serve as a baseline against which future progress can be measured.

 If you think your student has a reading problem, make sure you request all five areas of reading, that are outline in the No Child Left Behind Law which includes: Phonemic Awareness,

Phonics,

Fluency,

Vocabulary

Comprehension

Education Evaluation:

Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised WJ-R  or WJ-III.; Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT);

Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Second Edition K-TEA

Reading Evaluation:

Phonemic Awareness: Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP)

Word Attack and Phonics: Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Revised (WRMT_R) (Is a more in-depth reading decoding assessment, word-level phonetic decoding skills)

Fluency: The Gray Oral Reading, Third Edition (GORT­3) measures fluency, accuracy, rate, and comprehension when the student is reading out loud

Vocabulary: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Psychological Evaluation

Is an intelligent test, it measure general cognitive ability. A psychological examination may measure sensory, processing speed, language, perceptual, attentional, cognitive, affective, self-image, interpersonal, and behavioral areas. The psychological examination helps in identifying discrepancies in learning.

The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-R) for children ages 3 - 7 1/4

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children - 4TH EDITION (WISC-IV) for children aged 6 years through 16 years 11 months.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - 3rd Edition for ages 16 years and up

Speech and Language Evaluation

An assessment of receptive language (the ability to understand spoken language), expressive language (the ability to formulate and organize oral language and written language), phonological processing (the ability to manipulate individual sounds within words), articulation, voice, auditory memory, pragmatics (the ability to use language effectively to interact with people)

Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA)

Measures young children’s awareness of the individual sounds in words

CELF - Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals
Measure the (oral) language skills of learning in the areas of semantics, syntax, and memory.

Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS)
Measure Language tasks in: Written Expression, Oral Expression, and Listening Comprehension.

The TOLD-I, third edition

Measures the understanding and meaningful use of spoken words, as well as different aspects of grammar.

The Test of Pragmatic Language (TOPL)
Measure student’s ability to effectively use pragmatic language; his or her ability to understand and use social verbal skills.

Occupational Therapy Evaluation

An evaluation of fine skills, (the use of small muscles i.e. handwriting problems) visual motor integration, visual perception or visual processing, and sensory integration (SI)

Gardner Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills - non-motor(NM) - (TVPS):

Measures seven areas of visual perception not requiring motor responses: Visual discrimination, visual memory, visual spatial relationships, visual form consistency, visual sequential memory, visual figure ground and visual closure

Beery-Buktenica Development Test of Visual Motor Integration (Beery VMI)

Measures the integration of visual and motor skill abilities

Test of Handwriting Skills-Revised (THS-R)  Measures handwriting skills, both manuscript and cursive.

DeGangi-Berk Test of Sensory Integration (TSI) Identify sensory integrative dysfunction in young children.

The Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT) Measures the sensory integration processes that underlie learning and behavior by showing you how children organize and respond to sensory input, SIPT helps pinpoint specific organic problems associated with learning disabilities, emotional disorders, and minimal brain dysfunction

Administrators who conduct functional behavioral assessments usually seek an explanation for a student’s problem behavior before devising individualized interventions.

But as more school districts have adopted systemwide positive behavioral support models, the practice of conducting universal FBAs has emerged.

This evolution of the FBA has bred some confusion among special education professionals, who know IDEA requires them to attain parental consent before conducting an FBA on a student who exhibits challenging behavior that might stem from emotional disturbance or another behavioral or emotional disability.

In Letter to Christiansen , 48 IDELR 161 (OSEP 2007), then-OSEP director Alexa Posny attempted to clarify the issue, differentiating between universal and individualized FBAs: “If an FBA is used … to improve overall student behavior within the school,” she wrote, “it generally would not be considered an evaluation that would require parental consent, unless such consent is required from the parents of all children in the school prior to conducting such an evaluation.”

However, Posny wrote, if you conduct an FBA to determine if a child has a qualifying disability or to figure out the extent of special education and related services the child requires, the FBA would qualify as an evaluation or reevaluation under IDEA Part B and necessitate parental consent.

Review the factors you’re considering before conducting an FBA to ensure you seek parental consent under the right circumstances.

“We usually get permission from parents when we conduct [an FBA], but when a suspension involves a special education student and it’s going to a manifestation [determination], I have been asked to do an [FBA], and I haven’t gotten a particular permission to do that,” said Rossella Fanelli, a school psychologist in the New Canaan (Conn.) Public Schools. “Sounds like I should get permission in I in that instance as well.” http://www.justice4all.org/files/School%20Psychologist%20Jan%202008.pdf

Hello,

Like any school district, Chesapeake has its problems. However, my experiences are that the special education coordinators do their very best to treat parents with respect, and dignity. This concept appears to be foreign to city such as Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

For any parent with a special needs child’s who is moving to the Hampton Roads area, I highly recommend that you move to the city of Chesapeake if you want your child’s special needs addressed appropriately and professionally.

