EVALUATION PROCESS

What's Required

Either a parent of a child, or a state education agency (SEA), other State agency, or Local Education Agency (LEA) may initiate a request for an initial evaluation to determine if the child is a child with a disability 34 CFR 300.301(b)(b)

EVALUATION STAFF:

Licensed Specialist in School Psychology

The role of the Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP) includes, but is not limited to, conducting multi-disciplinary evaluations, including psychological evaluations, membership on the campus RTI team, providing behavior management recommendations for both home and school, individual or group counseling with students, consultation with teachers and parents, and interpreting evaluation data at ARDs. The LSSP is licensed to conduct a Full and Individual Evaluation (FIE) of a student to determine if they meet eligibility criteria for special education services.

Educational Diagnostician

The role of the Educational Diagnostician includes, but is not limited to, conducting multi-disciplinary evaluations, membership on the campus RTI team, providing behavior management recommendations for both home and school, consultation with teachers and parents, and interpreting evaluation data at ARDs. The Educational Diagnostician’s previous experience as a classroom teacher provides additional background for classroom consultation. The Educational Diagnostician is certified to conduct a Full and Individual Evaluation (FIE) of a student to determine eligibility for Special Education services.

Art Therapist/Special Education Counselor

The Art Therapist/Special Education Counselor is responsible for providing individualized emotional/behavioral health services to students who demonstrate the need for additional support in this area. The goal of both art therapy and counseling is to help students generate resilient responses to stressors and situational demands in the academic setting. Counseling is delivered primarily through verbal/reflective means, and art therapy is delivered primarily through visual/experiential means. While students who have average expressive and receptive language skills may be well suited for special education counseling, special education art therapy may be more beneficial for students who have below-average language skills, students who avoid talking about their emotions and behaviors, and students who have experienced pre-verbal trauma. The Art Therapist/Special Education Counselor is licensed to provide these services and functions as a liaison between the school and the other mental health care professionals in a student’s life in order to coordinate care. Because art therapy and counseling sessions require that students are pulled out of class, students are referred through the RTI process to ensure that less-restrictive interventions have been exhausted first. An art therapy or counseling evaluation is completed to determine student strengths and challenges and then develop a strengths-based treatment plan for addressing challenge-based barriers to educational success. This treatment plan is formalized through a student’s IEP, and progress is reported to parents and guardians at regular intervals.

Evaluation of Students for Special Education Services

Each district shall conduct a full and individual evaluation (FIE) of each student’s educational needs before the initial provision of special education and related services to a child with a disability. A re-evaluation of each child is conducted if conditions warrant or if the child’s parents or teachers request a re-evaluation, but at least every 3 years. Areas evaluated in an FIE include: language proficiency, physical competencies, sociological information, intellectual functioning, adaptive behavior, academic performance, and need for assistive technology . As part of an FIE standardized evaluations are administered, information is gathered from parents, teachers and administrators, and direct observations of the student are conducted. Parents are an integral part of the evaluation process and are encouraged to participate actively by providing information.

Parents must receive notice and give written consent prior to any evaluation. Initial referrals will be completed within 45 school days of the date in which consent was signed. The evaluation deadlines for re-evaluations are determined by the ARD committee. Personnel qualified to perform these evaluations include certified educational diagnosticians and licensed specialists in school psychology.

Psychological Evaluation

The purpose of a Psychological Evaluation is to determine if emotional/ behavioral issues are interfering with academic success. A student is referred for a Psychological evaluation through the Response to Intervention Team (RtI Team) or Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) Committee when s/he is experiencing academic and behavioral difficulties at school.

Bilingual Evaluation

Bilingual evaluation personnel provide special education services to parents and students in their native language. Bilingual evaluators typically are assigned to campuses with high bilingual populations. Services provided include psycho-educational, psychological and counseling evaluations. In addition, other direct services include bilingual counseling with students, consultation with parents and facilitation of the ARD committee meetings.

Autism Evaluation

Children who qualify for Special Education services under the classification of Autism (AU) exhibit significant deficits in the areas of communication, social interaction, and sensory responses. The Autism Evaluation Team is made up of an Autism Specialist/Behavior Specialist (if requested), a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology, and a Speech-Language Pathologist. The team conducts a multi-disciplinary evaluation, using multiple sources of information, that is designed to determine eligibility, gather information on the student's developmental strengths and weaknesses, and provide educational and behavioral recommendations for the classroom.

Links:

National Associations of School Psychologists Resource Library