Real-Life Decision Making
You have been asked to assess a Grade 10 student.
His foster parents have given you the OK and his teachers have highly recommended he go through an assessment. Looking at his past records, you can see this student has had challenges in school since he was a young boy.
His grades have been low, he rarely participates in class discussions and he seems to have no interest in school whatsoever. You also know that he has had several disruptions at home and he no longer lives with his real parents.
You decide to give this student a basic behavioral assessment to see how he measures against other teenagers his age. After the assessment is completed, you can see that he is definitely a high-needs student. Now the trick is determining what services are best suited to him and which ones he qualifies for.
You decide to have him do one more test, which will help cement your findings and hopefully make the services he needs easier to access.
If he qualifies, he will be able to receive special government funding to cover the services he needs outside of school. If he doesn't, you have to figure out how he can access at least some of the resources he needs.
You know that if you give him the standard assessment test, he will probably not qualify for the special government subsidies that are available. If you give him the new assessment (a test that has only been introduced during the last year), he probably will. However, you're not sure if the test will qualify under current government regulations.
You know this student needs help and you want to make sure you do everything you can to help him. But you're just not sure which test you should have him assessed under.
What do you do?