Marie Ann: My child seems to be not eligible for SPED because our state indicates the child “has to be below 12%”. This sounds like such a load to me because we all know that numbers can be manipulated and the state doesn’t easily indicate precisely what they are talking about. So I am looking at our Woodcock J results and can easily see the percentage points and where our child falls on the bell curve. My question is this – our state is above average when compared to the country and my child’s school is above average in the district (like one of the best schools in the state). As I prepare a position for our IEP request, how can I verbalize that my child might range between 17% and 32% on the Woodcock subtests,, but between the SD and the fact that our child’s peers are well above the national average. Your help is so appreciated! I already bought a couple of books, but I’m not sure if I can afford to keep buying the publications to get an answer. Thank you
Are you trying to get IDEA eligibility? If so — it can be helpful to bring an outside expert to the meeting. You may want to consider requesting an Independent Educational Evaluation at district expense. Ask special ed attorneys in your area which evaluators are the most effective in meetings. You may get quicker results if you share the existing evaluations with the outside expert and request a “targeted” (i.e. not comprehensive) evaluation. It sounds like you’ve done some good legwork with careful reading of the reports. You may want to share your analysis with the outside expert. Sadly, schools often pay more attention to the person with the fancy letters after their name.
Since this rule appears to come to the state, I suggest that you contact your state parent training & information center. http://www.parentcenterhub.org/find-your-center They will know about the state rules, & be able to advise you.