Your rationale for wanting notification and to make proper arrangements is perfectly sound.

However, talk to the assessor about your rationale and your concerns, and you should be able to work things out amicably.

However, this falls under the umbrella of best practice, not legal right.

Honestly, and I don't bring it up too often, but please make sure the way you approach school staff is not the way people talk on forums.

There is usually a tone of "you have to know your rights, and the only way to get anything done is to fight for them!" in every internet community that I take part in.

I try to ignore the negative-tone many folks take online because I don't want to incite conflict or devalue the negative experiences and frustrations that many parents have experienced.

Although not a proper way for staff to react, if you take that tone, it will likely become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you cite the law too much from the start, staff will increase their legal paranoia... you want them to focus on your kid, not the parent citing legal stuff.

By all means, advocate for your child when necessary, but don't pre-assume incompetency or a refusal to be helpful until it has been earned.. even then, don't try not to over-generalize or assume that one-bad-apple represents the agency.

Yes, there is a lot of problems with IEPs and 504s. Yes, there are a lot of incompetent and/or ill-meaning professionals.

However, in 2007-08 there were about 6.6 millions students with IEPs. ( http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=64 )

There are a percentage of those parents who are satisfied with their schools and their students' educational progress.

The satisfied parents will not have a proportional presence in the advocacy community (locally or online) because they do not have the motivation created by frustration or negative experience.

Here are some blog posts that may be of some help...

On how legal paranoia is counter-productive. http://askdreric-schoolpsychologist.blogspot.com/2010/09/does-fear-of-litigation-make-educators.html

On reasonable expectations of assessment... (Although my focus was on additional assessment for a student already qualified) http://askdreric-schoolpsychologist.blogspot.com/2010/03/analysis-paralysis-why-does-everyone.html

I apologize in advance if I sound too "preachy", but I hope that this is helpful.

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When it comes to assessment, rather than try to make sure they do things right... let's face it, if the assessor is not competent, there will be nothing you can do to make them magically competent for this one assessment.

If, when they complete the assessment and present the results, if you have a substantive disagreement with the results, you are entitled to request and independent assessment at public expense.

At work, I am pretty militant about letting my staff control the assessment based on their training and expertise.

The vast majority of the time, the parents are satisfied with the report and do not request an Independent Eval.

More than half of the time when they do ask for one, they are not happy with the Independent Evaluator because we refused to hire Dr. Buy-a-Diagnosis.

Document your concerns; let them to the assessment their way; and, if your concerns become reality, request a quality Independent Evaluation.

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I really appreciate the advice and it makes complete sense. We've had an student study team meeting and everyone was very agreeable and no one brought up legal rights. I like to know in advance what my rights are only so I have the knowledge just in case they try to deny something for my son. I don't like to walk away from the situation and then realized I could have done something different. Everyone on the team (beside us parents) wanted him medicated and they wouldn't discuss doing the assessment without his meds. I know I have the right to not give him meds, but I need them to let me know the day before the assessment so I can give them to him in the morning or not. I think they are going to do me that favor and call me before each test. Apparently it's not a "right" to know in advance when each will take place. They called me yesterday to let me know he is having the IQ assessment today. I gave him is meds since this doesn't assess learning or retaining info. I want them to understand the severity of his ADD since they will probably not find any other LD's that will automatically qualify him for an IEP. I really need him to get an IEP or something to do with the 504 plan because he is failing from his inabilitiy to focus and retain info. I want to make sure it is officially documented (through these assessments) that he seriously struggles with this so I can push for an IEP if there are do other LD's. Does this make sense? They've already told me that ADD isn't a learning disability and wouldn't answer any questions about providing extra support based on him just having ADD. I really got the impression that we're going to have to (very politely) push for an IEP for his attention issues. Thanks again SO much. I'm a teacher and I completely understand how parents can be offensive when they really just want to push for what they feel is best for their child. Any other info would be appreciated!

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You are completely asking the right questions.

In fact, they are so deep and insightful, they go beyond what I can answer.

Many of the questions will depend on what the evaluation data shows... assuming that it is well-done. At this point, there are simply WAY too many "what-ifs" that require more data and evidence to answer.

Secondly, as a licensed and credentialed professional, there are ethical limits that I do not want to breach.

What I can tell you at this point is... keep asking deep questions and expect reasonable answers that are backed by data, evidence, and sound rationale but are provided in plain English.

Do not accept anything that sounds like... "that's just how we do it", "because I am the professional and that is my professional opinion", or "let's see if I throw enough psycho-babble jargon that it will make you more timid."

I have yet to find a parent question that cannot be answered in plain-English, common-sense terms.

Judging by the quality of your questions, you should be able to understand a good answer.

Let me know how it goes!

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

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Thank you again. It's good to know we can get an independent evaluation. We'll see how it goes with the school's assessments then go from there. I hope they see how his ADD is affecting his learning but we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. You're help is truly appreciated! Heidi

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