What tests do school districts use to evaluate students if a parent asks for an evaluation of their child?

Question

I am trying to figure out if the school did a full evaluation or just picked what they wanted to test.

Answer 1

I lot will depend on what disibility category was looked at AND if there are any academic needs that have been a concern.  

I school does not have to make a C student and A student - they do however, should the student qualify for services - need to provide accomodations and supports that would allow the student to achieve to the best of their ability.

Typically you would have gotten a notice that indicates - this is why we are doing the evaluation and this is what we are going to do - that list is generated with you at a meeting (sometimes over the phone if you getting to a meeting is too difficult).  You then had to sign that you agree with what the plan is - it's called informed consent.  If you signed (and a district cannot evaluation without your signed consent) and they did what they said they would do and they meet back together with you in the prescribed time to report what the findings were, the evaluation is complete.  Sometimes, in the process of evaluation - something else comes up that might be an issue to look at but they would again have to have your written consent (if this is an initial eval) to proceed.

Sometimes completing an evaluation does not result in services for a variety of reasons:

1 - it is someting that requires and outside medical diagnosis and the parent did not provide one.

2 - the student may have a disability but it does not impact their learning.

3 - the student does not have a disability according to whatever the state criteria is.

I must however comment abou the nonsense about a district must pay for an outside evaluation at their expense.  This is simply not true except in some very narrow circumstances.  If you did not get notice on what tests were to be done - or if you were given notice on what tests were to be done and they weren't done - it might be possible to have outside evaluation.  A better way is to talk to the special education team about what was or was not done - just because you don't like the outcome - doesn't mean it's an automatic do over or outside eval.  If however legally required pieces are missed - they it might be something for you to consider.

The thing I don't see is - is your child getting the services that are appropriate for the disability category that the evaluation was done for?

Answer 2

According to federal special ed law IDEA, you can request an 'independent educational evaluation at public expense'.

WHen a school does an educational eval to determine if a child qualifies for special education services, a parent can write to the district special ed director and request this if the parent disagrees with the schools evaluation.

You do not HAVE to give a reason WHY you disagree with it, but be sure to state that you DO disagree with it.

You can request this whether the school says the child qualifies for special ed or not.

This evaluation will be paid for by the school and will be done by a doctor that YOU choose. This eval will be a full educational eval and will be used by the IEP team (YOU are a full and equal member of the IEP team)

to determine if a child can qualify for special ed, even if the school already determined the child can not qualify.

The school will tell you lies such as-

1. They can not pay for this evaluation

2. You will have to pay for it and they will reimburse you

3. The eval has to be done by a doctor THEY choose

4. You will have to choose a doctor that is on their list

5. They will pay a specific amount for the eval and no more.

All of this is ILLEGAL. They ONLY stipulation they can impose on this is that the doctor YOU choose has to meet THEIR qualifications.

So, when you write and ask for this eval, state that you want them to send you a list of their qualifications for a doctor to do this eval.

When you ask for this eval, the school will have only 2 choices

1) agree and pay for it

2) file due process to prove their own eval is sufficient

I've NEVER heard of a school that has done 2.  LOL, shows you just how 'sufficient' their evals are.

Go to www.wrightslaw.com   for the laws on this.

If you need help email me [e-mail]

Answer 3

The components of the evaluation are specifically dependent upon the referral question. For example, if you are asking if your child meets criterion as Intellectually Gifted an evaluation might consist of a cognitive assessment and an achievement test (depends on the district and state). If the question is whether or not the student is language impaired then a Speech Language Pathologist would complete a battery of assessments focusing on receptive and expressive language. The Speech Path might also look at pragmatics, it simply depends on the referral question and initial findings.

Typically, the district will check off the tools they plan on administering. A description of the tools accompanies the permission to test.

If you have questions, do not hesitate to call your school and allow them to take the time to explain the process to you.

Answer 4

I was given an IQ test and saw a psychiatrist. The school did not give me a test about education because I did not have a learning disability.

Answer 5

A full diagnostic battery of tests will include:

an IQ test,

an academic achievement test, such as the Woodcock-Johnson or the WRAT,

any questionnaires from teachers, parents or others who have contact with the child

perhaps a speech/language evaluation

any other specific test that would look at specific skills or abilities, like the Key Math, Gray Oral Reading, Criterion Test of Basic Skills, various spelling tests, fine-motor or handwriting tests, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (which is sometimes used as either IQ or academic for young students)

If you asked for an evaluation, did you specify the issues you wanted looked at? Did the classroom teacher agree? If you are not satisfied, you could ask for further testing to be done or go to a private diagnostician.