Ch. 5: Evaluation - Learning More About Your Child

Special Education Evaluation - Special Education Law

Who is this for?

This chapter is for the parents of students who have been referred for a formal evaluation as prescribed by IDEA, and for parents of students already eligible for special education services who are referred for a reevaluation.

Why is this important?

IDEA contains very specific requirements for a student evaluation. Parents need to understand all aspects of the evaluation process in order to be full participants in all decisions involving their child. The evaluation results will be used to make important decisions about their child's educational future.

What can parents do?

Parents can and should actively participate in planning for their child's evaluation. They need to understand the school's proposed evaluation plan.

IDEA Words and Terms to Know

Child with a disability
A child who has a disability as defined in one of the 13 disability categories in IDEA and who needs special education and related services because of the disability; or a child aged 3 through 9 who is experiencing developmental delays.

Initial Evaluation

In previous chapters you've learned about several steps that lead up to a formal student evaluation, including Pre-referral Services, Response-to-Intervention, Referral or Request for Evaluation and Procedural Safeguards. This chapter will provide you with an overview of the initial evaluation and reevaluation processes.

At this stage of the special education process, both the parent and the school district have agreed to conduct a formal student evaluation. The student's parents have received their Procedural Safeguards Notice and have provided informed consent, or permission, for the evaluation to proceed.

By providing consent for an initial evaluation, you are not giving permission for your child to receive special education services. You are only consenting to the evaluation process. If your child is found eligible for special education services, you will be required to provide informed consent for the services before they can begin.

An initial evaluation is conducted to provide information that will be used to determine if your child is a child with a disability as defined by IDEA, and, because of that disability, needs special education and related services. The evaluation process includes a variety of tests to measure your child's cognitive ability, academic skills, language skills, and social and emotional status. Evaluations may include reports written about your child that include observations of your child in the classroom and other school settings, and standardized tests. If your child is found eligible for special education under IDEA, the evaluation information will also be used to develop his or her Individualized Education Program (IEP), which will be discussed in Chapter 7: Individualized Education Programs.

Evaluations vs. Assessments

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires all states to administer statewide assessments of reading/language arts and mathematics in grades 3 through 8 and once between grades 10 and 12. Many states have additional state or district-wide assessments that are administered to all students to measure their academic performance against the state’s academic standards. Several states have tests that students must pass to earn a standard high school diploma or to be promoted to the next grade. A student's performance on these state or district assessments can provide helpful information about the student's rate of progress and academic achievement as compared to his or her peers in the same grade. However, such assessments do not provide the comprehensive, individualized information required by IDEA in order to make a determination for special education eligibility. That comprehensive, individualized information comes from a formal evaluation.

Timeline for Initial Evaluation

Many states have established specific timeframes in which a student evaluation must be completed once you provide informed parental consent. You need to know your state's timeline for evaluation — including whether the timeline is in calendar days or schools days. Mark your calendar on the date your child's evaluation begins and when it should be complete.

If you live in a state that does not have an established timeline for completing an evaluation, IDEA 2004 requires that the evaluation be conducted within 60 calendar days of receiving parental consent. Exceptions to this timeframe apply if the parent does not make the child available for evaluation, or if the student transfers to another school district.

Schools routinely perform screenings and other informal assessments to all students to assist with their instructional programs. IDEA 2004 makes it clear that screenings administered by a teacher or other specialist for the purpose of determining instructional strategies are not to be considered as an evaluation for special education. Parental consent is not required for school-wide assessments or screenings unless consent is required for all students.

Evaluation Notice

The school district will provide you with an Evaluation Notice, or evaluation plan, that describes any tests the school proposes to conduct during the evaluation. Since IDEA contains a number of legal requirements for conducting evaluations, you should be sure that the process outlined and types of tests described in the evaluation notice reflect these requirements, are broad enough to provide a complete picture of your child, take into consideration the concerns you have raised in your communications with the school, and will provide the information needed to design your child's educational program.

Refer to the Worksheet for Organizing Your Concerns about School-Related Problems to assist in your review of the proposed evaluation plan.

