Special education testing and assessment

Who Is Entitled to FAPE?

All qualified persons with disabilities within the jurisdiction of a school district are entitled to a free appropriate public education. The ED Section 504 regulation defines a person with a disability as “any person who (i) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities, (ii) has a record of such an impairment, or (iii) is regarded as having such an impairment.” 3

Section 504 requires the use of evaluation and placement procedures that ensure that children are not misclassified, unnecessarily labeled as having a disability, or incorrectly placed, based on inappropriate selection, administration, or interpretation of evaluation materials.

An individual evaluation must be conducted before any action is taken with respect to the initial placement of a child who has a disability, or before any significant change in that placement.

Recipients of ED funds must establish standards and procedures for initial and continuing evaluations and placement decisions regarding persons who, because of a disability, need or are believed to need special education or related services.

These procedures must ensure that tests and other evaluation materials:

* have been validated for the specific purpose for which they are used, and are administered by trained personnel in conformance with the instructions provided by their producer;

* are tailored to assess specific areas of education need and are not designed merely to provide a single general intelligence quotient; and

* are selected and administered so as best to ensure that, when a test is administered to a student with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the test results accurately reflect the student’s aptitude or achievement level or whatever other factor the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the student’s impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills (except where those skills are the factors that the test purports to measure).

Recipients must draw upon a variety of sources in the evaluation and placement process so that the possibility of error is minimized. All significant factors related to the learning process must be considered.

These sources and factors include, for example, aptitude and achievement tests, teacher recommendations, physical condition, social and cultural background, and adaptive behavior. “Adaptive behavior is the effectiveness with which the individual meets the standards of personal independence and social responsibility expected of his or her age and cultural group.” (See Appendix A to 34 CFR Part 104 Evaluation and Placement.)

Information from all sources must be documented and considered by a group of knowledgeable persons, and procedures must ensure that the student is placed with nondisabled students to the greatest extent appropriate.

Periodic reevaluation is required. This may be conducted in accordance with the IDEA regulation, which requires reevaluation at three-year intervals (unless the parent and school district agree reevaluation is unnecessary) or more frequently if conditions warrant, or if the child’s parent or teacher requests a reevaluation.

Part B of IDEA requires participating states5 to ensure that a free appropriate public education is made available to eligible children with disabilities in mandatory age ranges residing in the state. To be eligible, a child must be evaluated as having one or more of the disabilities listed in IDEA and determined to be in need of special education and related services. Evaluations must be conducted according to prescribed procedures. The disabilities specified in IDEA include: mental retardation, hearing impairments including deafness, speech or language impairments, visual impairments including blindness, emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, specific learning disabilities, deaf-blindness, and multiple disabilities. Additionally, states and local education agencies (LEAs) may adopt the term “developmental delay” for children aged 3 through 9 (or a subset of that age range) who are experiencing a developmental delay as defined by the state and need special education and related services.

Thanks so much, Butrflynet. We've done all that. I know the rules. Mo has had an IEP for two years now.

I'm just trying to figure out WHAT test they want us to do. I thought (think) the testing we did covered everything. We even went to one of the best children's hospitals on the west coast to have the testing done.

We received a diagnosis. Mo got an IEP.

For some reason they just ignore the results of this test.

At the end of last year his teacher pulled Mr. B aside and said "you need to have him tested". I had a MAJOR conniption fit. The school has ALL the testing results.

The other day I asked Mo's teacher to fill out an application for this private school I'm considering. She said "Oh. He needs a diagnosis before they'll enroll him." and I'm all WTF. He HAS a diagnosis. You've seen it. You have a copy of it. I sat down and talked with you about it.

I sent her a email asking WHAT does the school want?

She passed the buck.

To someone who passed the buck.

To someone who said we needed to have testing/assessments done.

So I'm all "WHAT testing do we need to have done that we haven't done?"

I can't get an answer.

I think Drew Dad is right -- they want a certain diagnosis and they're going to ignore anything/everything else.

The problem is -- I don't know what diagnosis will make them pay attention.

And I don't know how to get Mo to pretend he has something else so that he can get help from the school.

It sounds to me like a bunch of educators who have so many students they aren't able to remember....