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Post by healthy11 on Oct 24, 2013 23:31:21 GMT -5
Thank you for posting the NAGC information, dhfl143. It's especially useful in that it lists many recent references at the bottom of the page, including some from this current year. Unfortunately, when RTI was first introduced, many of us with 2e children predicted our students would be "left behind," and it seems like that IS what's happening: "...concern is mounting that below-grade-level performance criteria are too low to reliably locate higher ability children (not just the gifted) with learning disabilities (Foley Nicpon et al, 2011; McCallum, et al., 2013; McKenzie, 2010). Conversely, giftedness may also remain hidden without comprehensive assessment due to the "masking" effects of concomitant exceptionalities (McKenzie, 2010), which can reduce achievement and increase the likelihood that the students will be denied access to gifted programs. In essence, gifted students with disabilities may appear “not impaired enough” for disability-related services if they perform at grade-level and “not gifted enough” to receive gifted education services..."
On a separate note, here's a new article I saw regarding ways a parent might identify a precocious younger child: health.yahoo.net/articles/parenting/5-signs-your-child-could-be-precocious
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Post by healthy11 on Apr 10, 2014 8:47:01 GMT -5
In the following article, Daniel B. Peters, PhD, points out what many of us feared would happen when No Child Left Behind [NCLB] amd Response to Intervention [RTI] were put into effect. They have made things even more difficult for students who are very bright but have learning differences, because they often "meet minimum expectations" and then are found ineligible for either remediation or gifted programs. www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-b-peters-phd/gifted-learning-disabled-_b_5052115.html
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Post by keepthefaith on Apr 13, 2014 14:11:29 GMT -5
Thanks Healthy & Thanks DHFL143 for your recent link. When we started this journey end of grade 2 (4 years ago), I stated then and I do here to make the point that twice exceptional kids and gifted and talented kids are the same as kids like mine (special ed/needs).
I was an exceptional student and it was a lonely place to be. I do belive 2e students deserve the same as special ed as the public knows special ed.
In our District, we have a PTA for High School; PTA Middle School; PTA Elementary & PTA for Gifted and Talented students. I remember saying "where is SEPTA" (after I learned what SEPTA meant!). We do not have SEPTA. I plan to start a Septa group for our District - a coffee clutch monthly meeting - so far it's 3 moms but all students needs a voice.
You are all great advocates for your children. It's heart-warming. In today's world, it is nice to see so many caring parents.
Moogg
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Post by healthy11 on Apr 17, 2014 8:50:07 GMT -5
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Post by dhfl143 on May 30, 2014 23:08:37 GMT -5
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Post by healthy11 on May 31, 2014 8:28:13 GMT -5
Dhfl143, thank you for posting her inspirational story ~ it's great to hear that her goal is to help others with LDs in the future: "While I’m not sure which area of chemistry I will focus on yet, I’m considering neuro-chemistry and drug design. The chemistry of the human brain is a relatively new field, and the neuro-chemistry mechanism for LDs hasn’t been widely researched. One of the best things I could do to improve life for people with LDs would be to discover these mechanisms and design treatments for the chemical causes of LD."
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Post by healthy11 on Jun 11, 2014 10:39:55 GMT -5
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Post by privateschoolparent on Jun 11, 2014 16:52:23 GMT -5
I posted this elsewhere, but think it may be especially relevant and important for twice exceptional (" 2E ") students , to help that get into and succeed at private independent day or boarding schools that have challenging programs they might benefit from if and when their weaknesses are appropriately accommodatede: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have found that there is a widespread illegal practice at private, independent, mainstream college prep nonsectarian boarding schools.
This illegal practice appears to be the result of ignorance of the private independent schools (including day schools AND boarding schools) regarding the relevant laws and regulations. THIS INCLUDES the boarding schools that have "learning skills" programs and purport to serve students who have LD and/or ADHD.
Apparently most of the schools genuinely believe that if they are "private" or "independent" and "mainstream" college prep, that they have complete discretion to provide (or NOT provide) only whichever disability accommodations the schools choose to, for students that may have ADHD and/or learning disabilities, at the school's own discretion. Some of them (and widespread misinformation) think that if they are a "private" school, and especially if they do not receive any federal funds, that is a further reason why they can "do or not do" what they want re: this issue. THIS IS INCORRECT AND VIOLATES THE FEDERAL "AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT" (" A D A " ) law and regulations.
This is the result of confusion and widespread misinformation that is even incorrectly outlined on some disability information websites on the internet.
