There are some legal guidelines regarding school accommodations. However, I'm not sure that the situation you describe necessairly applies, unless this evaluation is keeping him from getting ADHD school accommodations he is entitled to.

If you disagree with the school’s evaluation findings, you can obtain an independent evaluation to document your child’s need for special education services. (Depending on the situation, the school may have to pay for the independent evaluation.)

See these articles: Advocate for Your Child: Getting ADHD Accommodations A Parent's Guide to ADHD Accommodations

You may have to do a little extra advocating on behalf of your child. Here are a few tips for working with your ADHD child's teachers:

ADHD School Help: Working with the Teacher

I hope this helps. Dena

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At this point you could hire an educational advocate/consultant and have them do a observation. That way it would be in their findings and you could go to the principal to express your issue with the teacher. I would, also if you could afford, it get your own testing done. It speeds up the process and you don't have to depend on the school to do it. If you get a psychoeducational test or neuropsych test done most school should except it. It is well worth it. A friend of mine took 3 years to get a 504 for her son as she did not want to spend the money for testing. That was 3 years of pain and suffering for her child without accommodations for her son. He really suffered as a result.

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It is obviously not right to falsify but proving it is another.

Also, it may not matter much depending on the quality of the evaluator. Things like this can be flushed out with other testing, direct observation, internal validity measures on the test, etc.

There is no one single test that shows ADHD. That is why we perform comprehensive batteries. It is like we are using a bunch of cheap 99cent store compasses. Any one may be pointing in the wrong direction, but we know which way is North when we line enough of them in a row.

Of course, this is all contingent on a quality, comprehensive examination.

Communicate your concerns to both the assessor and the administrator. Just don't expect feedback from the administrator, whether or not the administrator intervenes with discipline is legally confidential.

If the end report appears inaccurate, there are provisions for independent evaluations in special education law.

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I'm both a mental health therapist and the mom of 2 kids with AD/HD.

1) I've noticed that my Vanderbilt forms (new, downloaded from NICHQ) and some of the forms I've seen from school guidance counselors or even my clinic's child psychiatrist (xeroxed copies of older printed ones) have the rating scales flipped. On one set, the rating scale has 1 as low, on the other, 1 is high. When I either send forms with parents to give to teachers or mail them directly, I always include a quick note pointing out which end of the scale is which. Is it possible this is an honest mistake?

2) Understanding why the teacher is doing this might help to know what to do about it.

Teachers are justifiably worried about having too much to do, and 504s can be scary for them. When a child has a 504, that means the teacher has to work harder, but generally gets no more help to do so. (If a child qualifies for an IEP - which takes a lot and generally won't happen with just AD/HD, the teacher might have some outside help implementing it.) There could be any number of other reasons, as well.

It sounds like you already have a diagnosis, so there might be ways to cope with this without confronting the teacher. To monitor your child's progress, use other records, like grade reports, emails from the teacher about specifc problems, etc. To qualify for a 504, you can demonstrate the need in other ways - by documenting what your child is like off meds at home, for example.

Sometimes I fantasize about screaming at a teacher for either "my kids" at work or my actual kids at home, but I always try to calm down and figure out how I can work with the teacher. Time has taught me that if I can find some hook, any hook, to work with the teacher, it all goes better. Like the rest of us, sometimes they are overwhelmed how to best support kids with AD/HD. If you're a CHADD member, they have a great article in their member-only archives about "Why Teachers Resist - Understanding Teacher Attitudes about AD/HD."

Good luck!

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