Supplemental Comments to Prior post 9/1/21 (Comment ID 99888):
Exclusionary factors to IDEA eligibility of culture, linguistics, dialectical, and instructional should not apply to specific learning disabilities (SLDs) which are neurobiological at birth and impacts a students' ability to read, write, and do mathematics.
On page 30 of the Guidance for Evaluation and Eligibility, VDOE states: "Researchers (Ortiz and Ochoa, 2005) report that students with cultural and linguistic differences may score substantially lower (up to 35 points) than peers due to language and cultural differences." However, Oriz and Ochoa's 2005 article on the Assessment of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners does not account for the neurobiological markers present AT BIRTH in students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, who are eligible for SLD.
The IDEA exclusionary factors already create barriers and delays to early SLD identification and intervention which significantly disadvantages students and has disproportionate adverse consequences for Black, Latino, and EL students. VDOE should remove this barrier in its Guidance document, not perpetuate. This barrier provides too much opportunity for subjectivity and bias for neurobiological conditions that are present at birth, and for which scores of 35 standard points below the standard deviation is likely indicative of profound SLD, not cultural or linguistic differences, or poor instruction.
Recommendation: Please provide guidance for carving out an exceptions to the consideration of any exclusionary factors for SLD based on scoring anomalies.