ALL private or independent day schools as well as boarding schools in the U.S.A., in EVERY state, including but not limited to the very most competitive academic prep schools, have some students who have ADHD and/or learning disabilities that, if such students were to be fairly treated in accordance with the law, merit certain learning disability accommodations and/or modifications in class and/or for exams/classroom assessments. BUT most of them go without some of those accommodations and/or modifications due to ignorance of their boarding school (as well as their parents) regarding their legal rights for such accommodations. This leads to some affected students not going to the particular schools that they otherwise would choose (and that they are qualified for and would do well at, when appropriately accommodated as required by the ADA law). For other students, it causes them to attend the school of their choice without all of the accommodations and/or modifications that they need and are legally entitled to, which can be assumed to subjecting them to unfairly increased levels of stress and exhaustion (in increased effort to compensate) and likely often if not always lead to unfairly lowered grades/ performance (as a result of an uneven playing field due to the hindrances of their ADHD and/or learning disability going underaccommodated).
The actual legal fact is that the Americans with Disabilities Act (the "ADA"), the relevant federal law, applies to all independent PRIVATE schools (which are, under the ADA, considered places of "PUBLIC" accommodation even though they are independent PRIVATE schools), and regardless of whether they receive any federal funds.What this means, in legal fact and application, is that any of their students with ADHD and/or mild or moderate learning disabilities are legally entitled to WHATEVER learning disability "reasonable" accommodations that a professional evaluator has documented are needed in order to give the student "equal access" (including equal "learning" access) to the courses at the private school and a "level playing field" for exams/assessments in their courses at the private school (i.e., for just an example, if the student needs the written exam read aloud to the student or to have exam question instructions clarified; this is just an example; there are countless types of accommodations that could be required, depending on each individual student's documented needs). ANY accommodation is "reasonable" unless the private school can establish that to provide it would be a significant burden (and the threshold for the private school to establish that burden is very high).
This would apply to even the most competitive academic private schools, pursuant to the law. Many or seemingly MOST of them (including those with "learning skills" programs and who put on their websites that they serve some students with LD and/or ADHD) are, however, violating this, by following a practice of only providing certain accommodations to anyone, regardless of the student's need for other accommodations in order to truly have a "level playing field" or truly "equal access" to learning or demonstrating their mastery on assessments. All of those schools seem to not be aware of or understand the application of the ADA to them as private or independent day or boarding schools!
Typically, most of the private or independent mainstream schools, INCLUDING those that have learning skills programs and who list on their websites that they serve some students with LD and/or ADHD, provide ONLY certain accommodations that they (the school) chooses to provide to any student, and they typically decline/refuse to provide other accommodations that a particular student may need--and they tell the parent and/or the student that their school simply does not provide the other accommodations and the student either needs to do without those other accommodations or go to a different school. THIS IS EXTREMELY COMMON. AND IT IS A BLATANT VIOLATION OF THE Americans with Disabilities Act (" A D A " ).
The violations by such schools opens them to potential significant liabilities for violation of the ADA, as well as is perpetuating illegal and unfair disability discrimination against their students who have ADHD and/or mild or moderate learning disabilities.
You can verify the facts regarding student entitlement to reasonable accommodations, specifically individualized to the student's documented disability needs, required for all private schools including all boarding schools and regardless of whether they receive any federal funding, by checking with the federal government agency such as the federal Office of Civil Rights, or the offices of ADA.gov or any of the relevant state government agencies that enforce the ADA, if you communicate with a professional at any of such governmental agencies who investigates and prosecutes ADA complaints. (Please be careful that there are a lot of misinformed people and a lot of misinformation widespread, so that you need to make sure you communicate accurately with an appropriately experienced, high enough level representative of one fo the governmental agencies that specifically investigates and enforces ADA cases.)
My hope is that some brave souls who have kids who have been denied certain accommodations (or who have been told by their school that only certain accommodations are ever available to anyone, such that the parent/student didn't even bother asking for accommodations that are not on the school's "accommodations available at our school" list) , will share this information (or get someone else to share it) with their private day and/or private boarding schools. The administrators of the private schools usually belong to private school organizations, many of which have "trade" meetings over the summer, and I bet that the administrators of different schools socialize at least a little at those meetings. If the information gets out and some of those school administrators start talking about it, it will probably get around to most or all of the private schools that they better look into this because it's a legal risk for them to be violating the law, especially if parents start to get more knowledgeable and file complaints with the ADA-enforcing governmental agencies. (And if they research it they will find that a few private schools have already been prosecuted and gotten into big trouble, although of course those private schools try to keep that quiet.) My hope is that if word spreads, at least most of them will correct their ways, for everyone's benefit.
[ ADDITIONALLY, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (" A D A " ) to which all of the private and independent day and boarding schools in ever state are subject to complying pursuant to federal law and regulations, the private and independent schools canNOT deny admission to any applicant students (or disenroll any current students) due to the presence of a disability and/or the need for reasonable accommodations. In other words, they can't get around the requirements to accommodate by keeping the LD and/or ADHD students out of their schools. The governmental agencies enforcing the ADA have the power to audit the admission office applicant and decision files, etc. and will slam the school if it appears that applicants who have LD and/or ADHD and/or who have requested certain accommodations seem to be disproportionately denied admission (when compared with nondisabled applicants or applicants that have not requested certain accommodations).]
