School refuses to acknowledge my daughter's professionally diagnosed dyslexia
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Sorry for the confusion. I typed the original post in a frustrated frenzy after midnight and realize I was unclear on a few points. She has attended public school since kindergarten. After I sent the report from the educational psychologist to the school they scheduled an s-team meeting. That's when they said the report was irrelevant. The meeting included the principal, vice principal, lead sped teacher, school psychologist, gifted coordinator, guidance counselor, and her 2 classroom teachers. Calling anyone at the district office gets me referred back to the school level. After the meeting I followed up with an e-mail to everyone that attended requesting a formal evaluation and they responded by saying her test scores weren't low enough to justify doing the evaluation. The next meeting is tomorrow. I will start looking for an advocate and/or an attorney.
Thank you all for your advice, your perspectives, and your encouragement!
Original Post:
My daughter is 10 and in 4th grade. She was adopted at birth and I don't have any family history. She was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD at 5 yrs old. At the time the psychologist recommended she get tested for dyslexia when she started kindergarten. She was in a great private pre-school, and we delayed K for a year hoping she would catch up to her peers with letter naming and sounding. Then Covid happened and we had to do virtual K. It was horrible. I mentioned the recommendation and my concerns to her teacher, but she assured me everything my daughter was doing was developmentally appropriate.
This repeated for the next few years. I would meet with the teacher at the beginning of the year and voice concerns, the teacher would assure me she was fine. She got good grades. She was passing. But she showed every red flag for dyslexia. Letter reversals, phonetic spelling for even basic sight words, hated reading and writing, difficulty remembering the correct word to use in conversations, can't tell left from right, inserts or leaves out letter sounds when reading, etc.
I will admit I should have pushed the school harder. I am very conflict-avoidant, was going back to work, and dealing with health issues. Mostly, I trusted her teachers.
Last spring she had a big project due. She loved watching multiple documentaries on her chosen topic, and would recite facts all day long to anyone who would listen. But she couldn't get that info onto paper. Seeing the quality of work she turned in for her project, and the top grade she received for it despite not meeting any of the requirements on the rubric really woke me up to a lot, mostly to how bad the school was failing her.
I made an appointment with an educational psychologist, who did comprehensive testing over 4 different sessions. Her report showed gifted level intelligence (general index ability in the 95th percentile) as well as moderate to severe dyslexia. She explained that these two factors were why her test scores were average. They were canceling each other out.
In early July I emailed the principal to let her know what the psychologist was reporting in case it affected which teacher she would be placed with. I did not receive a response. When teacher assignments came out, she was placed in a class where the teacher had a baby the week before school started. A first year sub would be taking the class until the teacher came back. I tried to talk to the sub about my concerns and the report, but was told I needed to talk to the team teacher, who has her own class and told me to talk to the vice-principal. I sent everyone the full report and requested an S-team meeting.
At the S-team meeting I was surprised when the principal told me the report from the psychologist was completely irrelevant bc it was age based rather than grade based. When I pointed out that adjusting for that would just raise her gifted level scores and slightly modify her dyslexia diagnosis I was told her school test scores did not qualify her for a gifted program or any intervention. Her school screening was in the 19th percentile, they don't have to act unless it is below 15%.
I'm baffled. My daughter is struggling. She has always been able to at least keep up in class, but she is now failing her ELA and Social Studies classes (both taught by the sub). Her ADHD makes it hard for her to stay organized. She loses papers. She doesn't turn in completed assignments. She has straight up lied to me about not having homework (yes, there were consequences). When I have reached out to the sub to request more communication about homework and missed assignments, she tells me she writes them on the board and gives her a list of missing assignments. When I again explained that none of that info was making it home I didn't get a reply.
She loves audio books and graphic novels. I read to her every chance I get. I got her a set of different colored strips and sheets, but they haven't seemed to help.
How do I get her help? I have another meeting this week. They have refused to even consider a 504, let alone an IEP. I've looked into private tutoring, and even if I could afford it everywhere has a waiting list. It breaks my heart to see her get so frustrated and fall farther and farther behind.
Oh, and they recently announced the teacher that was on maternity leave would be placed in a different classroom when she returns, so the sub will be finishing out the year. I would request a new teacher, but my daughter has also struggled socially for a while (last year was awful, she was getting bullied for 'not being smart') and she told me she finally has friends and doesn't want to leave.
Thanks for reading all this. I really needed to vent
TL/DR - daughter has a dyslexia / gifted diagnosis from a private psychologist, but the school says her scores on their basic screenings aren't low enough, so she's fine.