This is the beginning of your full and equal participation in the special education process — participation that is very important to your child's school success. While the terms and jargon used in the world of educational and psychological testing can be confusing and intimidating, make time to learn about the various tests the school district proposes in the evaluation plan.

Ask to meet with the evaluator or the school's special education administrator to discuss the tests that are proposed, what they measure, and when and how they will be administered. While providing parents with an opportunity to meet and discuss the proposed evaluation process isn't required by IDEA, it's a good way for you to gain a full understanding of what is being proposed and how the results will help everyone make informed decisions about services and supports that might be appropriate. Ask for any resources that might help further your understanding, and take the opportunity to visit the library or do an online search.

Use the Questions to Ask About Evaluation Plans to help you decide if the proposed plan is right for your child and to improve your understanding of the plan.

IDEA requires that the school must review evaluations and information provided by parents. The information you provide as part of the evaluation process is extremely important. Also, you may be asked to conduct parts of the evaluation yourself, such as filling out checklists and reporting observations of your child.

Examples of information that parents can provide from their records:

Prior teacher and parent reports
Information from parents' research about their child's disability
Results of private screening or testing (paid for by parents or private insurance)
Information from private tutors and therapists
Letters from a family doctor School reports
Samples of school performance

Requirements for Evaluation

According to IDEA, your school district must conduct an evaluation that:

Uses a variety of different tests (assessments), procedures, tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental and academic information (including information provided by the parent); this information may be used to help decide whether your child has a disability, and it can help when developing your child's Individualized Education Program (IEP); Ensures that your child is evaluated in all areas in which a disability is suspected; Does not use any single measure or test as the sole basis for deciding whether your child has a disability, or for developing an appropriate educational program for your child; Uses evaluation tools and strategies that provide relevant information that directly support decisions about the educational needs of your child; Uses technically sound testing instruments to determine the roles that cognitive and behavioral factors, in addition to physical or developmental factors, are playing in your child's difficulties. These testing instruments must be: Selected and administered so they do not discriminate on a racial or cultural basis
Used for purposes for which the assessments or measures are proven to be valid and reliable
Administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel
Administered according to the specific instructions provided by the producer of the assessments.

Additional requirements for evaluations were added in IDEA 2004. Now assessments must be provided and administered in the language and form most likely to yield accurate information on what the student knows and can do academically, developmentally and functionally. For example, the assessments should be administered in Spanish, or Braille, or sign language, if that's the student's usual mode of communication.

In addition to the results of the evaluation procedures conducted as required above, an initial evaluation must also include any existing data on your child, such as:

Information and data collected during pre-referral interventions or a response-to-intervention process (as described in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2)
Evaluations and information provided by the parents
Current classroom-based, local or state assessment results
Observations by teachers, school psychologists and related service providers (such as speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists).

Evaluation and Response-to-Intervention (RTI)

As noted in Chapter 2: Response-to-Intervention, the data collected during RTI are included as part of the evaluation results and are used to make eligibility decisions. However, IDEA requires multiple sources of data and does not allow any single measure or assessment to be used as the sole criterion for determining whether your child has a disability or for determining an appropriate educational program for your child.

A school district may propose to use an RTI process while conducting an evaluation (as required by IDEA) of your child. Together, RTI and formal evaluation provide information about your child's academic skills, rate of learning and the underlying reasons for his or her learning difficulties.

You are free to request a formal evaluation at any time. School district policies regarding RTI should not be used to delay or deny your request for evaluation.

Private Evaluations at Private Expense

You are free to have your child evaluated privately at your own expense at any time. If you have had any private testing conducted on your child at your own expense or through private insurance, you should provide the results to the school at this stage. To ensure reliable results, it is important that your child not be administered the same test within a short period of time. Making the school aware of private testing results is important if the school district is to construct an appropriate evaluation plan.

