Learning disability documentation criteria

For accepting outside evaluation:

(Academic Affairs Handbook, Section 2.22.03)
The Board of Regents endorsed criteria for the evaluation of learning disabilities in September, 1991. All System institutions should be reviewing outside evaluations for students with learning disabilities based on these criteria. These criteria were established in an effort to assure that all institutions of the University System employ the same definition and evaluation model. Following is a simplified and updated version of the criteria for use by System institutions and professionals conducting private evaluations who request the criteria. In addition, clinicians might also review the Association of Higher Education Administrators of Disabilities (AHEAD) Guidelines for Documentation of a Learning Disability (www.ahead.org/ldguide.htm) or the Guidelines and Questionnaire for Test Accommodations for Examinees with Disabilities prepared by the United States Medical Licensing Examination Board (www.nbme.org), as they provide similar but more detailed guidance regarding the criteria used for evaluating outside evaluations for these organizations. The Regents policies are generally consistent with these other nationally recognized general guidelines, although specific criteria within the Regents policy may differ.

Secondary education eligibility reports, individualized educational plans and provision of special education services in and of themselves are not sufficient documentation for college-level accommodations, although this information should be included with reports from any comprehensive evaluation. If no prior services or accommodations have been provided, this needs to be carefully explained as learning disabilities and related disorders are not typically newly identified in adulthood.


GEORGIA BOARD OF REGENTS CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTING OUTSIDE EVALUATIONS DOCUMENTING LEARNING DISABILITIES

1. Documentation must be within 3 years of the student's application for assistance. (The exception to this guideline is if the evaluation was completed after the student was 18 years of age and the evaluation utilized appropriate adult standardized tests and is still considered by an RCLD to adequately represent an individual¹s current functioning.) Documentation must be comprehensive, including history, diagnostic interviews, test results (including standardized test scores when available), differential diagnosis, details regarding a student's functional limitations, and recommendations for accommodations which are appropriate in college, graduate or professional educational settings.
2. A specific learning disability must be stated within the documentation submitted. The criteria a student must exhibit are one or more, but not all, areas of specific academic deficits; a correlated cognitive or information processing deficit; and average intellectual ability. If another diagnosis is applicable, it should be stated. The evaluation must be signed by a professional with expertise in evaluating adult populations and appropriately licensed by the state.
3. One of the following individually administered general intelligence tests must have been utilized.
   •Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) •Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) •Stanford Binet IV •Kaufman Adult Intelligence Test - (KAIT)
   
   Please list subscale scores.
4. Cognitive or information processing strengths, weaknesses, and deficits should be specifically discussed. Clear documentation of deficit areas is necessary in order for colleges to provide appropriate modifications. Please discuss all of the following processing areas:

• Visual-spatial abilities
• Memory
• Fine motor/dexterity
• Executive Functions (It is also helpful to know about the student's cognitive or processing flexibility and automaticity with cognitive and academic tasks.)
• Attention

5. Oral language skills should be assessed and discussed. Formal language evaluation and/or an informal analysis of a language sample are appropriate. Colleges are primarily interested in whether or not a student's language disability is impacting oral or written language and/or if a separate speech disorder is also present. The assessment of auditory comprehension is also helpful.
6. Social-emotional status should be assessed and discussed. Formal assessment instruments and/or clinical interview are appropriate. Colleges need to know differential diagnoses of psychological disorders that impact upon academics from learning disabilities (e.g., anxiety, mood disorders, substance abuse). College is typically quite stressful for students who have learning disorders. In an attempt to best serve students, it is also helpful to know about their personality characteristics, psychological welfare, self-esteem and stress level.
7. Achievement assessment in the following areas is required:

• Written Language (spelling and written expression). If a written language sample is available to review, this is most helpful.
• Reading (decoding, word attack, and comprehension). Please indicate the student's ability to comprehend longer passages, more typical of college text than some assessment instruments provide, and their automaticity and fluency in reading appropriate level texts.
• Mathematics (applied word problems, calculations, algebra). Please indicate whether or not the student was successful with algebra problems. Scores rarely provide this. For example, students can score within the low average range on the WRAT without attempting any of the algebra problems.

