To ensure the provision of reasonable and appropriate services
and accommodations, students requesting these services must provide
current documentation of their disability. This documentation must
identify a significant discrepancy between achievement and ability
or an intra-cognitive discrepancy not attributable to other
disabling conditions or to environmental deprivation. In addition,
the assessment should measure the student's specific strengths and
weaknesses and report how the student's disability has interfered
with educational achievement. Appropriate services and/or
accommodations will be determined from the specific information
provided.
The documentation should validate the need for services based on
the student's current level of functioning. A comprehensive
assessment battery and the resulting diagnostic report should
include a diagnostic interview, assessment of aptitude, academic
achievement, information processing, and a diagnosis.
-
Testing must be comprehensive. More than one
assessment device should be administered for the purpose of
diagnosis. Testing must address, at a minimum, the following three
domains:
-
APTITUDE: Acceptable instruments are the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III, or the WAIS-R is acceptable) and
the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III ( WISC -III). In
either case, subtest scores should be included.
ACHIEVEMENT: Current levels of functioning in reading,
mathematics and written language are required. Acceptable
instruments include the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test
(WAIT), Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Revised: Tests
of Achievement ( WJ-R ), Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults (
SATA ), the Stanford Test of Academic Skills (TASK); or specific
achievement tests such as the Test of Written Language-2 ( TOWL
-2), Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised, or the Stanford
Diagnostic Mathematics Test. NOTE: The Wide Range Achievement
Test-Revised ( WRAT) is NOT a comprehensive measure of achievement
and therefore is not suitable.
INFORMATION PROCESSING: Specific areas of information processing
(e.g. short and long term memory; sequential memory; auditory and
visual perception/process; processing speed) must be assessed. Use
of subtests from the WAIS -III, WISC -III, or the Woodcock-Johnson
Tests of Cognitive Ability is acceptable.
-
Documentation of the need for accommodations must be
current. In most cases, this means within the past
three to five years. However, exceptions are sometimes necessary
depending upon the individual case. The evaluation must provide a
clear and specific statement that a disability does or does not
exist. Individual "learning styles" and "learning differences" do
not by themselves constitute a learning disability. In addition,
the assessment report should include test scores
and be in written form.
-
The evaluation should also include a comprehensive diagnostic
summary. The summary should indicate how the student's cognitive
patterns of processing reflect the presence of a disability which
substantially limits learning or other major life activities.
Suggested recommendations for accommodations can be helpful.
These conditions are necessary because assessment constitutes
the basis for determining reasonable services and accommodations.
At times, the University also examines diagnostic information when
determining the appropriateness of academic adjustments for a given
student. Both the student and the University are well served by
assessment that clearly substantiates the appropriateness of
various responses to a student's needs or requests.
- Finally, professionals conducting assessment and rendering
diagnoses of specific learning disabilities must be qualified to do
so. Experience in working with an adult population is essential.
Diagnostic reports must include the names, titles, and
license numbers of the evaluators as well as the
date(s) of testing.