ASD testing by school?

Post Reply New Topic

My son has an official medical testing facility diagnosis of ASD. The school wants to put him in a social skills class to help him with that area but says he needs a diagnosis from them, not his official one. I'm worried they will try to say he doesn't need help because he is smart and makes limited eye contact. He does much better in the structured school environment and sometimes (depending on the person/tone/etc.) with strangers. Does anyone know if they do their own testing can they just ignore the diagnosis if they come up with something else? Do you know what the testing entails (we've been through two already!). Also, they mentioned ADHD in one instance and I know he isn't (his doctors even said as much) and don't want them trying to say that he is so they can medicate him or something. I was told only an official facility could dx ASD so why is the school saying they can? Thanks for any help.

Even though we have a school diagnosis and not a medical one that we have relied on all these years, as the school itself told us, ASD is a MEDICAL diagnosis and, in theory, schools are not qualified to definitively determine it. I know some schools are doing what you've said, requiring their own, but that seems ridiculous, really, given what our school told us. I don't see how they can make that requirement.

If I were you, I would telephone the diagnostician who diagnosed your son. Ask that person what your state laws are about who is authorized to diagnose ASDs for the sake of curriculum supports. I would also make a similar call to your state Board of Education and ask to speak with a staff attorney.

Every state's laws are different, and yours might provide that a diagnosis must be performed by an educational staffer, not a medical professional (though I doubt it). Cooperate with both your diagnostician and the Board of Education attorneys to achieve allowing your son's current medical diagnosis to be their accepted diagnosis. Point out the stress it would cause him to complete a new assessment and the expense to you or them to do so. Unless your state laws require them to do another assessment, they will likely agree that your current diagnosis is acceptable.

Good luck.

It could just be that the school sees an assessment as an opportunity to spend some one-on-one time observing him and figuring out how best to help him. Staff has to get paid, and for that they have to be doing something "official" like an assessment.

My daughter and I just went through the same thing you are right now. First off the assessment the school gives is just for there records it DOES NOT overwrite a professional diagnoses. The assessment the school does shows if she had any trouble academically or was in need of OT or speech therapy. They cared little for social skills or her inability to understand how to make and keep a friend to play with at recess. So my daughters is still autistic but doesn't require any support academically there for no extra help.
This is where the school system is lacking for our kids. My daughter at age 5 is reading, writing, and doing math at a 4th grade level (at least) but she can't carry on a conversation with a peer, or learn to make or keep a peer friend to play with at recess. My daughter wont learn from watching others interact and play like her peers will, its sad.

They do have to evaluate even if just a review of records prior to classifying a child through CSE. Are they reassessing for ASD or doing s psychoeducational eval? The psychoeducational eval of some sort is a requirement before the CSE can classify and provide services.

Are you in the US (if not, what country)? Does he already have an IEP in place? Assuming your answers are yes you are in the US and no he doesn't have an IEP, then the school does have to do evaluation "in all areas of suspected need". So at a minimum this might be an academic test, a speech eval, an OT eval, and a school psychologist observing him in class. Our district actually has a neuropsychologist on staff who is qualified to give the ADOS, but I think that is unusual. For my son, she did a full neuropsych evaluation, but skipped the ADOS since it had already been done and they weren't going to dispute it.

The whole process should begin with a meeting where they decide what to test and who will do it. You can ask for the names of the tests they plan to do, and refuse anything you don't want tested. (Although refusing one of their tests makes it more likely they will claim he doesn't have any need in that area.)

The school has to "take into consideration" the reports from any external evaluations you've had done, but are not bound by them. If you can get one of the evaluators to come to the IEP meeting that will likely carry a lot of weight. In any case, if the school denies eligibility for an IEP or denies services he needs, there is an appeals process, and the external evaluations will carry a lot of weight there.

In the US I think the procedure is you have to ask that the CSE evaluate for suspected needs. Once you sign and submit your request they have a timeline to get it done by. They don't need to repeat tests and it really is a requirement for services that they evaluate. They can skip things and use the outside evaluations but they usually do some kind of in house assessment. I don't think they are necessarily operating in anything but good faith, are you getting the impression they do or don't want to provide services?

You also need to sign a consent for their assessment before they start.

There is a website associated with Peter Wright which is extremely helpful, www.wrightslaw.com

And I found the descriptions there of trying to work with the school extremely helpful. Because you don't just need to get services on paper, you are trusting your child to these people. You need them to really care if at all possible.

Zette's suggestion about talking to an advocate is a really good idea. Even if they don't accompany you they can help advise you about the process. I talked to a lot of people including an advocate and she was more helpful than lawyers for me.