Evaluations

A child cannot receive special education services until he or she is evaluated. These evaluations gather information about a child's functioning and development, in order to determine whether a child has a disability and is in need of special services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Evaluations also guide the creation of the Individualized Education Program (IEP), and establish a baseline from which to measure educational progress during the entire special education process.

What exactly does the evaluation look like? There is no single test that can be used to determine educational needs. Instead, formal and informal tests, observations, and information provided by the parents are used to create a comprehensive view of the child. Therefore, the evaluation is not formed simply from a pen-and-paper assessment, but instead is compiled from information that shows a child's behavior at home and at school. Tests must be reliable, valid, accurately reflect the educational needs of a child, and must be in a child's native language. For more detailed descriptions of the following list of tests available, please take a look at the "Evaluations" page of LD Online.

Tests:

• Group or individual tests
• Curriculum-based assessments (CBAs) or curriculum-based measurements (CBM)
• Standardized tests
• Norm-referenced tests
• Criterion-referenced tests
• Functional assessment
• Functional behavior assessment

After the tests are administered, the results are discussed during a meeting held with the educators involved, as well as the parents, who will determine whether the child has a disibility, and can therefore be serviced under IDEA. If a child is found eligible, then the next step is to create an IEP (see previous posts). Parents should fully understand the results of the evaluations, and can ask for explanations or clarifications of anything that is unclear. Students may be reevaluated if parents or teachers request it, but no more than once a year. If a parent disagrees with the result of an evaluation, they may obtain an independent educational evaluation (IEE). An IEE is an evalutaion provided by the school district for no cost and conducted by professionals outside of the school, the result of which must be considered by the IEP team.

Parents, you are an integral part of the evaluation process! Information you provide about your child is used to determine whether your child is eligible for special education services. As well, you must be given a copy of the completed evaluation report that shows how your child's eligibility was determined. For parents in DC, you have the right to obtain an IEE from Early Stages, a DCPS program that provides free developmental screenings for children 3 to 5 years old. Please visit their website if you have any concerns regarding your child's development!

IEP Goals: Are your child's being met?

In the final stages of the qualification process, your child's individual education program (IEP) goals will be written and then set in stone for an upcoming year. It will be reassessed one year later, and ideally, it will be tracked and upheld by special education teachers, general education teachers, and other professionals.

Unfortunately, IEP goals are typically created by an individual on the special education team. It is ideal as a parent to be a part of that process, and ensure that goals are rigorous for your child.

But, this post is not about IEP goal creation. This post is focused on whether or not your child's IEP goals are being met at their schools. Teachers and school professionals are legally required to address all goals.

As a classroom teacher who services students with IEPs, I was given my students' IEP goals at the beginning of the year. It was handed to me in a haphazard way, and I honestly stuck it in a drawer and somewhat forgot about it. Then, I was organizing my file cabinet a few weeks later, and I found the IEP goals for a particular student. I realized how important it was to review and spend more time with this resource, yet I didn't really know what to do with it. I cannot go into details about the specific IEP goals (confidential). I have never examined these IEP goals with my new special education teacher, and I have never spoken to anyone on the IEP team about these goals. I have been left to my own devices to meet my students' IEP goals. Sadly, it hasn't gone much further than that. Even after reviewing the IEP goals, I am making accommodations to service their needs based on glancing at the IEP a few times, and no one is holding me accountable at my school.

Check out this awesome Q&A about IEPs, specifically if your child's school is not meeting or following the IEP.
http://www.ldonline.org/questions/iep

Please share your comments and thoughts about whether or not your child's IEP goals are being met. Or, if you are a teacher or school professional, share your experience with IEP goals and their execution in today's schools.

IEP Process: STEP 3 -- IEP Development Meeting, Placement Recommendation and Consent

IEP Development Meeting:
If a student is found eligible for special education, then the team creates an IEP for the students.
The IEP team is:
1. a special education teacher
2. a general education teacher
3. the parent (invited)
4. Local Education Agency Representative
5. Education evaluator
6. School psychologist
7. other specialists (as needed).

*At this point, the parent does not have to consent. The parent can disagree with what the school suggests and the school can proceed despite the disagreement.

Placement Recommendation:
The IEP team must place a student in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).

• A student should be in a class with students within 3 years of their age and functioning level
• Parents have the right to a copy of the class profile (ages and functioning levels of other students in the class)
• Parents have a right to visit the proposed placement
• Parents have the right to reject a setting or to reject supports that seem inappropriate for the child

Consent to Services:

A parent must consent to placement for the child to receive services.

The school must make an effort to obtain the consent of the parent.

*These three steps must be completed within 30 days of eligibility (determining that the child is eligible for special education services).

IEP Process: STEP 2 -- Evaluation, Eligibility

Evaluation:
After the parent gives consent to evaluation, the school and parent work together to go through this process:
1. Review existing information (test scores, medical information, etc.)
- teacher made tests, benchmarks, school wide screening, classroom based observations, medical records
2. Look at special education law (IDEA) to see if the child qualifies for special education
3. Determine what services the child needs

This step includes assessment results and discussion of the assessment results with parents and the school.