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Post by healthy11 on Jun 11, 2014 18:36:37 GMT -5
Privateschoolparent, I understand what your concerns are, but it's critical not to mix accommodations with modifications when talking about ADA or ADAA (the Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act). I agree that accommodations are covered, but modifications are not, unless something has changed recently that I'm not aware of.
I believe it's important for parents to know their rights, but objections often take a great deal of time to be resolved through governmental agencies and legal channels, and a child doesn't have the luxury of years to put their education on hold, while waiting for a court decision. A lot of the wording is vague, which further complicates the situation:
"ANY accommodation is "reasonable" unless the private school can establish that to provide it would be a significant burden (and the threshold for the private school to establish that burden is very high).
Can you cite any examples of case law that define what the threshold of "a significant burden" is?
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Post by privateschoolparent on Jun 11, 2014 19:32:01 GMT -5
Modifications I am referring to are modifications to presentation or response, such as for tests having them be given orally instead of written tests or enlarging print on them etc......in my recent experience, the schools consider that a "modification" in presentation or response. I did not mean modification to CURRICULUM. In the actual ADA regs, they also call those things "modifications"........and the language in the ADA regs actually uses words like the school (including private school) must "modify" its policies etc. to provide equal access (including access to learning, etc.). And when a complaint is filed with OCR (federal office of civil rights), it is free to do so, can be done online, and you receive acknowledgement of the complaint within a few days, and OCR commences investigation by speaking with you thereafter within 30 days and by contacting the school within 60 days of you filing the complaint, and resolution ordinarily is supposed to be reached in a few months. At minimum, when the school learns of the complaint within 60 days of filing, the school can be expected to find out that ADA does apply to private schools in this context, and there then is a great chance the school will do the right thing if the requested accomodation is in fact reasonable and the need for it backed by documentation. The problem is that the schools don't KNOW that the ADA applies to them when they are "private" or "independent" schools.
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Post by privateschoolparent on Jun 11, 2014 19:38:55 GMT -5
I have had the personal experience in the past of showing a private school the ADA laws/regs myself when they thought it didn't apply to them. After I highlighted the relevant parts, they agreed and provided the accommodations. I also have had the experience of filing an OCR complaint (re: a different school situation), so I know that it is pretty fast for OCR to contact the school and begin the process. In the context of this private school situation, information to the school that the law applies to them is the main thing normally needed; it is less likely that it will be a fight regarding burden. I will post a link to a couple of cases later or tomorrow which have different types of facts, different types of schools, but show that an "undue" burden is hard to prove; as I recall, one case has the school being deemed required to provide a person as an interpreter to the student (certainly expensive and inconvenient for the school) with that NOT being considered an undue burden..........but, again, I doubt that is an issue in the context of most private school parents' problems. The private schools often refuse very simple, very inexpensive accommodations "just because" it is their policy or practice not to provide that accommodation -- simply because they don't know they are subject to the ADA.
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Post by privateschoolparent on Jun 11, 2014 19:49:36 GMT -5
HERE IS A COPY AND PASTE OF PART OF A REPLY SENT TO ME BY AN ADA-RELATED AGENCY: " A private nonreligious school, at any level of schooling (preschool, elementary, high school, or higher; as well as a specialty trade school, etc.) who does NOT receive even 1 penny of federal money is nonetheless covered under Title III of the ADA as a place of public accommodation and as such must provide reasonable modifications to policies, practices and procedures. DOJ Highlights (a straight forward way of explaining obligations) www.ada.gov/t3hilght.htmTitle III Regulations www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_regulations.htmSample Cases" (I can provide other cases as you wish): www.ada.gov/carsonlg.htmwww.ada.gov/nobel_learning.htm
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Post by privateschoolparent on Jun 11, 2014 19:55:59 GMT -5
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Post by privateschoolparent on Jun 11, 2014 20:14:22 GMT -5
Here's a link to one more case settlement. All of these cases/issues would be equally applicable to any type of documented disability and disability accommodation needs, including learning disabilities and ADHD within the context of academic-related accommodations in any type of private day or boarding school. Here's the additional case link, which I think also shows that for the school to establish that the accommodation is too burdensome is pretty tough (and the school has the burden of proof) insofar as these cases show that pretty substantial (inconvenient and expensive) accommodations were NOT deemed as burdensome enough. It's difficult for me to imagine an academic-related accommodation that a private school could prove is too burdensome, under these difficult ADA standards. www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/July/07_crt_491.html
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Post by healthy11 on Jun 12, 2014 8:50:32 GMT -5
