Evaluation

Evaluation

 Evaluation is the systematic process of collecting relevant information about a student’s skills and carefully interpreting the information that is collected to determine whether a disability exists, and whether it has caused an educational handicap. An evaluation is also used to determine the nature and extent of the special education services a student may need and is used in the development of an Individualized education program.

Multidisciplinary Evaluations

 A Multidisciplinary evaluation is used to determine eligibility for special education service. State and Federal regulations require that, before any action is taken with respect to the initial placement of a disabled student in a special education program, a full and individual evaluation of the child’s educational needs must be conducted. No special education placements will be made without establishing the existence of a disability requiring specially designed instruction for the student to receive a free and appropriate public education. The required assessment data for all suspected disabilities must be completed to make an accurate determination of eligibility. This ensures that the requirement of completing a comprehensive evaluation for eligibility is met.

Evaluation Team

 State and Federal regulations require that a multidisciplinary team, including at least the following members:

• The parent/guardian

• At least two professionals, one of whom is a specialist knowledgeable and experienced in the evaluation and education of children with disabilities. The other is typically the classroom teacher.

Areas of Evaluation

 The evaluation is sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the child’s special education and related services needs, whether or not commonly linked to the disability category in which the child has been classified. A comprehensive evaluation in all areas related to the suspected disability may include evaluation in the following areas:

• • General intelligence

  • Communication/Speech/Language

  • Motor abilities

  • Developmental history

  • Behavioral assessment

  • Academic performance

  • Social and Emotional status

  • Health, vision, hearing

  • Medical evaluation

Non- Discrimination policy

 Testing and evaluation materials and procedures must be free of racial, cultural, language or sexual bias. Tests must be appropriate for the age and stage of development of each student. Procedures, tests, and other evaluation materials used for evaluation must be selected and administered to ensure that, for a child with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the test results accurately reflect the child’s aptitude and/or achievement level or other factors measured by the test. Tests should be written and/or administered in the native language of the child or conducted in the mode of communication most familiar to the student being evaluated unless it is clearly not feasible.

 Tests must have been validated for the specific purpose for which they are used and must be administered by trained personnel in conformance with the instructions provided by their producer.

 Evaluation Tools

 Direct observation: Observing and recording specific behaviors that occur during a given time period.

Norm Referenced Tests: Compares student’s performance to the population for which it was developed. Typically provides scores as grade equivalents, percentiles, age levels, and standard scores.

Criterion Referenced Tests: Designed to measure a student’s performance according to stated criteria of levels of performance. The purpose of criterion-referenced test is to compare the child, not to other children, but to a set of standards.

Curriculum-Based Tests: These measure a student’s performance in curriculum used by the district.

Student work samples: Samples permit analysis of student’s correct and error responses.

Skill Testing (Probes, Task Analysis): These assess pupil performance relative to an instructional sequence and allow for continual evaluation of pupil progress.

Request for Initial Evaluation

Consistent with its child find and parent consent obligations, the Banks School District responds promptly to requests initiated by a parent, teacher or public agency for an initial evaluation to determine if a child is a child with a disability.

• Upon receiving a request from a parent, teacher or public agency for an initial evaluation, the CARE/SST Team determines whether an initial evaluation will be conducted.

• A team decision process is used in pursuing a special education evaluation:

• If the team agrees it is appropriate not to pursue evaluation, Prior Written Notice of Special Education Action is completed and a copy sent to the Student Services office. This documents the district’s refusal to conduct an evaluation.

• Action to be taken is documented in meeting minutes.

• If a team agrees it is appropriate to pursue evaluation;

• The team documents team member’s input, including parents, whether or not the team convenes a meeting.

• If a meeting is held, the team invites parents to participate.

The District conducts the initial evaluation within 60 school days of receiving parental consent for evaluation, unless:

• The District and the parents agree in writing to extend the timeline for an evaluation to determine eligibility for specific learning disabilities; 

• The child moves from another school district during the evaluation, the District is making sufficient progress to ensure a prompt completion of the evaluation, and the parent and the District agree in writing to a specific time when the evaluation will be completed.

• The parent repeatedly fails or refuses to produce the child for the evaluation.

The timeline for evaluations must not exceed 60 school days. The 60-day period shall begin on the date the parent gives written consent or the date the evaluation is initiated for re-evaluation purposes. All areas of suspected disability must be evaluated.

It is the intent of the Banks School District Special Education Department to complete evaluations with expediency, and if possible, within the first few weeks of the allowable 60-day period. 

Reevaluation

The District conducts re-evaluations:

• When the educational or related services needs, including improved academic achievement and functional performance, of the child warrant a reevaluation;

• When the child’s parents or teacher requests a reevaluation; and

• At least every three years, unless that parent and the District agree that a reevaluation is unnecessary.

The District does not conduct reevaluation more than once a year, unless the parent and District agree otherwise.

The District may choose ­not to reevaluate when current data is available to make eligibility decisions. In this case, reestablishment of eligibility will be based on file review. District policy requires that a student not be found eligible with continual file reviews. If the prior eligibility was based on a file review, the next required reevaluation must be based on standard evaluation procedures for the suspected disability.

Evaluation Planning

Informed consent is required to conduct evaluations and reevaluations. If however, the parent does not respond to request for consent after three (3) written requests, documented in meeting minutes and by copies of Prior Notice About Evaluation, the District may proceed with reevaluation. If the team determines personality or intelligence testing is needed, written parental consent is always required.