Before scheduling a private evaluation, you should carefully review the credentials of the evaluator. Make sure that:

The individual who conducts the evaluation meets state requirements (e.g., holds a state license)
The evaluator will provide a very detailed written report that may include recommendations for support and/or services that will address your child's needs
The evaluator will provide you with a full explanation of the findings so you can explain and support them while discussing the report with the school
The school district generally accepts evaluations from this individual
The evaluator is willing to attend school meetings to explain results and the reasons for recommendations.

Finalizing Plans for Evaluation

After you review the school district's proposed Evaluation Notice, meet with a school representative, review the evaluation requirements above, and share any private testing results, you'll need to reach agreement on the proposed evaluation plan.

As the parent, you are free to object to certain tests or assessments and/or to request that additional tests or assessments be added to the plan. If you reject the plan, you will need to work with the school district to develop a plan that is more appropriate for your child and addresses your concerns. If the school district does not agree to your changes, you have the right to refuse your consent or to use the dispute resolution options described in Chapter 11: Dispute Resolution Options. Likewise, if the district feels the original plan was appropriate, it can choose to utilize available dispute resolution options.

Remember that the evaluation results will be used to make important decisions about your child's education. Also remember that, as specified in your Procedural Safeguards Notice described in Chapter 4, you have the right to an outside or independent educational evaluation (IEE) if you disagree with the results of the district's evaluation.
Once you and the school district have agreed on the evaluation plan and all of its components, the evaluation will be completed by school personnel.

Evaluation Report

The school district is required by IDEA to provide you with a copy of the evaluation report; however, they are not required to provide it before the meeting to determine your child's eligibility for special education. You should request a copy of the full evaluation report before any meeting so that you'll have time to prepare your questions and recommendations. You will need to make a request, in writing, stating your expectation to receive a report prior to any meetings.

Use this Sample Letter to make a written request for a copy of the evaluation report.

You can also request to meet with the evaluator — or case manager — at your child's school to get a complete review of the results. Again, this type of meeting is not required by IDEA, but it can go a long way toward helping you decipher complex test results.

If your child transfers while being evaluated

Generally, an evaluation of your child must be completed in accordance with your state's timeline or, if your state has no timeline, within 60 days from the time you consent to an evaluation. However, if your child transfers to another school district while the evaluation is underway, the timeline can be changed if you and the new district agree to a specific time when the evaluation will be completed. When agreeing to a change in the timeline, you should feel that the new district is making sufficient progress in completing the evaluation.

The next step in the special education process, following the completion of an initial evaluation, is Eligibility Determination, which is covered in Chapter 6.

Reevaluations

For students who have been found eligible for special education and have an IEP, IDEA lays out certain requirements and conditions for reevaluations to establish that the child continues to need special education support and services. In all circumstances, the school must obtain informed consent from the parent to conduct a reevaluation. As with the initial evaluation, if the parent chooses to refuse to provide consent for reevaluation or does not respond to the request to provide consent for the reevaluation of a child attending public school, the school district may pursue the evaluation by using the dispute resolution procedures described in Chapter 11: Dispute Resolution Options.

While reevaluations are required at least once every three years to determine the continuing need for special education, IDEA 2004 clarifies that the child's parents and the school district can override this requirement if they both agree that a reevaluation is not necessary to establish continued eligibility for special education.

Reevaluations cannot be conducted more frequently than once a year, unless both the parent and the school district agree that it is necessary.

A reevaluation must be conducted if requested by the child's parent.

Reevaluations are also required in order to determine if special education and related services are no longer needed. A reevaluation is not required when a student graduates with a regular diploma or reaches the maximum age for receiving special education services as set by the state (turning 22 years of age in most states). In these cases, the school district must provide a summary of the student's academic and functional performance and provide recommendations for helping the student meet his or her goals after high school. The "summary of performance" is discussed in Chapter 8: Transition.

Table of Contents

Note: The IDEA Parent Guide was created to provide a basic understanding of the key requirements of the federal law under IDEA. The information presented here is not legal advice and should not be used as a legal resource.

Candace Cortiella is Director of The Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of people with disabilities through public policy and other initiatives. The mother of a young adult with learning disabilities, she lives in the Washington, D.C., area.

Chapter 5: Evaluation: Learning More About Your Child