Documentation Requirements

In order to receive disability services,the student is required to provide documentation of her/his disability. This documentation may be in the form of a report, summary of test results, letter, Individual Education Plan (IEP), 504 Plan, or other formal documentation. This documentation must meet the following standards:

1. Documentation must be appropriate. This means that the documentation must address those items relevant to the student's specific claim of disability, outlined below.
    
2. Documentation must be generated by a qualified professional and include that professional's name, title, license number, signature, address, and telephone number. A qualified professional is an individual who is licensed or is a formally recognized expert in a particular medical, psychological, and/or educational field which authorizes her/him to make diagnoses and prescriptive recommendations in that particular field.
    
3. Documentation must be current, reflecting the student's current level of functioning as related to her/his disability. Typically documentation generated within the past five years is considered current.
    
4. Documentation must contain a statement of diagnosis. This simply means the qualified professional must state the diagnosed condition in writing.
    
5. Documentation must contain a description of those functional limitations related to the student's disability which adversely impact her/him in an academic environment. Functional limitations are those which prevent a student from performing, or limit perfomance, as a result of her/his disability.
    
6. Documentation must contain a discussion or data which supports the diagnosis. This supporting discussion or data might consist of a summary of test results or an explanation of the evidence leading to the diagnosis. It is preferred that supporting data for learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders consist of a psycho-educational evaluation comprised of the following components:
   1. Aptitude Testing
      Example: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R)
   2. Achievement Testing
      Example: Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery
   3. Assessment of Information Processing
      Example: Bender-Gestalt Perceptual-Motor Test