To help students with learning disabilities (LD) overcome the effect of disability on their academic performance, MSU-Bozeman makes reasonable accommodations on the basis of individual need.

To enable determination of eligibility for academic accommodations under MSU guidelines and identification of specific accommodations a student will need in order to experience academic success, MSU requires full documentation of a learning disability and its effect on academic achievement.

Please forward this handout to the professional whose diagnostic report will be sent to MSU.

A learning disabilities assessment which reflects the current impact of identified impairments on academic performance must be done by a licensed professional who is qualified to administer and interpret intelligence and achievement tests, and a diagnostic report based upon that assessment must be submitted to:

Disabled Student Services
P.O. Box 173960
MSU-Bozeman
Bozeman, MT 59717-3960
Phone: (406)994-2824, Fax: (406)994-3943, TTY: (406)994-6701

The report must be on letterhead. It must be typed, signed, dated and it must include the diagnostician's area of professional licensure/certification and license/certificate number.

Since an assessment constitutes the basis for determining reasonable accommodations, it is in a student's best interest to provide recent and appropriate documentation. In most cases, this means within the past three to five years and that testing reflects an adult-based evaluation. This assessment serves as the basis for decision-making about a student's needs for accommodations in a college environment.

The student must complete the "Request for Documentation Review" and return it to the Disabled Student Services office at the above address.

A. LD ASSESSMENT-The learning disability assessment must include the following:

• a comprehensive diagnostic interview and a review of relevant records to investigate current and past symptoms and educational, medical, and family history;



• an individually administered comprehensive intelligence test (this office strongly encourages an adult-based evaluation);



• comprehensive individually administered achievement tests measuring current achievement in basic reading skills, reading comprehension, math reasoning, and math calculation; and a functional assessment or standardized test of written expression (The Wide Range Achievement Test-3 is not a comprehensive measure of achievement and, therefore, is not useful if used as the sole measure of achievement.);



• assessment of specific areas of information processing (e.g., short and long term memory, sequential memory, auditory and visual perception/processing, processing speed). Information from subtests on the WAIS-III, the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability or other instruments relevant to the presenting learning problem(s) may be used to address these areas.

B. LD DIAGNOSTIC REPORT-The written diagnostic report must include the following:

• a written summary of the student's relevant educational, medical, and family histories;



• the names of the tests administered and age-based standard and/or percentile scores (standard scores are preferred) for all normed measures (all subtests scores must be reported);



• an analysis/interpretation of test performance, including a discussion of information processing strengths and weaknesses that contribute to the substantial limitation to a learning disability. The diagnosis should be based on a comprehensive assessment battery which does not rely solely on any one subtest or tests;



• a clear statement identifying a specific learning disability: Individual "learning styles" and "learning differences" do not constitute a learning disability. The diagnosis should be based on a comprehensive assessment battery which does not rely solely on any one subtest or tests;



• a history of past accommodations and the effectiveness of those accommodations;

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