Referral Decision

To Test or Not to Test - That is the Question ...

After a student has been referred and the person who is responsible for doing the testing has been informed, then that evaluator will decide whether or not testing is appropriate for the student.

This decision will be made by the psychologist, the SLP, the OT, the PT or the CAT, and the criteria for making the decision must be registered.For parent referrals, the parent must be notified of the decision within 10 school days of the request via either the Notice of Evaluation or Notice of Refusal.

Begin by entering the date of the referral. If the referral was made as part of an IEP meeting, enter the date of the IEP. If the referral came from a parent or other staff, enter the date the referral was submitted.

Finalize the Referral

You must finalize the referral before you can proceed. Finalizing the referral activates the timelines that will tell you when the evaluation needs to be completed.

You will be asked if you want to finalize.



Be sure your date and other information is correct, because referral events can only be changed by a special ed administrator or support team leader.

Factors Considered

Enter the criteria you used to make your decision.

  • NWEA results

  • MClass data

  • MVRC

  • MindPlay

  • Acuity results

  • ECA, ISTEP, IMAST, ISTAR, IREAD3

  • READ 180

  • GradesAttendance







  • Parent/teacher reports

  • Medical history

  • Developmental history

  • Outside reports

  • Discipline referrals

  • Interventions implemented

  • Speech/Language Screening Results

Make the Decision

If the decision is Yes:

A text box is presented, and you have to enter why you are deciding to evaluate the student. For full m-team evaluations, the psychologist must enter the following statement into the Decision to Evaluate Was Based On text box: The suspected areas of eligibility listed below were selected based on the information available at the time of this referral. However, please note that special education law requires the school district to conduct educational evaluations that are sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the student's potential special education and related service needs. Therefore, other eligibility areas may be investigated as well if there is a reason to do so.

If the decision is No:

You are not required to obtain approval from your supervisor prior to denying a request for an evaluation; however, feel free to consult on cases which may pose a challenge. Prior to denying a request, you must have called/spoken with the parent to clarify his/her concerns and inform the parent of the intent to deny the request.

Complete the 2 text boxes, as described above for a "yes" decision. Provided ample information/data that supports the reason for declining to evaluate.

The Notice of Evaluation Refusal is generated.

Removing a Referral Decision

If an event is created in error, you can contact special ed administrator or support team leader to have it removed.

You cannot remove it yourself, but it can be done quickly and easily.