My son is a 6th grader in middle school who has ADHD-inattentive, dysgraphia and possibly dyslexia. He was in a self-contained gifted class with only 14 students for the last 2 years and he was able to get by without accomodations. Now he is in a gifted classroom for only 2 hours of the day and is in much larger classrooms for his other subjects. Part of the problem is his high IQ enables him to compensate for some of his LD symptoms. Every single teacher at parent teacher conference brought up his handwriting, slow processing, and disorganization. His grades have gotten progressively worse, but he hasn’t actually failed a class yet. I am wondering if I try to push for IEP now. I would hate for him to continue down this path of bad grades and blow all chances for getting into college down the road! The testing we had done is about 2 1/2 years old and we had most of it done by someone outside the school. I don’t know if it would still be valid if we brought it to the school and if there is further testing we should request. Any advice
Re: Should I push for IEP and would he qualify?
Being identified as a gifted child is not the same as being disabled within the definitions of IDEA. However, a gifted child may in fact be classified a s child with a disability within the context of IDEA.It is not unusual for gifted children to have a learning disability or even a speech and language disability. Don’t give up just yet.
I would suggest that you request the school division to evaluate your child as a child with a disability and allow the special education process to be implemented to it’s completion. If they refuse to evaluate they will have to provide you with procedural safeguards of prior written notice of their refusal to do so. To the extent they fail to do this is a violation of your procedural protections which becomes more complicated.
As for obtaining your own evaluation I would make the request of the school division to evaluate first before I would do the evaluation at your expense.
DRHD
It is often difficult to get services for students who are twice exceptional (2E). What modification to the curriculum or specialized instruction do you think he requires?
You might be better to go with a 504 plan and come up with some accommodations and assistive technologies that could support him all the way through college.
If you need additional suggestions, post the areas of most concern and others will chime in with additional recommendations.