[blindkid] Gifted testing

[Gina Ouellette]

Hi Laurie,

I am a school psychologist at a state school for the blind and not a parent of a blind child, so this is just my own two cents. I have to agree with everyone else... In my humble opinion the school needs to know from day one that you want your daughter to be treated like everyone else. I think that if you allow your daughter to be exempted based on her vision impairment alone it will send the message to the school that you're willing to bend when something is "too hard" to adapt. 

The fact is that the teachers know the students well by this point in the school year, and they probably have a good sense of which kids may be "gifted." Imagine the outrage if they got to pick and choose which kids got to take the test and which didn't. That would not be fair, and neither is disallowing your daughter to take it based on pre-conceived notions or the "hassle" of adapting the test. 

You can also talk with the school psychologist at the school about what he or she could do to help assess your daughter in a similar way to the way she would be assessed with the gifted test. He or she may also be able to help the TVI, principal, and/or head of the gifted program to figure out how to best adapt the test.

The key is to do some more research and go in with a well-versed argument about why it is inappropriate to exempt her. You should also talk about the legality of it. As you know, your daughter is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (even more so than IDEA) and must have equal access. That is really the silver bullet--it is completely illegal for them to not accommodate her or give her access to something that her sighted peers have access to.

Good luck. It's a sticky situation, but as someone else pointed out, you will be defending your daughter's right to access for many years to come.

Best,
Gina
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-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of L
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 9:52 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List (forparentsofblindchildren)
Subject: [blindkid] Gifted testing

Hi all,
So my 5 year old is in a regular kindergarten class.  The SCOPE program (gifted) has been coming into the classroom and working with the students and hannah's VI teacher and aide have adapted all materials for her.  Well, now they will be testing ALL kindergarten students for the program.  The test is not allowed to be altered in any way and they have no version for blind students/low vision.  I was told it is a very visual test.  The principal has stated that Hannah is not to take this test at all and they want me to sign an addendum to exempt her from this test.  This is not necessarily an issue I really want to fight right now, because I don't think Hannah will qualify at this time for gifted services.  BUT I feel that it is completely unfair that they just want to exempt her from the test when all the other students are taking it.  I also don't want to say okay and exempt maybe this year and next year while she is still learning all her  braille, but what if in the future I feel like she should take it and they say "well you always exempted her before..."  Any thoughts?  Thank you!  Laurie Wages (Hannah's mom) _______________________________________________
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