Wyoming Administrative Code
Agency 206 - Education, Dept. of
Sub-Agency 0002 - General Agency, Board or Commission Rules
Chapter 7 - SERVICES FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
Appendix A - Wyoming Severe Discrepancy Formula

Consistent with 34 C.F.R. § 300.307, a school district or public agency is not required to use the Wyoming Severe Discrepancy Formula in order to find a child eligible for special services under the category of Specific Learning Disability (SLD). In the event a school district or public agency elects to establish a child's eligibility under the category of SLD through use of a severe discrepancy model, the school district or public agency must use the Wyoming Severe Discrepancy Formula and document compliance on the eligibility report.

The assessment of intellectual ability and academic functioning level must include individually administered norm-reference tests that are reliable and valid, and administered by an individual specifically trained to administer and interpret the instruments. Criterion-referenced tests, informal measures, work samples, classroom observations, and the child's educational history may be used as needed to corroborate norm-referenced test scores.

A child whose disability is a Specific Learning Disability must demonstrate a severe discrepancy between current achievement level and expected achievement level of 22 points upon initial evaluation. Expected achievement level (obtained from Table A) is based on the correlation between tests of the child's composite intellectual standard score compared to the child's composite achievement score in one (1) or more core achievement areas.

Instructions:

In all cases, intellectual and achievement standard scores should be based on age norms rather than grade norms and, when available, on cluster scores rather than on subtest scores. Using the most current editions and norms of any chosen standardized tests is preferable to using older editions with outdated norms.

The table on the following page entitled Correlation Coefficient Between Ability and Achievement Test Scores should be used to determine the child's expected achievement level. This table takes into account the correlation between the intellectual and achievement measures being used as well as regression toward the mean. To use this table, the steps outlined below must be followed:

Step 1: Determine the correlation between the intellectual and achievement measures being used, if available. If the correlation between intellectual and achievement measures is not known, .65 may be used as an adequate median correlation between such measures.

Step 2: Locate the child's intellectual standard score in the side columns of Table A, entitled Correlation Coefficient Between Ability and Achievement Test Scores.

step 3: Follow the row determined In Step 2 to the column with the correlation value closest to the correlation between the] chosen measures of intellectual functioning and achievement or to a correlation of ,65 if a specific correlation coefficient Is not known.