I think that Phoebe's school is going to follow an RTI model of evaluation, which is described by Silver and Spodak in 2007. They say:

The latest revision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the federal law that governs special education, offers another approach for assessing called a "Response to Intervention" (RTI). It is currently designed primarily for the elementary school grades. RTI has three steps. If a student is struggling academically, the first step is for the classroom teacher to try additional approaches to help the student master the expected material. If the student still does not make progress, a second level of intervention is tried. A support teacher with special training in addressing learning problems assists the classroom teacher and works individually with the student. Should the student still not make progress, the third level of intervention is initiated. An individualized education program (IEP, explained later) is written and the student is assigned to special education. Ideally, assessments such as psycho–educational testing are done to clarify the reasons for the difficulties before deciding what programs or services are needed. For example, difficulties resulting from specific LDs, intellectual level, bilingual issues, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, emotional problems, or other causes may each require a different intervention. Based on these test results, an IEP is prepared and the child is provided the necessary special education services.

I'm unsure what this means for the evaluation portion. The more I'm reading, the more I'm concerned about not doing rigorous evaluation in order to understand where the block in her learning process is. Is she having integration trouble? Where are the weaknesses, and strengths? How can we find the best way to approach her learning NOW, rather than taking a process of trial and error which might make her all the more frustrated?

I also found a page on legal rights of parents/children regarding educational needs when one is learning disabled. One thing that is of particular interest to me is this:

If parents disagree with the results of an evaluation, they have the right to obtain an independent educational evaluation (IEE). An IEE is conducted by qualified people who are not employed by the school. The school district must provide parents with a list names of possible examiners. The district must either provide the IEE at no cost to the parents or initiate a due process hearing to show that its evaluation was appropriate. If the result of the hearing is that the district's evaluation is appropriate, parents still have the right to obtain an IEE, but not at school district expense.

If parents obtain an independent educational evaluation on their own and it meets the school's criteria, those results must be considered by the IEP team. The results of an IEE must be considered by the IEP team in planning.

It applies if you don't agree with their findings, but does it apply if you don't agree with their methods?

I'll keep looking, I haven't found the answer to that yet, obviously.

Now that I'm on the "look out" for letter/number switching, I was listening closely to her reading and I heard this:

• "tired" for tried
• "Aunt Ezla" for Aunt Eliza, repeatedly, as in me correcting her didn't change her perception of what the letters were doing.
• "Ackit" instead of attic

So now I'm feeling pretty confident in my unprofessional assessment of her learning as a "disability".

Not five minutes after I sent the e-mail to her teacher, letting her know what I'd heard, I received the following (and I don't think it was in reply, I think it was sent concurrently, if not prior to me sending my note):

I spoke with Mrs. Binkley and Mrs. Gallagher today. We do not test for Dyslexia. However, we have a meeting called a Student Study Team, which consists of parents of the student, this year's and last year's teachers, the school psychologist, the speech teacher, the resource teacher, and Mrs. Gallagher. If you would like to request that kind of meeting, you would need to make a written request for it. We would then all meet together to talk about your concerns. Please let me know if that is something of interest to you.

What concerns me about this is that it doesn't sound like they DO anything. I'm sure they MUST do something, but what??? Of course we'll have this meeting, and I'll be very curious what happens next.

Like I said, looks like something we have to pursue on our own.

I saw my weblog got some activity in the last 24 hours - like, a lot of activity.

As such I'm going to put it to good use.

Anyone who would like to try to work together to figure out how the BCS move affects the decision by the LASD board last June, and how to approach the board before the meeting next week, please feel free to contact me.

My e-mail is amanda@hinkty.com

Thanks!

Just to clarify, BCS added the third kindergarten this year to accommodate the growing interest. So instead of two classes of 20 kids each, they have three classes of 18.

Very nice, indeed.

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On my own personal note, I met with Phoebe's teacher yesterday, who between the number switching and the family history of learning disabilities, felt a work-up within the school is warranted. She's referring Phoebe to the "resource specialist" and the school psychologist - through whom the testing will be administered. We'll see how it comes out. I am worried that we're reaching a point that if we don't catch what's going on, we're going to miss out on a critical period of teaching her to love learning. We're also getting referral to an ophthalmologist to see if we're missing some method of treating her eyes, and we're likely to pursue having her tested outside of the school for the LD as well, just to make sure we have multiple opinions, and multiple learning tools for her.