Trying to get help for my 2E aspie

Post Reply New Topic

I feel like I am beating my head against a brick wall. My daughter is a 17yo 2E (twice exceptional- she is gifted with learning disabilities) aspie who is a member of National Honour Society. I have been requesting testing since she was 7. I was consistently denied because she was on grade level. I pulled her out to homeschool after 5th grade when they told me "her potential doesn't matter, so long as she is on grade level."

She went back to public school her junior year. She was finally diagnosed this past summer thanks to vocational rehab. She has both asperger's and disabilities in math and writing (and I will assure you she is dyslexic). Now in her last year of school I am trying to get her services that she should have had long ago. The problem is that despite the diagnoses because she is on grade level they will not give her services because she shows "no need". Yes, she has learned to compensate, but she cannot understand information dense texts, such as math or science texts. Yet they do not consider this a problem warranting services. I am very concerned regarding her future.

Any suggestions?

Check out http://wrightslaw.com/ .

My Internet is super slow for some reason, right now--but there should be links on there with legal arguments stating that it is not just about grade level and that they are required to look at potential.

You can also contact your state's education department regarding any state guidelines that exist for 2E. I did this when I wanted my son tested for the gifted program b/c I was afraid the school district was going to pull something. I did not report the school district, I just inquired about his rights, proactively if you KWIM. I also contacted the district head of the gifted program, again, also proactively, to inquire as to their policy, to make sure it aligned with my son's rights, and so that I would have all my ducks in a row for when I requested the testing. They ended up putting him in gifted and did not try to pull his services after he tested in.

The other thing I would do is make sure you document any official testing they have that show she is under performing relative to her intelligence: IQ testing is often used for this. Include anything from her autism testing that they have done -- any private testing you have had done. etc. They know they have time on their side because she is a senior, and being 2e, she is going to graduate on time and not use additional services after this year - but if you show you have your ducks in a row and that you are not going to give up, sometimes the cave earlier instead if drawing it out as long as they can.

She must be a genius.....being a member of the National Honor Society, despite her disabilities.

I don't have dyslexia nor math disabilities (except for abstract math). Yet I didn't attain the above.

I hope you can get the "powers that be" to address those disabilities. Who knows, with their assistance, she can be employed at Cape Canaveral, rather be forced to be a mere tourist

She lives on the Space Coast, which is the east coast of Florida north of about Melbourne and south of about Daytona Beach.

The National Honor Society is American.

I suggest googling for how to request testing. If she's planning on continuing with school after HS, it will be much easier if she has an IEP before graduating. I never had one, but from what I've read online the testing must be requested in writing (not e-mail, but actual snail mail with a follow-up email). I recommend registered mail with return receipt. It will cost more, but you'll have the signature of the person who accepted the mail at the school as part of the paper trail. They have specific time limits on how long they can take to respond to that letter, test the student, and so on. The earlier you start pushing, the more likely something will be done. And you likely will have to push because most won't see the point in giving an IEP if there's only a few weeks left until graduation & goodbye.

I didn't need accommodations in HS or earlier, but there are a couple that would be helpful in college. Unfortunately, the universities and colleges around me will take an IEP easily as proof accommodations are needed, but won't accept anything short of a recent (less than three years) diagnosis w/o an IEP.