My last Blog Post focused on Eligibility for Special Education. This post will outline the three different ways to find a child eligible for Special Education under Specific Learning Disability (SLD). Specific Learning Disability is the largest category for eligibility in California, with SLD accounting for about 50% of eligibility for Special Education. This information was taken from California Dyslexia Guidelines.
California law describes three ways for determining whether a student has a specific learning disability. Those three ways are:
1. Severe Discrepancy
The student has a severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement in oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, or mathematical reasoning. The decision as to whether or not a severe discrepancy exists shall take into account all relevant material which is available on the pupil (Title 5, California Code of Regulations [CCR] 3030[b][10][B]).
2. Response to Intervention (RTI)
The student does not achieve adequately for his age or to meet state-approved grade level standards in one or more specified areas when provided with learning experiences and instruction appropriate for the student’s age or state-approved grade-level standards, even when educators use processes based on the student’s response to scientific, research-based intervention (5 CCR 3030[b][10][C][1] and [2][i]).
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3. Pattern of Strengths or Weakness
The student does not achieve adequately for his age or to meet state-approved grade-level standards in one or more specified areas when provided with learning experiences and instruction appropriate for the student’s age or state-approved grade-level standards, and the student exhibits a pattern of strengths or weaknesses in performance, achievement, or both, relative to age, state-approved grade-level standards, or intellectual development, that is determined by the group to be relevant to
the identification of a specific learning disability, using appropriate assessments (5 CCR 3030[b][10][C][1] and [2][ii]).
Please contact me should you want to discuss SLD further.
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