How to request an Independent Educational Evaluation for a child in Elementary School
Hi Parents-
My husband and I are feeling at a loss about our son's educational progress and would love to hear from other parents that might have been through the same thing.
Our son is a first grader at a public school in Los Altos, he is happy, friendly, well behaved and generally loves school. We have always known he may have some ADHD or other LDs since they run in both sides of our family. We began noticing some attention and processing issues about mid-way through kinder last year and made a formal request to the district to have him assessed. After a group SST meeting the team had encouraged us to wait until he was 6 to just make sure that this isn't a maturity issue. Although my gut told me it wasn't a maturity issue we did agree to wait until he turned 6 to reconvene.
Long story short, they were not very helpful and actually pushed off his testing to the beginning of first grade. Once they formally assessed him they did note that he presented with ADHD-Combined (we have a formal diagnosis as well) but since he falls in the "low/average range" for state scores (even though he is reading at an emerging kinder level for our district) they determined he did not meet the criteria for an IEP. We left the initial meeting feeling defeated, unheard and concerned that our son will continue to just flounder. We ended up hiring an educational advocate who helped us reconvene our SST team and share our disappointment that they didn't find he qualified. They offered us a 504 plan and we have been trying our best to get the most out of it but at our teacher conference this week his classroom teacher said that he isn't advancing as quickly as he could because he needs more support (not just modifications that come with a 504). The teacher, as well as our pediatrician have concerns about his auditory processing speed and also his lack of fine motor skills (poor pencil grasp, incomplete letter formation, etc). I really feel like because our son doesn't have behavior issues (he is very social, has friends and can keep himself from wiggling too much with the help of his hokkei stool and fidget toys) his needs aren't being addressed very quickly.
It is our understanding that as parents we have the right to request an Independent Educational Evaluation performed by people outside the school psych and resource specialist to better understand his issues and ultimately help him get more support so he can thrive and not struggle so much but I am not sure how to request this. We'd like to do at least some of it on our own to save some money on educational consultants but we honestly aren't even sure where to start.
Any advice, suggestions or experience in this are would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Concerned and overwhelmed mama
Parent Replies
Hi, our experience is with a different school district, as we’re here in Berkeley, but just wanted to say it’s quite often a “fight” with the school district to get services. Sometimes a long and expensive fight. Since he qualifies for a 504 but not an IEP, I’m pretty sure your family (as opposed to the school district) foots the bill for any outside evaluation(s). Have you searched the BPN archives? There are lots of discussions of these issues. Two organizations that could help, although both in the East Bay, are DREDF in Berkeley and Family Resource Network in Oakland. Best of luck..
Hi Mama! I have strong feelings about the fact that every time a child with special needs enters the public school system, the parents have to reinvent the wheel. I was you 8 years ago. My son is now 13 and I am pretty good at getting him what he needs after years of practice and help by DREDF and DRC and just working hard to learn the laws, etc. Now I am ready to help you because I think it stinks that there is not enough support for children and families of kids with special needs entering public school. The parents who know how need to help the parents who are new. First, here is an excellent and informative article from Wright's Law (which should be your new best friend.) http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/eval.iee.steedman.htm And second, if you need any more help or someone to bounce things off of, email me and I can give you my #. I would be happy to listen and help where I can.
Bonnie
Hi Concerned and Overwhelmed -
I'm so sorry to hear about your experience. It can be confusing, overwhelming, and demoralizing to deal with schools and districts when your child needs to be assessed, or needs/has an IEP. I do lots of advocacy work, and am happy to talk to you about how to ask for an IEE, and how to navigate all of this.
In the meantime, let the SST team know you would like an IEE done at the school's expense. An email will suffice.
The district then has to either agree to pay for an IEE with a district-approved assessor, or give you what's called Prior Written Notice.
If they refuse to pay for an IEE, you can proceed to Due Process with an attorney, but hopefully it won't come to that.
You can also ask the district to accept the formal diagnosis you have from before, although it sounds like there might be some other deficits you want identified.
Hope this helps somewhat. Please feel free to call me.
Tatiana
Co-Director, Classroom Matters
917.969.6923
I went through the same thing with I daughter in Lafayette. The more well-to-do schools unbelievably, are not quite equipped to deal with special needs and therefore push it away. I'm surprised your advocate didn't do or have more help. There is specific testing that can show deficiencies in specific auditory problems . Deborah Swain, PhD is excellent at diagnosing and treating auditory issues. Feel free to contact me as she helped my daughter.
We are going through this ourselves. Just write a letter requesting an IEE to the district special education contact. They legally are required to respond, either by accepting it, or by denying it and then you got into due process with the courts. It's messy, but this is how school district's operate. They count on parents not contesting and not being willing to go to court. You wouldn't need to hire a lawyer until the mediation process, but it might be worth checking with one if they deny your IEE request.
DO NOT, DO NOT accept a 504 for a child with this type of disability. There are no legal teeth in a 504. After the school district assesses your child, and you don't agree with the assessment, you can request the free, IEE, paid for by the Calif Dept of Ed. This is a very high-quality eval. In your area, the Parent Training Institute is called "Parents Helping Parents." 408-727-5775 They can help you fill out the request for the IEE.
My blood just begins to boil reading how the District has been putting you off! This is soooo demoralizing for parents and children! Our son suffered from our BUSD putting us off, then finally doing a horrible assessment, using all the easiest tests, and though our son tested very low, STILL saying he didn't qualify!! Nolo press has an excellent book ; it's called 'all about IEP's" or something along those lines and it explains every step in how to get to an IEP and how to get good services. Meanwhile, I agree with another responder. Write a short note to the District's Admin office, keep a copy for yourself and have them date/time stamp it; on the note you write "We are having struggles with our child in the regular learning environment, and are therefore requesting an IEE at the District's expense." Find a GREAT Neuropsych person (we used Terry Doyle, PhD in Berkeley, she is outstanding) and request that person. District has to respond within a 'reasonable' amount of time. Our District didn't (strung us along for months), then we filed a Complaint with CDE with DREDF's help; took us a few hours, best hours we ever spent. Then we got a great outside evaluation, ordered by CDE. Make sure the outside Neuropsych person writes in the contract that he/she will come to the next IEP's meetings to present and discuss the report and how to proceed. Lastly, I hired a Slingerland reading/writing tutor myself (Jane Ashley, she was a GOD send), which the CDE ordered the District to reimburse us for. Help your son! Follow your gut! Districts are criminal in their negligence, IMHO.