(ii) Are provided and administered in the child’s native language or other mode of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to so provide or administer;
34 Code of Federal Regulations § 300.304 Evaluation procedures.
One place to start is by considering the input of the student, in regards to what they recognize they can do academically, developmentally and functionally. Linked below is a free student interview resource found on the Strength Based Collective website. Perhaps this is something you may want to include in a future evaluation.
Strength-Based Interview Protocol
We also should include language in our impact statements that "flips the script" for the reader. For example instead of saying...
Johnny's ADHD impacts his ability to stay motivated, often leading to incomplete assignments and failing grades.
Use this TOOL to STATE what he does do using his STRENGTHS to overcome this difficulty....
Johnny has a diagnosis of ADHD. When Johnny was provided opportunities to engage with assignments through peer discussion, a strategy he reported helped him to stay focused and motivated his work completion rate moved from 20% to 60% without reminders in a 9 week period.
Virtual Lunch and Learn Series
The Virtual Lunch and Learn sessions will be offered from 11:30-1:30 and will cover a variety of topics critical to your success as an evaluator and will include interactive activities and group discussions. Attendees may opt to participate during the live session or asynchronously during the week following the live session.
10/9/2024- Session ID:2662492
Overview of the Research and Updated Technology Behind the Cultural and Linguistic Matrix with Dr. Larry Pristo
12/11/2024- Session ID:2662498
From Review to Action: Incorporating Existing Evaluation Data in Initial Assessments
2/4/2025-Session ID: 2662555
CBMs: Utilizing these assessments in the Full and Individual Evaluation with Aimee Seaberry, Region 11
5/14/2025- Session ID: 2662557
Executive Functioning and Impacts on Producing and Learning
By understanding how the brain works you can focus on treating the child not the disability. This FREE TEA learns course will help you to do just that!
Autism: Looking Beyond the Label Part 1 - Understanding the Brain
You’ve got to look beyond the label and find the student inside to see their strengths, what they bring to the world, and how we can support them to build their strengths and other skills. This webinar focuses on the functions of the brain and how understanding what is happening in the brain can provide educators with the information needed to support students in an effective and efficient manner. We don’t treat the label, we treat the child.
ON Demand TEA Course: Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) Committee Manager Training
Click HERE to register for this course.
This professional development session is a self-paced, online course that is intended to provide participants with best practices to ARD committee managers for local education agencies (LEAs) that choose to use this model. This course is intended to provide information, guidance, and best practice for successfully achieving the expectations, roles, and responsibilities of an ARD committee manager, including scheduling ARD committee meetings, preparing and finalizing required ARD committee paperwork, facilitating the ARD committee meeting, and supporting families and school personnel with the ARD committee processes. Participants who complete the course will receive 12 hours of professional learning credits.
Standards-Based Individualized Education Program (IEP) Process Training
On-Demand Standards-Based Individualized Education Program (IEP) Process Training Course
Virtual Lunch and Learn Series for ARD Managers
The Virtual Lunch and Learn sessions will be offered from 11:30-1:30 and will cover a variety of topics critical to your success as an ARD Manager and will include interactive activities and group discussions. Attendees may opt to participate during the live session or asynchronously during the week following the live session.
11/13/2024- Session ID: 2662496 Navigating the LRE Process
1/22/2025- Session ID: 2662551 Navigating STAAR and STAAR ALT
4/9/2025- Session ID: 2662556 Navigating Compensatory Service Decisions
This year's series will focus on key elements required to navigate the ARD Process by building your knowledge base, expanding your tool box and perfecting your facilitation and communication skills.
The Dyslexia and Related Disorders: Information for Parents was designed to for districts/charter to meet the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) required updates to rule 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) §74.28(f), that each school district and open-enrollment charter school provide certain information about dyslexia and related disorders to parents of students enrolled in the district or school.
All updated Dyslexia information can be found at the TEA Dyslexia and Related Disorders website.
Volume 2 of the Back to School Updates has recently been posted and includes changes resulting from commissioner rule amendments to the Texas Administrative Code (TAC), effective August 22, 2024. Topics include:
- Child Find outreach activities for residential facilities
- Instructional arrangements and settings
- General program requirements and local district procedures
- Interventions and Sanctions
- Referral for the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) and Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) services
- Transportation of students placed in the TSBVI or TSD
- Contracting for nonpublic residential placements for the provision of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE)
- Contracting for nonpublic or non-district operated day placements for the provision of FAPE
Please note that the Back to School Update volume 1 was posted in the August edition of the TEA Special Education Newsletter and contained the highlights of several Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education rule changes.
Did it matter that they never called him “dyslexic”?
Today we wrap up the Tennessee case involving the smartie who racked up a 3.4 GPA despite not being able to read. One of the issues in the case was the application of a state law that they called the Say Dyslexia Act. It required screening, tiered interventions, notice to the parents, and progress monitoring. Sound familiar?
This is a case that provides much grist for the mill about how we serve students with dyslexia. How important is it to “say dyslexia” as the state law in Tennessee requires? Did the district goof by never specifically identifying “dyslexia” as this student’s problem?
No. That wasn’t the problem. The court’s ruling against the district was not because the word “dyslexia” did not show up in the IEP. However, it was because dyslexia-related services were not provided. The legal problem was not the label. It was the content of the IEP. Key Quotes:
The court, in other words, is not formalistically relying on whether W.A.s IEPs expressly invoked “dyslexia” in describing the services provided.
The IEP should have focused on “foundational reading skills.” Instead, the IEPs provided “a system of accommodations so sweeping that it makes the severity of his disability hard to notice.” Those high grades (3.4 GPA) “reflected W.A.’s work ethic and capacity for information retention.” But they “do not establish that he received a FAPE with regard to the specific area of reading and writing skills.”
Indeed, all of the available evidence suggests that, for nearly the entirety of W.A.’s time at CMCSS, he was being treated like a student whose ill-defined learning disability compromised his fluency and expression—not as a student who lacked basic reading skills due to dyslexia.
Foundational reading skills are….foundational. This student developed some “workarounds” that disguised his inability to read. It’s up to educators to spot a situation like that and get to work on building a strong foundation. In the Tennessee case the court ordered “888 hours of compensatory education of dyslexia-specific tutoring from a qualified provider trained to provide such tutoring through the Wilson Reading and Language System.” That kind of instruction should have been provided all along.
It’s W.A. v. Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, decided by the federal court for the Middle District of Tennessee on May 24, 2024. It’s located at 124 LRP 16411.
Got a question or comment for the Dawg? Let me hear from you at jwalsh@wabsa.com.
Amy Smith, Evaluation Consultant
Email: amy.smith@region10.org
Website: https://www.region10.org/programs/evaluation-special-education/overview/
Location: Region 10 Education Service Center, East Spring Valley Road, Richardson, TX, USA
Phone: 972-348-1784