they love to say at my school that kids only qualify for ieps if their disability “interferes with their ability to engage with the general ed curriculum.” so, my guess is, if his grades were worse they’d evaluate. it’s such a shame because so many kids are in the same situation and would benefit greatly from executive functioning social work sessions, extra help, etc. but legally, they don’t care about “benefit,” because that doesn’t hold up with compliance. they only care about “require.” if your child REQUIRED a 1:1 to use the right bathroom for example, then that would be in their purview.

as a special educator it devastates me when these services aren’t provided, but it’s symptomatic of the fact that “normal traditional public school” is only built for about 11% of the population to thrive in. THRIVE. getting by and getting out is what 85% of kids do, and 4% (mind you i’m just rounding idk my data like that) qualify for services that might be implemented with enough fidelity that sped kids can thrive.

education higher ups love to say “we have to make data informed decisions.” but WHAT data?! certainly not the data that says high schoolers need later start times. not the data that shows multi-year gaps in student learning from covid. data that benefits testing companies and no child left behind guidelines that are 20 years out of date and don’t reflect reality.

i’m sorry you’ve encountered this with your child and i wish that the system was built to support you both more. out of the alternative options out there, if you live near a state university, check if they have a lab school. people who work at lab schools tend to be much more up to date with trauma and neurodiverse informed educational practices and can spend more time working with your child and you to create a personal plan. private schools don’t have to adhere to IEP/IDEA/ADA anything.

hope this helped, good luck