The District, or designated referral and evaluation agency for preschool children, ensures that, as part of an initial evaluation (if appropriate), the child’s IEP or IFSP team, including the parents, and other qualified professionals, as appropriate, review and document existing evaluation data on the child, including:

• Evaluations and information provided by the child’s parent(s);

• Current classroom-based, local, or state assessments, and classroom-based observations; and,

• Observations by teachers and related services providers.

On the basis of that review and input from the child’s parents, identify what additional data, if any, are needed to determine:

• Whether the child has a disability;

• The child’s present levels of academic achievement and related developmental needs;

• Whether the child needs, or continues to need, EI/ECSE or special education and related services; and,

• For reevaluation, whether the child needs any additions or modifications to special education and related services or, for a preschool child, any additions or modifications to ECSE services:

  • • To enable the child to meet the measurable annual goals in the child’s IEP or IFSP; and,

    • To participate, as appropriate, in the general education curriculum or, for preschool children, appropriate activities

The evaluation includes information provided by the parent and a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about the child that assist in determining

• Whether the child has a disability; and,

• The content of the child’s IEP, including information related to enabling the child to be involved in and progress in the general education curriculum (or for a preschool child, to participate in appropriate activities).

The District ensures that assessments and other evaluation materials, including those tailored to assess specific areas of educational need, used to assess a child:

• Are selected and administered so as not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis;

• Are provided and administered in the child’s native language or other mode of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so;

• Are used for the purposes for which the assessments or measures are valid and reliable;

• Are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel; and,

• Are administered in accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of the assessments.

The District selects and administers assessments to ensure that if an assessment is administered to a child with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the assessment results accurately reflect the child’s aptitude or achievement level or whatever other factors the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the child’s impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills (unless those skills are the factors that the test purports to measure).

The District uses technically sound instruments that may assess the relative contribution of cognitive and behavioral factors, in addition to physical or developmental factors.

The District does not use any single measure or assessment as the sole criterion for determining whether a child is a child with a disability and for determining an appropriate educational program for the child.

Requirements If Additional Evaluation Data Are Not Needed to Determine Eligibility

If the child’s IEP or IFSP team determines that no additional data are needed to determine whether the child is or continues to be a child with a disability, and to determine the child’s educational and developmental needs, the District provides prior written notice of that decision, the reasons for it, and the right of parents to request an assessment.

When the IEP or IFSP team determines that no additional data are needed to determine eligibility, the District does not conduct an assessment of the child unless requested to do so by the parents.

Evaluation Procedures for Transfer Students

When a child with a disability transfers from one school district to another school district in the same school year, the District coordinates with the previous school district to complete any pending assessments as quickly as possible.

Eligibility Determination

Once evaluation is completed, the District designates an eligibility team to determine whether the child is eligible for special education services.

This team includes:

• Two or more professionals, one of whom will be knowledgeable and experienced in evaluating and teaching students with the suspected disability; and,

• The student’s parent(s).

• For consideration of eligibility in the area of specific learning disabilities, the District eligibility team includes:

  • • A group of qualified professionals and the parent;

    • The child's regular classroom teacher or, if the child does not have a regular classroom teacher, a regular classroom teacher qualified to teach a child of his or her age, or, for a child of less than school age, a preschool teacher; and,

    • A person qualified to conduct individual diagnostic examinations of children, such as a school psychologist, speech-language pathologist, or other qualified professional.

In interpreting evaluation data each District team carefully considers and documents information from a variety of sources, including but not limited to, aptitude and achievement tests, teacher recommendations, physical condition, social or cultural background and adaptive behavior and all required elements of the evaluation.

The eligibility team prepares a written eligibility statement that includes:

• Identification of the evaluation data considered in determining the child’s eligibility, including the required evaluation components for the disability under consideration;

• A determination of whether the child meets the minimum evaluation criteria for one or more of the disability categories in Oregon Administrative Rule;

• A determination of whether the primary basis for the suspected disability is:

  • • A lack of appropriate instruction in reading (including the essential components of reading) or math; or,

    • Limited English proficiency;

A determination of whether the child's disability has an adverse impact on the child's educational performance;

A determination of whether, as a result of the disability, the child needs special education services;

The signature of every team member and an indication of whether each agrees with the eligibility determination;

For a child suspected of having a specific learning disability, the team's written report includes additional specific documentation as required by Oregon Administrative Rule.

The team does not find a child eligible as a child with a disability if:

• The determinant factor for that eligibility decision is;

  • • Lack of appropriate instruction in reading, including the essential components of reading instruction, or lack of appropriate instruction in math; or,

    • Limited English proficiency; and,

    • The child does not otherwise meet the eligibility criteria found in Oregon Administrative Rule for the categories of disability under consideration.

The team finds a child eligible if the child has a disability and needs special education and related services, even though the child is advancing from grade to grade.

A child may have disabilities in more than one disability category, but the team needs to find the child eligible under only one category. However, the District evaluates the child in all areas related to the suspected disability or disabilities, and the child's IEP addresses all of the child's special education needs.

Paperwork:

• Initial Evaluation Reevaluation

• Meeting Notice Prior notice about Evaluation/Consent for eval.

• Consent for Evaluation Descriptions of Testing

• Evaluation Planning Sheet Medical Statement or Health

• Descriptions of Testing Assessment Statement/update if needed Staffing Notes

• Developmental History Written Agreement with Parents and District

• Staffing Notes Developmental History/changes as needed