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HOME EDUCATING CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES
Additional Testing Requirements

     Over the next few columns I want to address some of the additional challenges of home educating children who may have learning difficulties as it relates to the law. These "special needs" children are often categorized as a student with dyslexia, attention deficit, developmental delays or even physical disabilities that make traditional teaching methods ineffective. If the education system makes parents feel inadequate to teach their "normal" children, you can imagine how inadequate parents of children with special needs can be made to feel. The challenges faced by these parents are great, but recent research is showing some encouraging news.

     Courageous studies by educational professors like Stephen F. Duvall Ph.D. of Fort Hays University in Kansas and others have shown that parents are able to produce exceptional results with learning disabled and ADHD children. Other studies are showing that even the most severely disabled children are thriving in the home education environment. This should come as no surprise. Research in the special education field has long shown that the best results occur with well motivated one-on-one instruction that can quickly adapt to the particular learning styles of the child. Sounds a lot like home education, doesn't it?

     Though home education has proven to be a successful option for children with learning challenges, this fact does not diminish the reality that this is a very daunting task for parents. My recommendation would be to learn as much as you can about a particular disability and don't be afraid to seek good professional advice. Actually the law encourages this under the testing provisions. If a student has fallen below the 30th percentile or one grade level below children of the same age on standardized tests, parents are obligated to "obtain additional evaluation of the child's abilities and performance for the purpose of determining whether the child has learning problems." [Minnesota Statutes 120A.22 subd. 11(c).] Let's look at a couple of questions that may arise from this requirement:

     Does the "learning problems" evaluation have to be done by the school district? No. The requirement simply states that parent must obtain additional evaluation and does not require this to be done by the school district. Nonetheless, you should be aware that you may obtain the evaluation through the district at the district's expense under the federal special education laws. You may attempt to work with the district to fashion the style of the assessment, but this initial assessment is within the control of the district. Therefore, the parent would not be able to dictate who should do the assessments and, for that matter, what would be assessed. If you do not like the way the district is handling the assessment, then the only practical option is to refuse consent and seek an assessment on your own. I will talk in more detail about these evaluations and special education services in a future column.

     Do the assessment results have to be shared with the school district? No. If you do the assessment privately, the assessment results are for your use in the education of your children within your school. Your only obligation is to determine whether the child has a "learning problem".

     If my child has an IEP (public school Individual Education Plan), do I have to assess my child if they're not performing above the 30th percentile when we give them our first standardized test? This is a tougher question to answer. We are seeing an increase in the number of children being home educated who are what I call special education refugees. Despite all the well laid intentions of the education establishment, some children are still failing despite special education services. After years of failed progress, some dedicated parents are pulling their children out of school and finding significant success through home education. With many of these children, they will already have clearly identified learning problems and the parents will be well aware that they are performing below the 30th percentile or one grade level below children of the same age. They will have volumes of tests from the public schools proving that fact. If the parents are satisfied with the identification of the child's "learning problems," I would argue that a separate assessment by the parents is not required. The purpose of this statute is to identify a child's learning problems and that has already been done. If the parents are not satisfied with the identification, additional assessment is simply just good common sense, but probably not a legal requirement that would give rise to a violation of the truancy law. It would be difficult for a superintendent to argue that parents needed to do more assessments because the school district’s assessments were faulty.

     Does the assessment need to be done every year? No. The statute does not address this question adequately. Nonetheless, because the statute defines the purpose as identifi- cation of the learning problems, I would argue that once the learning problems are identified satisfactorily there is no need for continued "learning problems" assessments. If your child is not making the kind of progress you anticipated than a new assessment may be warranted.

     What professional background is required for the person giving the assessment? The statute does not identify what professional qualifications are required of the evaluator. If your child is planning to go to college and will need accommodations, they will typically need to have documentation from a professional that has a Ph.D. or M.D. behind their name. The assessment needs to identify the specific disability and the specific accommodations necessary to allow the student to participate. If you're not at the college preparatory level yet, it is simply unclear what qualifications the evaluator needs to have.

     Therefore, if you're going to make assessments privately, you may want to seek out quality over qualifications. This is where we have a question for our MACHE members. It is our desire to put together a list of useful resources and evaluators in the special education area. We would appreciate it if you could please pass on your experiences with professionals in the special education area. Please e-mail what specific disability they were addressing, whether they were home education friendly, and whether they have a good concept of developing an education plan for parents to follow. All your information will be kept confidential, but your input will be helpful for other parents in the future facing the same struggles as you.

     Send your comments to the MACHE e-mail at info@mache.org specifying "special education resources" in the subject line of your e-mail. Your willingness to take a minute to pass on your experience may save future home educating families hours of frustration. Our hope is to have a good resource list available for the next publication of MACHE handbook in August. In the next column, I will focus a little deeper into the assessment obligations and the federal special education law.

     Finally, if you are a family with a special-needs child and you want a great resource for support, MACHE suggests contacting NATHHAN (NATional CHallenged Homeschoolers Associated Network). Their contact information is NATHHAN, P.O. Box 39, Porthill, ID 83853. Their website is www.NATHHAN.com.

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