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Key points
- Share your concerns with your child's teachers, school guidance counselor, or school social worker.
- Request academic interventions. Alternative interventions occur before conversations about special educational testing.
- Monitor academic progress. Benchmarks and percentages will show your child's academic progress.
"How do I know if my child needs educational testing in school?"
It's a great question, and one that I am asked frequently by concerned parents. Here are 10 reasons to know when your child is ready for educational testing. Please know that you always have the right to request testing from your respective school.
1. Parent Advocacy: Have a hunch or feeling about an academic problem with your child? Good, now talk about it with your child's school teacher. You are your child's best advocate, and your instincts are probably correct. If you and the teacher suspect educational, behavioral, and/or other concerns with your child, including fine and gross motor concerns, you can alert the school counselor or school social worker about it as well. Collectively, if all parties agree that your child's difficulties are significantly interfering in their education, now is the time to request academic interventions to meet your child's educational needs. If interventions are put into place with low results, then a meeting with the special education team along with other school personnel may be warranted.
2. Individualized Education Plan (IEP): Has your child received educational testing in the past? If so, your child's school needs to know about it and receive a copy of that previous IEP. Some parents hide past educational testing from schools, and this can be detrimental to your child's education. Special and general education teachers are there to educate your child; however, by withholding the IEP they have no idea that a child in need of special education services exists in their classrooms. Another downfall of not sharing this information is if your child's IEP expires, you may need to wait several weeks for a special education team meeting, initial testing if needed, and the creation of another IEP. This is time that your child misses from receiving special education services when it is much easier to share the IEP with your child's teacher.
3. Academic Interventions: Receiving alternative interventions along with your child's general education are important! This should not be skipped and in some states and school districts, educational testing cannot occur without this step being completed. Academic interventions work to improve your child's academic standing. If academic progress is made, this can mean that your child does not need educational testing and/or special education services. Academic interventions should be put into place with your input. Interventions can be implemented school-wide but assessed for progress at an individual level. This is based on data received from school-wide testing. A few examples of school-based interventions include Response to Intervention (RTI) or a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) for both academics and behaviors. Schools do not need your consent to implement school-wide academic interventions; however, if it is for an extended period of time for your child, then they will consult with you. If the interventions have been implemented for a period of time as determined by the school and progress monitoring data shows minimal improvement, then it is time to request education testing. Please know that interventions can take a while, and they should show their rate of effectiveness.
4. Progress Monitoring: Schools will track your child's academic progress using programs such as AIMSWeb Plus or FastBridge Learning. These programs benchmark and progress monitor your child's academic progress in reading, math, writing, and behaviors based on direct, frequent, and continuous assessments. These are brief, but accurate measures that support Response To Intervention (RTI) and other tiered instruction, according to both websites.
Why is progress monitoring important? These instruments track whether the academic interventions are working. More importantly, you as parents need to request copies of the progress monitoring report, review it yourself, and ask questions to ensure your understanding of this data. Many parents are unaware that their children are participating in these supportive measures, and that it occurs school-wide. You can request a copy of that data to support your concerns or view your child's academic progress.
5. Home Interventions: What are you doing at home to assist with your child's academic work? I ask parents this question to hold them accountable for what happens academically at home. I started asking this question to parents after noticing over time that some parents were unable to provide an academic history of their child's progress at home. The answer was, " I don't know" numerous times. I know that being a parent is challenging; however, you must collect your own data about whether your academic efforts are working at home similar to the school. Reinforce at home what your child learns at school. Put in the time, effort, and care to help to improve your child's academic development. This also shows your child that you care about them and invest in their education. Here is a simple parenting journal that I created for parents to assist with tracking educational data.
6. Academic Grades and Attendance: Your child must attend school. It is an obvious statement, but I found that some children who were truant or missed a significant amount of school were referred for testing by parents and some school staff. Attention: Your children will have educational discrepancies due to their absenteeism. If they are not at school, then they are not learning and will fall behind their peers academically. Frequent absences will cause a special education team to reject your request for testing. The special education team cannot determine if the academic delay is due to special education needs or the fact that your child has not been attending school. The only way to determine if a child has significant academic concerns that may warrant testing and possibly an IEP is for that child to be in school. Being in the classroom and learning can improve academic grades, mental health, and emotional support for your child.
7. Hearing and Vision: Please take your child, yearly, for hearing and vision screenings. Teachers are exhausted and at times, draining themselves to determine the catalyst for a child's academic difficulties. More times than not, I have postponed educational testing due to a child not having current hearing and vision screenings which is a requirement in some states. Failed vision and hearing screenings can be handled by a qualified school nurse in your child's school. If those screenings fail, please take your child to the audiologist or optometrist to get a further assessment and to have those issues corrected. If your child cannot see or hear in school, then they are not learning properly. Remember, the educational testing goal is to determine why your child's educational needs are not being met in school. If it is a matter of wearing glasses for example, then that can be corrected to allow your child to see the whiteboard. However, without those corrections, no testing will be completed because accurate data must be collected. In other words, testing data must be valid and if not due to hearing or vision challenges, it will not be used for educational decisions.
8. Mental Health: A child's mental health is important to produce positive academic experiences. This means reaching developmental milestones, having healthy emotional and social skills, and learning how to cope in adverse situations. Many parents are stuck with wanting mental health support but are afraid that their child will be stigmatized, teased, or labeled as a result of receiving mental health services. If your child's mental health is significantly impacting their education, it is time to request assistance from your school counselors or school social workers. A teenager with anxiety, for example, might have difficulty with test-taking, switching classes, participating in sports, or socializing with peers. Utilize your resources, such as the mental health professionals in your child's school. They can help and can assist you with this matter. If your child qualifies for a mental health diagnosis, (or a medical diagnosis), then general education interventions can be implemented or put into a "504 Plan", based upon the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in correlation with the school. See what this means here.
Pending the diagnosis and whether or not the 504 Plan interventions are working, educational testing may also become an option. At that point, the special education team will become involved.
9. Teacher Observations: Classroom teachers are your best resource with decision-making for testing. Teachers are with your child all day and have direct knowledge, data, and observations in reference to your child's academic strengths and weaknesses. Talk to your child's teacher frequently, ask questions, and request data from them in areas that you may think need improvement. Teachers also provide input for academic interventions and are often tasked with serving those strategies to students. When your student lacks improvement, the teacher will share that information with you, and when it is time to seek educational testing. Teacher input is also obtained when making decisions about a child’s need for educational testing, which areas should be assessed, and they can offer help with writing IEP goals and services.
10. School Data: The goal of collecting school data is to use it to determine whether or not your child's academic deficits are due to a suspected disability. Each school district may have its own educational categories of disability based on its state's eligibility criterion. However, if your child's educational progress data continues to show deficit areas despite academic interventions at school and home, then educational testing should be requested by parents, teachers, or both. For more information pertaining to educational testing, contact your school counselor, social worker, or school psychologist.
