WHEN THE SCHOOL SAYS NO
When the school says your child doesn't qualify
The school testing is complete, and the scores were described as average. Your child did not qualify for special education, but you still do not understand why school is so difficult. A child can have an attention, language, executive-functioning, or learning disorder even when school scores appear average.
Serving Long Island & Queens, NY
Dr. Courtney Duhning, Psy.D.Pediatric Neuropsychologist · Manhasset, NYWHAT THE DECISION ACTUALLY MEANS
Eligibility is a threshold, not a verdict
Special education eligibility is based on more than test scores. The school considers whether your child has an educational disability, whether it affects school performance, and whether your child requires specialized instruction.
A child can struggle significantly without meeting these requirements. Not qualifying does not mean that nothing is wrong. It means your child did not meet the school’s criteria for special education based on the information considered. Many times, bright students need a more comprehensive evaluation to get to the root cause of what is going on.
WHY THIS HAPPENS TO CAPABLE CHILDREN
The children who compensate best are the ones most likely to be turned down
Eligibility often depends on a gap. A gap between ability and achievement, or between a score and a cutoff. A child who compensates well closes that gap themselves, and the formula reads the closed gap as the absence of a problem.
They read slowly but accurately. They pass the quiz but spend two hours on the homework. They land in the average range by working considerably harder than their classmates to get there.
The compensation is the difficulty showing itself. It is also the reason the numbers look unremarkable.
WHAT A SCORE IN THE AVERAGE RANGE CAN HIDE
Average is a result, not an explanation
A single number tells you where a child landed. It does not tell you what it cost them to land there, or which part of the task was hard.
- •Reading that is accurate but effortful and slow, because fluency was never measured separately from accuracy
- •A strong vocabulary quietly covering for weak phonological processing
- •Comprehension that holds up across a short passage and falls apart across a chapter
- •Working memory that manages one instruction and loses the second and third
- •Handwriting that is legible for a sentence and deteriorates over a page
- •Attention that looks unremarkable in a quiet room with one adult, and does not survive a classroom of twenty-four
- •Math facts that are retrieved correctly today because they were rehearsed last night, and gone by Friday
- •A child who finishes the timed section by abandoning accuracy, or holds accuracy by never finishing
THE POINT OF ALL THIS
A child does not have to fail before they deserve an explanation.
Special education eligibility determines whether a child qualifies for an IEP. It does not determine whether the child’s difficulties are real, whether a clinical diagnosis is present, or whether other supports may be appropriate.
TWO DIFFERENT QUESTIONS
What was measured, and what was not
Determines educational needs and special education eligibility
- ✓Foundational academic skills
- ✓General cognitive abilities
- ✓Classroom performance
- ✓Parent and teacher reports
- ✓Whether the child meets special education criteria
- ✓Whether specialized instruction is required
Provides a broader diagnostic picture
- ✓Why your child is struggling
- ✓Whether an ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, or another diagnosis is present
- ✓How attention, memory, language, and executive functioning affect learning
- ✓Whether more than one difficulty is present and how the skills interact
- ✓Which interventions and programs are best for your child
- ✓Which accommodations address your child's specific needs
Schools determine educational eligibility and classification. Private neuropsychological evaluations can provide clinical diagnoses when supported by the findings. A diagnosis does not automatically guarantee an IEP, but it can clarify the child's needs and provide important information for the school team to consider.
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE
Three things you can do next
What to do when the evaluation does not explain your child's difficulties
Identify what remains unanswered
Review whether the evaluation explains your child's difficulties with reading, writing, math, attention, language, memory, or executive functioning. Identify which concerns were not fully evaluated or explained.
Request an Independent Educational Evaluation
If you disagree with the district's evaluation, you may request an Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense. The district must either fund the evaluation or request a hearing to defend its evaluation. Contact Dr. Duhning to learn what to put in writing to the district.
Arrange a private neuropsychological evaluation
Some families choose to not involve the school district and wish to seek an evaluation privately. A private evaluation can answer the remaining questions, determine whether a clinical diagnosis is present, and recommend specific interventions, programs, accommodations, and supports.
From parents
Families who kept asking
“Dr. Duhning's knowledge of the school system made a huge difference. We felt prepared and confident going into IEP meetings.”
Parent, Nassau County“We finally understood why our child was struggling and what to do next. This was more helpful than any school evaluation we've had.”
Parent, Long Island“We were able to get in quickly, and the entire process, from testing to feedback, was prompt and efficient. We didn't have to wait months for answers.”
Parent, QueensQUESTIONS PARENTS ASK AFTER THE MEETING
What families usually want to know
Does not qualifying mean nothing is wrong?
No. It means the scores did not meet the criteria for school services. Eligibility criteria are written to determine who receives publicly funded support, not to describe how a child learns. A child can have a genuine learning difficulty, a diagnosable condition, and a real need for intervention, and still fall outside those criteria.
Can my child have a learning disability and still not qualify for an IEP?
Yes, and this is common. Learning disabilities exist on a continuum, while eligibility is a yes or no decision made at a fixed cutoff. A child who sits just above the line has the same difficulty as a child just below it. Only one of them receives services.
The scores were average. Is that not good news?
It is genuinely reassuring in some respects. What an average score does not tell you is how much effort produced it, or whether one strong area is compensating for a weak one. Two children with identical scores can have very different experiences of a school day.
Can I ask the school to test again?
You can request a re-evaluation, though districts are not obliged to agree, and repeating the same evaluation tends to produce the same result. If the concern is that the wrong questions were asked rather than that they were asked badly, a different kind of evaluation is usually more useful than the same one again.
Will a private evaluation change the school's decision?
It might, and it often does, but no evaluation obliges a district to change its determination. What a thorough private report does is put specific, documented findings in front of the team, which is a far stronger position than arriving with a concern and no evidence. It is also useful entirely outside school, for tutoring, for home, and for your child's own understanding of themselves.
My child is bright. Could that be working against them here?
In terms of eligibility, sometimes yes. Strong reasoning and a good vocabulary allow a child to work around a weakness efficiently enough that the weakness does not show up in the scores. The child is still carrying it. It is simply harder to see in a number.
You are allowed to keep asking
If the answer you were given does not match the child you see every evening, that is worth investigating rather than dismissing. A consultation is free and it is usually enough to tell you whether a full evaluation is the right next step.