Eligibility:
The team (parents, teachers and administrators) work together to review the assessments. They decide:
1. Whether the child should receive special education services
2. If he/she is eligible, what services does he/she need?

Again, in DC, the decision about eligibility must be made within 120 days of the initial referral by either the parent or the school.

This phase can be tricky because parents may feel as though they have nothing to contribute. Many parents have access to assessment results (i.e. medical records) and may not share them with the school. The more information provided during the evaluation phase, the better! Also, parents must advocate to ensure that the school is sharing and discussing assessment results.

If a student is determined eligible, he or she will move on to the next phase of the IEP process: IEP development meeting and placement recommendation.

IEP Process: STEP 1 -- Referral and Student Support Team (SST)

You can begin the IEP process 2 ways:
1. Parents can give a written request that their child have an IEP, or teachers and administrators can start
the process. If a parent requests the IEP, the process begins much faster.
2. Teachers or administrators can request that a child be referred to the Student Support Team process
(through which it is determined wether or not the child should continue in the IEP process). This can take
a much longer time (in some cases 1-2 years).

Student Support Team: The SST is a team of people including a child's teacher, parents and administrators. They meet to talk about the child's strengths, weaknesses and they design a specific plan containing strategies to help the child to be more successful in school. The SST implements the plan. After the plan is implemented, the SST meets again to talk about how the child is doing. At this point, teachers and administrators can (with parental consent) refer a child to special education (meaning they would have an IEP written for them). This process may be helpful if you are unsure if your child needs special education services. However, this process takes a very long time. If you are sure that your child needs an IEP, you should not wait to have the school initiate the SST process, you should request that your child receive special education services in writing.

I am on an SST for a student, but it is unclear if the child will receive special education. This determination may take 1-2 years. What are others' experiences with the SST process? Is it something you might recommend to parents?

If the school does refer a child to special education, the parent must provide consent to allow the child to be evaluated. This means that the parent must say it is okay that the child be given an assessment that will give parents, teachers and administrators more information about the child. Once this happens, the child moves to the next stage: evaluation and eligibility. Now teachers and administrators have 60 days to give the child the assessment and determine if the child should receive special education services.

IDEA: Individuals with Diabilities Education Act

IDEA stands for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and it is the law that gives rights to students with disabilities ages preschool-21 years old. It is important that you, as parents, teachers, etc., know about IDEA because it says what legally should/ should not and can/cannot be done for students with disabilities. Many of the sections of IDEA, such as the timeline, have or will be talked about on this blog but I wanted to provide you with some more specifics and some places you can read more about it.

IDEA was originally the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) and was made into law in 1975. It was renamed IDEA in 1990. It was amended, or changed, in 1991, 1997, and 2004. Most recently, Obama reauthorized IDEA in 2009 with $12.2 million from the stimulus package.

In IDEA some very important provisions, or requirements, are laid out.
• Eligibility for services
• The IEP, or Individualized Education Plan
• FAPE, Free Appropriate Public Education
• LRE, Least Restrictive Environment
• Child find
• Procedural safeguards
• Disciplinary action
• Services related to the disability

I don’t want to overwhelm anyone with a massive post so I’m going to break each of these areas into separate posts in order to provide some relevant details and criticisms. That way, we can discuss how we see each being played out in our classrooms or in our child’s classroom.

If you’re really interested in the law, you can visit http://idea.ed.gov/ for the official website or visit here for the ADA summary of the Act. Finally, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, NICHCY, has very helpful resources here.

IEP Timeline

One of my biggest frustrations with the IEP process is the amount of time it seems to take. I have children I refer in October for testing that haven't even begun the evaluation process in March. It's unfair to my students, but perhaps more importantly it's illegal in many ways. Here are some of the important timelines I've found in regards to IEPs.

* the IEP process begins when either the school or a parent requests an evaluation
* parents are then asked to consent to an evaluation
* after 60 days, from when consent has been given, an evaluation must be completed
* when the evaluation has been completed, and the chid is found to be eligible for special education, an IEP meeting must be held within 30 days
* at least 10 days before the IEP meeting parents must be informed of the meeting
* after the IEP meeting there is a 10 day transition period in which the IEP can be adapted as requested by the parents
* 1 year after an IEP meeting another IEP meeting must be held, to review the IEP and make necessary changes
* 3 years after eligibility evaluation is done, the student must be reevaluated again (a parent may also ask to have their child reevaluated any time in those 3 years, but should not exceed more than once a year)

When I was researching these timelines the interesting thing that kept coming up was the power of the state in determining several of these guidelines, in particular the 60 day guideline between consent and evaluation. The way the law is written states can adapt their own guidelines. Some states have thus adapted shorter timelines and others have longer timelines. In Florida the timeline is 60 school days! That can be about a third of the school year before a child is evaluated, let alone an IEP is written. It's important to look at specific state guidelines when you are trying to figure out a timeline.