Learning Disability Guidelines

Listed below are the criteria for accepting evaluations documenting learning disabilities. Germanna Community College is required by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide auxiliary aides and services to qualified students with documented disabilities

1. Documentation must be current. Normally, evaluations performed within 3 years of the student’s application for assistance are acceptable. (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).Additionally, documentation must be comprehensive. It must include history, diagnostic interviews, test results (including standardized test scores when available), differential diagnosis, details regarding a student’s functional limitations, and recommendations which are appropriate for college of professional educational settings.
2. A specific learning disability must be stated within the documentation submitted. The student must exhibit an academic deficit in one or more, but not all areas of academic achievement, a correlated cognitive or information processing deficit, and an average intellectual ability. Documentation of only academic deficit(s) or only processing deficit(s) is not sufficient. If another diagnosis is applicable, it should be stated. A licensed clinical psychologist or school psychologist with expertise in evaluating adolescent and/or adult populations must sign the evaluation.
3. One of the following individually administered general intelligence tests should have been utilized: * Please list subscale scores for all tests
   • Differential Ability Scales (DAS)
   • Kaufman Adult Intelligence Test (KAIT)
   • Stanford Binet I
   • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS III)
   • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (WISC III)
   • Woodcock Johnson III – General Intellectual Ability (WJGIA III)

   Average intellectual abilities will be defined as the student’s best verbal/nonverbal or best fluid/crystallized domain score on a standardized global measure of intelligence. A standard score of 90 or above will be considered in the average range.

4. Achievement assessment in the following areas is required
   • Reading (decoding, rate, and comprehension)
   • Mathematics (calculations, reasoning, and algebra)
   • Written Language (spelling and written expression)

   To be considered an area of academic deficit, a student’s individually administered standardized achievement test results must fall at least one standard deviation below the student’s intellectual abilities.

5. Cognitive or information strengths, weaknesses, and deficits should be specifically discussed. Clear documentation of deficit areas is necessary in order to provide appropriate modifications. There must be a processing deficit(s) identified in one or more of the five cognitive processing areas listed below:
   • Visual-Spatial/Visual Perceptual
   • Memory (long term, short term, working memory)
   • Visual Motor Integration
   • Attention
   • Auditory Processing
6. Social emotional status should be assessed and discussed. Formal assessment instruments and/or clinical interviews are appropriate.
7. Assessment instruments must have age appropriate norms for high school seniors, college freshmen, or older non-traditional students Please return documentation/evaluations to Win Stevens or Nilo Burke.

Please return documentation/evaluations to Win Stevens.