Does a child with ADHD and Auditory Processing Disroder qualify for a 504 or IEP OHI or SL?

Question

My daughter has an IEP for Speech. She has been diagnosed by a psychologist and doctor as having ADHD. She was also diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder by an audiologist. I have been told that she is no longer qualifying for her Speech IEP. Would my daughter qualify under Other Health Impairment or Specific Learning Disability? She is in second grade and is 1 year to 18 months behind in reading. The teacher has also marked her as at risk for retention. She also has problems with math. I don't trust the IEP team. Her triannual is lapsed by three weeks and I work with these people. I am a teacher at the school and have to do everything by the book. Please help me by giving me useful information to help me educate myself and help my daughter get the help she needs.

Answer 1

I am assuming that the triannual review is under way?  How did they determine that she no longer qualifies for speech...there would have had to be testing done??  Sometimes both parents and the speech pathologist can agree that services are no longer beneficial, but that doesn't sound like the case here...also even when an agreement is reached to terminate services, most will still do some testing so that parents cannot come back and say they weren't well informed of their child's current status.  Your child could potentially qualify for either a 504 or an IEP, but qualifying goes beyond just having the label, it must be shown that her educational abilities are impacted.  If the triannual review isn't already under way, that needs to happen, but if she has only ever qualified for speech, they are not going to evaluate her in other areas...request that she be given IQ and achievement tests to help determine if she would qualify SLD.

Answer 2

Well, either OHI or SLD *may* be appropriate, but the bottom line is: do her ADHD and/or CAPD result in an "educational need." That's up to the IEP team to determine (not any one individual, like the school psych), and nothing is automatic.

Also, how do you know she's 12-18 months behind in reading? Are you looking at the grade equivs. from an achievement test? If so, be aware that those are for rough "guess-timates" only; other than that, you can't use them as a meaningful metric (like you could, say, a standard score).

Good luck!

Answer 3

I know for a fact a child with ADHD is qualified for a 504 & an IEP because I had a 504 & IEP through out elementary school and all through my 4 years of high school. I may only be 18, but I know she is qualified for it. I know other children that have a 504 and an iep. But it will take a little time before she gets it. You have to set up meetings with the school (pricabale and teachers) and then talk to her doctors about her diagnosis and have her doctor talk to the school also.

Answer 4

My son has similiar issues but did not qualify because he is shy and has a high IQ.  Know your rights, it costs schools money so a lot of kids fall thru the cracks.  Go to web sites and learn about your rights.  Chadd is a good one.  Go to google and search of adhd and your rights.  You must be an advocate for your child, no one else will be.  

http://www.addsolutions.com/improve_beha...

Answer 5

I am a retired teacher and to qualify, our students had to be tested by the school psychologist and then qualified by the results of the test. I would certainly think with her Central Auditory Processing Disorder she would qualify, but I don't think they take the dr's diagnosis as a qualification unless the district tests her. that was my experience

Answer 6

Soem children with ADHD  and/or CAPD can be successful with a 504 plan.  Some need more support from an IEP.

If the student can be successful without the suppport of a special education teacher (in class support/resource room/pull out) than a 504 plan is appropriate-with accommodations within the regular classroom setting (such as no oral tests/being provided with written notes/extended time).

If thes interventions are not sufficient, than the child should receive an IEP with modifications provided by a special eductaion teacher.

I have seen the OHI category used for ADHD and the SLD category for CAPD.

Answer 7

Did the school do a full educational evaluation to determine she no longer needs speech IEP? They have to do this by law. If they don't, she still has speech IEP.

Is the speech the only thing the IEP is helping with? If so, this is illegal.

It doesn't matter what problems a child has, when they have an IEP it is suppose to help with ALL problems.

And it doesn't matter what category the child qualifies under to get IEP, such as SLD.

The IEP is still suppose to help with ALL problems.

You have to learn the special ed laws and the legal process that must be followed by parents and schools. It is called 'IDEA" individuals with disabilties education act'.

The best site to learn the laws and your rights is

www.wrightslaw.com

Here's the next steps you should take --

1. You need to make a list of ALL her problems, everything that she is behind in. Get all her school work together that PROVES the problems she has.

2. Make a list of everything teachers have said such as risk for retention. A child with an IEP plan should not be failing.

3. Make a list of the things you feel that the school should do to help her.

4. Go to your state dept of education and print out the 'state standards' for your childs grade. Go thru it and highlight the things she has NOT learned.

5. Get  all doctors notes, testing, etc from professionals that proves her problems.

6. Get all these things together and request an official IEP meeting for the reason of reviewing and revising  the IEP plan because it is not helping, she is behind in reading, having trouble in math, etc.

Give them all these things and tell them you want to revise the IEP plan to things that will help her. And YOU are an EQUAL member of the IEP team so you CAN suggest things for the school to do to help her.

If they refuse anything, write and request 'prior written notice' on everything they refuse. They have to have LEGAL reasons for their refusals and put these reasons in writing to you.

This is a VERY powerful parent safeguard and lots of people don't realize how powerful it is in getting what your child needs.

See, if they are making their decision to refuse what you ask for and they don't have LEGAL reasons, they will not give you this prior written notice when you ask for it.

So next, you will file a formal state complaint and the state will make them give it to you.

At this point the school should magically change their mind and agree with what you want because they will not let the state know they made their decisions to refuse what you asked for illegally.

If you need more help email me  [e-mail]

Answer 8

Qualifying for special education services isn't just a matter of a label or medical diagnosis.  For some school staff, the focus is on the degree of academic lag relative to what might be expected given your daughter's cognitive potential.  Others may look at it only in terms of whether she has met the goals set for her on the IEP and you can ask for consideration of whether her educational goals need to be updated to reflect her areas of difficulty in academics.  Still others use a formula that requires one and a half standard deviations delay in formal test scores, a criteria that can be very difficult in early school years simply because of the statistical setup of tests that may essentially have a basal at grade 1.0 or KG.0.  Certainly, you are in a particularly difficult position being a teacher in the building.  

Sometimes, quietly finding an ally in a Resource Room teacher or a special education supervisor who can explain to you whether the delays warrant special intervention or can be dealt with via other services in your school building.  They may also be able to help explain your position/concern to others.    

You can consider asking the outside psychologist  to speak to school staff, share findings, make certain that all are aware  of the classroom teacher's concerns about retention and clarify why school services are not seen as necessary.  Maybe the speech teacher is speaking only to that area of help and the instructional team needs to consider whether dropping speech therapy and substituting more academically oriented, reading and or math interventions are now needed.