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Post by healthy11 on Jul 25, 2014 9:04:14 GMT -5
Dr. Dan Peters, a child and adolescent psychologist who serves on the board of SENG, NAGC, and other 2e groups is offering a new online video course on "Stealth Dyslexia: Flying Under the Radar" Dr. Peters explains thatbright children with learning disabilities are most often missed, and stealth dyslexia can be a primary culprit. Due to their advanced thinking and compensatory strategies, many bright students with dyslexia exhibit "average" performance, while still struggling to sound out words, read fluently, spell, and write. Without early intervention and accommodations to counter increasing reading and writing demands, compensation grows less adequate and academic performance, self-esteem, and emotional functioning deteriorate. Conversely, dyslexic individuals have a unique set of strengths which can be supported, developed, and harnessed for success in life. Viewers will learn how stealth dyslexia presents in bright children, how to accurately identify it, and what to do about it. via MomAssembly.com. Parents may sign up now and receive a 7-day free trial with access to all of Dr. Peters' content plus hundreds of classes from other experts: www.momassembly.com/courses/about/stealth-dyslexia-flying-under-the-radar
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Post by dhfl143 on Aug 6, 2014 22:12:34 GMT -5
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Post by dhfl143 on Oct 8, 2014 23:04:47 GMT -5
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Post by dhfl143 on Mar 25, 2015 21:13:35 GMT -5
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Post by healthy11 on Mar 25, 2015 22:17:09 GMT -5
dhfl, thank you for mentioning the above ~ I'd never seen actual statistics before, but it's amazing to read that, "Current US research suggests that 14% of children who are identified as being intellectually gifted may also have a learning disability. This is compared to about 4% of children in the general population. No-one has been able to explain this discrepancy."
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Post by dhfl143 on Feb 24, 2016 22:46:09 GMT -5
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Post by healthy11 on Feb 25, 2016 0:04:49 GMT -5
Again, thank you dhfl143, for posting this critically important information. As it says, "in transmitting OSEP Memo 15-08, I am requesting that you widely distribute Letter to Delisle to the LEAs in your State, and remind each LEA of its obligation to evaluate all children, regardless of cognitive skills, suspected of having one of the 13 disabilities outlined in 34 CFR §300.8" ~ Should you have any questions, please contact Rebecca Walawender at (202) 245-7399.
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Post by dhfl143 on Apr 5, 2016 3:30:13 GMT -5
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Post by healthy11 on Apr 5, 2016 16:38:49 GMT -5
It's about time...those of us with 2E kids anticipated that RTI would be a problem for our kids when it was first introduced, and it's just a shame it's taken so many years for the issue to be clarified: Melody Musgrove, Director of Special Education, released a letter to all State Special Education Directors across the U.S. to disseminate crucial information. Her letter states all children and families have the legal right to an evaluation.
...in determining whether a child has a disability...the IDEA requires the use of a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about the child, and prohibits the use of any single measure or assessment as the sole criterion for determining whether a child is a child with a disability and for determining an appropriate educational program for the child.”
Ms. Musgrove adds, ...”we continue to receive letters from those who with children with disabilities with high cognition...expressing concern that some local educational agencies (LEA) are hesitant to conduct initial evaluations to determine eligibility for special education and related services for children with high cognition...remind each LEA of its obligation to evaluate all children, regardless of cognitive skills, suspected of having one of the 13 disabilities...”
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Post by healthy11 on Feb 10, 2017 0:15:04 GMT -5
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Post by melvinhoward on Aug 23, 2017 7:45:31 GMT -5
The information is really helpful. Thank you!
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Post by healthy11 on Jan 7, 2019 20:23:07 GMT -5
I just received information about the following new resources: 2eNews.com and Variations2e magazine provide readers with high-level information and perspectives about twice-exceptional (2e) education and cognitive diversity. We cover a broad range of topics that are essential for all educators, parents, and paraprofessionals. They charge a $25-$35 annual subscription fee, depending on which publications you receive, but the content looks to be of good quality, from what I could see. www.2enews.com/subscribe/
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Post by healthy11 on Apr 28, 2019 22:45:05 GMT -5
medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-gifted-kids-successful-heart.html
The most successful people at age 50, who had been identified as gifted kids 45 years ago, followed their hearts, not just heads!
by Joan Brasher, Vanderbilt University: New findings from an ongoing 45-year Vanderbilt study reveal that patterns found in test scores and a psychological assessment measuring the personal values of nearly 700 intellectually gifted adolescents were highly predictive of the distinct fields of eminence they would occupy by age 50. The results, published in Psychological Science, indicate that parents should be just as aware of their child's unique values and passions as their intellectual gifts...
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Post by healthy11 on Jan 1, 2021 22:20:11 GMT -5
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Post by healthy11 on Oct 11, 2021 19:20:22 GMT -5
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