When he was a public school student in junior high, I felt he was struggling, and he received a "D" in math. I asked for testing, and I was given an appointment with the school learning specialist. I showed her information I had from his previous test, and she was unfamiliar with that test. She told me that because it was almost the end of the school year and because his grades were not all D's and F's, the school was refusing to test him. I told her that I had heard that if I requested testing that the school could not refuse, but she just told me that "was the way they did it."
My son still seems to wrestle with math and his grade reflects this. I would still like to have him tested just to be certain that there are no other learning skills that would help him.
Is it true that the public school system cannot legally refuse my request, and should I try again?
It may be that your son's difficulties in math are not related to a learning disability, but to other factors (motivation, relationship with the teacher, poor background skills, etc.) so make sure that the assessment looks at all of these possibilities. Even if there is a finding of "no special need," the evaluation should give you information about what's getting in the way of success and offer guidelines about how teachers can best meet your son's needs.