8. Assessment instruments must have age appropriate norms for high school seniors/college freshmen or older nontraditional students. All standardized measures must be represented by standard scores and percentile ranks based on published norms. These can certainly be supplemented by informal assessment.
   
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Intelligence Measures

1. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - III (WAIS-III)
2. Kaufman Adult Intelligence Test (KAIT)
3. Stanford-Binet IV

2. Social Emotional Measures

1. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
2. SCID Screen
3. ADHD Symptom Checklists
4. SCL-90-R Questionnaire
5. Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)
6. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
7. Beck Depression Inventory(BDI)
8. MMPI-2
9. Projective Techniques
10. Pride Questionnaire
11. Clinical Interview
12. Other social emotional measures (further projectives and/or behavioral rating scales)

3. Language Measures

1. Event description (scored holistically)
2. Subtests or total battery from following standardized tests:
3. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-3
4. Fullerton Language Test
5. Test of Language Competence-Expanded (TLC-E)
6. Boston Naming Test
7. Token Test
8. Test of Word Finding
9. DTLA-3 Story Construction
10. Test of Adolescent Language-2
11. CELF-3 x.Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS)
12. Rapid Automatized Naming Test
13. Other language measures

4. Cognitive Processing Measures

1. Memory

1. California Verbal Learning Tests (CVLT)
2. WJ-R Cognitive
   • Memory for Sentences
   • Memory for Words
   • Picture Recognition
3. Wechsler Memory Scale-3
4. Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure Recall
5. Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test
6. Other memory measures

1. Visual-Spatial

1. Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (TVPS-UL)
2. Test of Visual Motor Skills (TVMS-UL)
3. WJ-R Cognitive
   • Visual Closure
   • Cross Out
   • Visual Matching
4. Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration
5. Benton Judgement of Line Orientation
6. Slingerland subtests (informal)
7. Rey Osterreith Complex Figure Copy
8. Benton Face Recognition Test
9. Hooper Visual Organization Test
10. Other visual-spatial measures

1. Auditory/Phonological Processing

1. Fullerton Auditory Synthesis subtest
2. GFW Auditory Discrimination
3. WJ-R Cognitive
   • Sound Blending
   • Incomplete Words
4. Slingerland subtests (informal)
5. Rosner Auditory Analysis Test
6. Other auditory/phonological measures

1. Executive Functions

1. WJ-R Cognitive
   • Verbal Analogies
   • Analysis/Synthesis
   • Concept Formation
2. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
3. Verbal Fluency Test
4. Ravens Progressive Matrices
5. Trail Making Tests
6. Booklet Categories Test
7. Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test
8. Other executive measures

5. Achievement Measures (note - WRAT-3 is not adequate by itself)

1. Reading

1. Decoding/Word Attack
   • WRAT 3 Reading
   • WJ-R Achievement - Word Attack
   • WJ-R Achievement - Letter Word Identification
   • WIAT Reading
   • Other
2. Comprehension
   • Nelson Denny Reading Comprehension
   • WJ-R Achievement - Passage Comprehension
   • WIAT Reading Comprehension/Listening Comprehension
   • PIAT-R Reading Comprehension
   • Other

1. Mathematics
   1. 1. Calculation
         • WRAT-3 Arithmetic
         • WJ-R Achievement - Calculation
         • PIAT-R Math
         • Other
      2. Applied Problems
         • WJ-R Achievement - Applied Problems
         • DTLA-A Quantitative Concepts
         • Other
         • Algebra
         • DTMS Elementary and Intermediate Algebra
      1. Written Expression
      1. Spontaneous writing sample
         • Expository essay
         • Samples collected by feeder schools
         • OWLS
      2. Receptive Syntax/grammatical understanding
         • DTLS Sentence Structure (collected by feeder schools)
      3. iii.Spelling
         • WRAT-3 Spelling
         • PIAT-R Spelling
         • WJ-R Achievement - Dictation
         • WJ-R Writing Samples
         • Test of Written Spelling (TWS)
         • Other