When I found this sight I was already at my wits end. I was fully prepared to go it alone and was completely overwhelmed because I didn’t have any clue as to what little ole me was going to do against the school system. I was so glad when I found this sight and found out i was not alone. Here’s my ongoing story:
My son is a middle school student at Northside Middle school, Norfolk Public Schools and has ADHD and a 504 plan. After numerous suspensions and referrals for behaviors like not being able to stay in his seat and talking excessively, I started to dig deeper. I always believed that the school was really trying to do the best for my son, but when I started questioning them I found out differently. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that there are a few teachers “somewhere” that are really concerned about kids and really want them to have a good education. I have not encountered them at Northside. At the beginning of the school year I advised the guidance counselor that my son will not excel in a traditional setting, I advised her and the 7th grade dean of students (David Bunting) that if you put my son in a classroom with 30 kids that he will not be able to remained focused. This information when unnoticed and my son continued to get in “trouble”.
In January I called a meeting of the child study team to reevaluate my sons 504 plan-which was vague at best and had no real way of really insuring that it was being followed. At that meeting I was told and agreed to have a FBA done and to have a new BIP. These things were never done. We got to the point we are at now because my son was now up for a long term suspension and a manifestation hearing was scheduled. I searched online for many days and hours to find out just what my rights were and during the search I came upon not only this sight but several others for advocacy. I emailed several people including Dr. Katz and Cheryl. Dr. Katz called me the day of the manifestation hearing and agreed to accompany me as my advocate. Here’s where it gets interesting. The meeting was scheduled for 12:45 pm, we arrived ad 12:35 p.m. When we arrived at the school we were invited to go to the guidance offices where the meeting was going to be held. The guidance counselor walked out of her office and said hello to me, as she’d done so many times before, and asked Dr. Katz if she could help him. He advised her that he was with me and introduced himself, she said hello and left the room. She came back about 5 min later and asked for his business card and left the room again not returning for at least 30 min. When she did come back she informed that there were checking down town to make sure that he could be there?!? After all was cleared we went into her office where Dr. Katz asked for an outlet to plug in the tape recorder(I called and advised them beforehand that i was planning on taping the meeting). At this point the other members had arrived one of them stated that we could not tape the meeting. I asked why, and she said that we were not allowed to tape the meeting?!? she then left and got the principal who came in and adv she had contacted the office of Pupil Personnel and was told that we could not tape the meeting, even though we showed her the law and she said she was aware of it, but we cound not record. I asked her to provide me a letter stating that I was not being allowed to record the meeting. She then left and about 20 min later showed up with a Police officer behind her and adv she had contacted the city atty and was advised that she did not have to provide anything in writing. She then told Dr. Katz with police officer in tow that he would be allowed to observe but not participate,and if that was going to be a problem?!? During the meeting I gave release for Dr. Katz to review my sons file and requested that copies be made for both him and myself. As, he was reviewing the file the guidance counselor said she was going to make copies of the information he had already reviewed but tried to take the entire folder, she said this once more and Dr.Katz advised she could do so after he reviewed it, a tug of war insued and she then said she was needed to take it to the principal?!? We kept the folder although 5 days later have not reveived the copies. The meeting continued, we had a notetaker there, whom when I asked her position, she said she was just there to take notes, but when it came time to vote they aske her opinion and she said she was a teacher and had seen my son in the hallway. Does that her make her knowledgeable?!? They deemed that the behavior was not a manifestation and an administrative meeting was to be held right after.It was now 2:30 and we were told that the meeting could not start until the halls were cleared and that would be at 2:45…at 3:15 the administrative hearing was started. Again, Dr. Katz was told that he could not participate and when he asked to speak with me out in the hallway he was told that he did not run that office and he could leave if he wanted to?!? We stayed in the office and when it was noticed that my son was not there they said he had to be there. He had already went home on the bus. The asst. principal wanted me to go home and get him, I told her I was not doing so, and the meeting was rescheduled for the morning. During this ordeal Dr. Katz was speaking with Cheryl, and advised me to give her a call. I called Cheryl and was delighted to know she ran the website that I had just the day before asked for assistance from. I went home that night and spoke further with Cheryl and Dr.Katz. Cheryl provided me with a letter and some advise. The meeting resumed the next morning, but I felt so much better knowing that I had some people on my side. I came to the meeting armed with the letter, but not my son. When the asst. principal(Doris Langhorne) ? my son not being there. I advised her that I was not going to bring my son to be interrogated further and that he had already answered there questions and did not need to be there. She said she did not know who told me that he didnt need to be there, but the meeting continued none the less. She read several documents and statements, some of which were not known to be in existence at the time of the manifestation hearing and would have had a direct bearing I believe on their decision. After an hour of this nonsense, I stated to her that my son has had failing grades since elementary school, he was reading and comprehending at least 2 grade levels behind and all of this was due to schools unwillingness to implement measures according to the 504 plan and the law and that the school was failing my son. I also stated that the teachers statements only reiterated and cemented my earlier request for my son to be in a learning environment with a smaller class setting. I expressed my concern that student statements were being ignored, because if they were addressed correctly, you could see that half of the things they said my son did were discounted by student statements, but they still felt the need to suspend him anyway. I felt this was harrassment. I handed the letter that Cheryl have given me to the asst. principal and the dean of students, and was asked to wait out in the hallway so they could deliberate(2 hours). After 20 minutes i moved from the hallway to chairs in the office.The dean came out of the room and saw me sitting there and told me they were still deliberating and that I could go back in the hall. I told him that I would wait right there, he then said that they were deliberating, I looked behind me and then back at him and asked if he thought that I could hear through the cinderblock wall? and that I would be remaining where I was. There was alot of in and out the office, alot of copying and faxing and phone calls and then I was told that my son would be resuming classes the next day. I have no doubt in my mind that this was due to Cheryl’s letter. She also provided me with a follow up letter to make sure that my son does not receive any more harrasment due to his disability while they get their sh** together.
We have another child study meeting scheduled for Wednesday the 12th, hopefully there will be no police involved and the focus can be on my son. I know this is not the last of my battles, but it’s good to have one victory under your belt.