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crteacher said: As a parent if you write a formal letter requesting your child have a formal evaluation legally they have to do it withing a certain amount of days. ....Any child who has a formal diagnosis of ADHD is legally qualified for a 504 and accomadations.

Point 1 is not necessarily true anymore with the creation of Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI). However, each state's implementation varies.

The last statement is explicitly wrong.

the following is a quote directly from the Federal Dept. of Education Office of Civil Rights. http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/504faq.html

"25. Does a medical diagnosis of an illness automatically mean a student can receive services under Section 504?

No. A medical diagnosis of an illness does not automatically mean a student can receive services under Section 504. The illness must cause a substantial limitation on the student's ability to learn or another major life activity. "

There are several FAQs of follow-up commentary on the site. For example, there is specific advice on how LEA's should handle medical diagnoses and perform their own determination.

http://askdreric-schoolpsychologist.blogspot.com/

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Come to think of it... I did kinda have to go on a "campaign" last year.... I think the email I sent to ALL my daughter's teachers (from the Schoolastic website-"Girls and AD/HD-Are You Missing the Signs?" -even PE and Home Ec-probably got some of their attention. (The Vice Principal and 504 Chairperson for the school did ask me to send any future such articles I want to share through her...) and the 10 page email I cc'd to the 504 Coodinator for the county school system probably raised a few eyebrows. I was just truly sick and tired of the school system doing all of these evaluations, agreeing that there was this issue, yet always doing a 360 whenever any teacher up and decided that my daughter's issues (with obvious AD/HD traits) somehow had NOTHING to do with her diagnosis. When communicating to the school, I kept the "whining" to a minimum, concentrated on just a few really important things that NEEDED to change ASAP (the bullying my daughter was enduring on a daily basis, the way she was being routinely humiliated in front of her class-which by the way was likely contributing to the bullying substantially, and the masses of missing assignments-the greater majority of which were classwork, not homework.) then pointed out HOW and WHY those really are issues related to her AD/HD. I'm a single mom, and I just don't have all the resources most of the other parents in my community have. I had to use what was available to me, without any advocate or attorney representation. The point is, if you keep pushing, you can get help. I didn't have a choice to sit back and hope it got better--I saw my daughter changing right before my eyes. She was getting depressed, waking up with nightmares about being hurt in school, her confidence was long gone, she was withdrawn and nervous, and all the progress she had made was slipping through our fingers. I know I'm kinda hard on the school system. I just feel like I have good reason to be. While some of the people I've dealt with have been absolute heroes (and believe me, a few have been!) still others have caused a great deal of harm to my little family, out of ignorance and pride. Believe me, if you really use all the resources at your disposal, somebody WILL eventually listen, even if it's just to prevent themselves from looking bad. One of the most effective things I've learned (and I'm sorry if this sounds terrible) is to use teacher's comments as "proof" that your kid needs and deserves real help. I ask for copies of everything now. I research the "complaints" -on the internet, on this site and Chadd's site, I take them to the AD/HD clinic that prescribes my daughter's medication, and I write back to the school how the complaint is related to a symptom. (Of course, only when it clearly is) Last year I really think they "complained" themselves into handing over and IEP for OHI!). Okay-dokey. My daughter's had a great start so far this year. There's at least one kid she trusts in just about every class, and her teachers are so far, terrific. She's excited about signing up for some extra-curricular activities. Yahoo. Bring on the complaints!

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