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My 8 year old son has ADHD. I've suspected that he also has a LD since kindergarten. When he didn't know his letters or letter sounds in the middle of 1st grade (and the school didn't seem to care), I pulled him out an home schooled him. He started 2nd grade at a charter school on dra level 5. He had an exceptionally gifted teacher and he blossomed. The school also did RTI which included Soar to Success 3x per week for 30 minutes. By the end of the year he was on a dra level 28! I was VERY impressed.
This year his teacher isn't as great. His progress has stalled, even with RTI he has made limited progress and he is really struggling in math (word problems, still counting on his fingers, difficulty telling time, struggling with counting money). He skips over small words when he reads, his comprehension isn't good and he still reverses letters/numbers. He is doing well on spelling tests because we study so much. He might spell the word correctly on the test but a few weeks later he might spell the same word wrong. Most assignments that come home are failing. His teacher has said that he is at risk for not advancing to the next grade and will likely do poorly on the state test.
If he is doing so poorly, why aren't they helping him more? I reached out to his teacher and the principal on multiple occasions and I feel like I just get patted on the head. They assure me that they are working with him and monitoring him closely. The teacher said she met with the RTI committee and they recommended a few more interventions. So far, I'm not seeing much progress. I feel RTI is something you should do when you a child is falling behind. It's not something you should do for 18 months when a child is clearly still struggling. I feel like he is being denied an evaluation. I suspect he is has dyslexia and I've said as much to the school for over a year. Even when he was making progress with reading, he was still struggling with spelling and math.
I mentioned my concerns at my son's annual check up and our doctor told me that I could ask the school to do an evaluation. I made the request in writing a little over a week ago and haven't heard anything. My son mentioned that he had been pulled for testing but I've never signed a consent.
Today the school asked for a note from the doctor with the ADHD diagnosis and I provided it. I asked the principal why I hadn't heard and she said that they were doing benchmark testing with him and that she had the dyslexia teacher do a screening with him. They were going to talk after spring break and let me know what the plan is.
I thought they were supposed to give me consents to sign within 5 days or a letter saying why they didn't want to do the evaluation.
Are they handling this correctly? Do I need to be pushier? Should I wait till the week after spring break? This is all so new to me and I feel like it's so darn hard to be a good advocate when I don't know what I should be doing.
The good news is that so far my son's self esteem doesn't seem to be effected. He has TONS of charisma. He is an amazing athlete too and I know that is source of pride for him. He plays well with other children and is a very well liked child. He brings so much joy to our life. Over the years his ADHD symptoms have greatly improved. Recently we spoke with his doc and she recommended 18mg of Concerta which definitely helps him stay more focused in class.
In my area, you must make these requests of the school district, not necessarily the actual school, though I don't think you did anything necessarily "wrong."
You may want to find out who runs the testing and set up a meeting. I know the break has passed, so hopefully you heard back to your satisfaction, but I wanted to put this out there just in case.
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