Yes, it's been a long while since I've posted. Honestly, I've just got so much .... stuff.... going thru my head that I don't even know which way is up sometimes. Between IEP's and IEE's and speech therapy for Landon and trying to find a job....well, ready to pull my hair would be putting it lightly.
The IEE (independent educational evaluation) is done. The dr was fantastic, did a very thorough job and was right on the money about Trace. Aspergers is confirmed, ADD/ADHD combined type, dysgraphia and dyscalculia...everything that we already knew, plus a couple of new ones (dysgraphia and dyscalculia).
The scores on the tests done by the district as compared to the dr's scores....extreme differences. On the Woodcock Johnson III, from the dr's evaluations: on the Written Expression, Writing Fluency and Writing Samples, he scored as well as 1% of his peers. 1% !?! Math Fluency was less than 4%. Broad Written Language less than 6%. Including the ones I just listed, he scored under 50% on *11* of the tests....only 5 tests scored above 50%. On these percentile scores, 50% is pretty much average...anything below 50%, less than average, anything above 50%, above average. With the school's evaluation, the count was exactly the opposite... 5 tests were below 50%, 11 above...go figure. On the Wechsler Intelligence Scale there were such drastic differences that I wondered if they'd even tested the same child!!! His full scale IQ had a 23 point difference....that's huge. Also, something that I didn't know at the time but was later noted and confirmed by several people (including our family psychologist who's been in practice 40+ years) ...when the school did the WISC with Trace....on 9 of the subtests administered, he scored exactly the same score....exactly the same. Our family psychologist said that in all his years of practice, he's never seen that happen on one child's test. Again, the differences between what the school scored and what the IEE psychologist found, drastic differences. Just as an example..... on the Comprehension subtest, the school scored him at 75%, the IEE found him at 9% - from above average to doing no better than 9% of his peers?!? Another drastic example, on the Letter Number Sequencing subtest...school scored (another) 75%, while the IEE found him to be at 0.4%.
Anyhow, we had our IEP meeting last Thursday. 2 hrs it lasted and....for the most part, it was a complete waste of time. The school part of team, when I brought up his low % scores on the IEE, says "oh, he was probably just having a bad day." or "You know, his testing was done after school, when his medication had worn off. He was probably fatigued." I can understand that he could be a bit tired after school....however, that being said, several things immediately come to mind- 1) the IEE psychologist would NOT have continued testing if she didn't think he'd been up to it. She would have rescheduled. and 2) even if he *was* fatigued, the differences in the scores would NOT have been that drastic, a few % points, sure......the ones that I put up above...not even maybe.
On the plus side, he will continue with 60 minutes of speech therapy per week, and 30 minutes of occupational therapy per week (plus in the regular ed classroom guidance and redirection assistance). On the negative side....really nothing else was addressed, or was brushed off if I brought it up.
Why does this have to be so difficult? Why do we parents have to fight so damned hard for something that shouldn't have to be fought for at all? And, what about the parents that don't have the resources that we've been blessed enough to have? A wonderful family psychologist, an awesome mentor/advocate, supportive family....all this, and we're still having issues. Parents that don't have any of that, what chance do their kids have if the schools try to shirk their jobs?
I'm too tired and too stressed to even try typing anymore tonight....I can't wrap my brain around even 1/4 of this stuff, much less 100% of it which is what my boy needs from me.
