OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL-WIDE INTERNAL STRUCTURES FOR MONITORING STUDENT CONCERNS
When a teacher or administrator has academic or behavioral concerns about a student, the following steps will be taken:
• Individual concerns about a student will be conveyed by teachers to the Dean of that grade (HS), the House Advisor and, when necessary, the Director of Learning Support Services. Discussion about these concerns will ensue between the above and the Divisional Director, the preceptor or psychologist and the parents.
• When there are multiple concerns about a student, the House Advisor will inform the Dean of that grade (HS), the Divisional Director, the Director of Learning Support Services and the divisional psychologist via email or meeting following a thorough review of the student’s file. The House Advisor and the Divisional Director will initiate a review at one of the following:
First Program: The Guidance Committee
Middle School: The Guidance Committee
High School: Deans’ Meeting and subsequent case conferences initiated by the Divisional Director, Dean, psychologist, or Director of Learning Support Services
SCHOOLWIDE POLICY FOR TUTORING AND
EVALUATION RECOMMENDATIONS
TUTORING
In order to ensure your child receives the finest, most coordinated education, the school closely monitors private support services. Understanding that the need for such services varies from division to division, the internal support staff as well as our teachers are encouraged to work with tutors to help students become active, independent learners. It is imperative that private tutors work to empower their students in the achievement of these goals. Specifically, tutors may assist, strategize, guide and provide suggestions without directly participating in the assigned work. All work must be that of the student at all times. The school reserves the right to ask any student whose work from home is discrepant from work produced in school to redo the work at school. It is assumed that all tutors will be informed of these rules by the parents of the tutee.
Parents are instructed to inform House Advisors and the Director of Learning Support Services of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all tutors. Clandestine tutoring is not permitted. When necessary, the Dalton School offers names of tutors who are working well with the Dalton Plan, curriculum and teachers and who are aware of our expectations.
The following should be noted if testing or tutoring is indicated:
• A determination of whether tutoring should be recommended to the parents will be made by the administrative team and the advising teachers. Absent such a determination, no teacher or administrator should unilaterally recommend to parents that a child be evaluated or tutored.
• Dalton teachers may not tutor Dalton students and therefore will not be among the options provided.
· Names of several appropriate tutors will be offered by the Director of Learning Support Services or the Divisional Psychologist and parents will be asked to inform the chosen tutor that it is school policy for tutors to speak with the student’s teachers on a regular basis to share strategies and to coordinate programs. The Director of learning Support Services is happy to facilitate this.
EXTENDED TIME AND RELATED ACCOMMODATIONS
The school offers 50% extended time on tests plus use of a “clean” computer for written assessments for students in grades 7-12. In order to receive these accommodations, several steps must be taken. First an independent psychoeducational examination must be administered to the student. The Divisional Psychologist or the Director of Learning Support Services will offer names of licensed psychologists to evaluate the student. The report must be released to the school and evaluated by the team of Divisional Psychologists and the Director of Learning Support Services. In order to receive (the recommended) accommodations, the results of the testing must indicate the presence of a significant diagnosed learning disability which affects the student’s academic functioning in school. In certain cases, the presence of an attentional or emotional disorder may also impede the student’s ability to work to his or her academic potential, and those instances will also be reviewed.
The document must also be submitted at least one month before the midterm or final exams for which the student is requesting accommodations so that the committee has sufficient time to make a considered decision. The school must receive the evaluation at least ten weeks before ETS testing to allow for both Dalton’s and ETS’s timelines.
To be consistent with the following ETS guidelines, all evaluations must:
· Diagnose the specific disability.
· Be current (completed within three years).
· Provide complete educational, developmental, and relevant medical history.
· Describe the functional limitations resulting from the disability as well as a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV diagnosis.
· Describe the comprehensive testing or techniques used to arrive at the diagnosis of the disability (including evaluation dates and test results with subtest scores from measures of cognitive ability, current academic achievement and information processing).
· Specify the specific accommodations requested, and state why the student’s disability qualifies the student for such accommodations.
· Establish the professional credentials of the evaluator, including information about license or certification and area of specialization.
Upon receiving the evaluation, the Evaluation Review Committee (comprised of the Divisional Psychologists, the Director of Learning Support Services and the assistant Director of the High School for Curriculum) will conduct several other steps:
· It will review the evaluation, the student’s academic history and the need for recommended accommodations in the school, performance in current classes, and utilization of Dalton’s resources (including the lab and preceptorial).
· The Divisional Psychologist will meet with the student to assess the student’s particular needs.
· The committee will pass its recommendation on to the High School teachers.
· The Director of Learning Support Services will inform the parents in writing of the committee’s decision.
If parents wish to appeal the decision (only for tests administered by the College Boar) they may:
· Ask the school to submit the evaluation to ETS for further consideration. Please call the Director of Learning Support Services for help in this area.
· Visit the ETS web site, www.ets.org/disability for further information on testing accommodations.
