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Special Education Evaluations and the Law

by Robert K. Crabtree

In This Article:

Working with your evaluator

  • Once you have an excellent evaluator (or team of evaluators), stick with them. The more an expert sees of your child, the more convincing her recommendations will be. (Remember that the school system's experts -- the classroom teachers and other service providers -- see your child every day, while the independent evaluator normally only sees her for the time it takes to test her.)

  • Don't ask an independent evaluator for legal advice. Unless she has studied the decisions issued by courts and hearing officers and the rules and regulations that govern special education process, she can't advise you reliably on your options and strategies.

  • Be skeptical -- even of an indepedent evaluator's findings and recommendations. You know your child best. Remember that an evaluator sees her for brief, though intense, periods of time and can only get a snapshot. Also remember that the evaluator's advice is only as good as the information available to her. For example, if she suggests that a particular program would be a good fit for your child, find out how well the evaluator really knows the program: Has she seen it recently? Does she know what the program's population and/or staffing and/or approach is like?

  • Remember that special education law requires a school system to provide a ""free appropriate public education"" which must be provided, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the ""least restrictive environment"" (LRE). The preference for the LRE applies even in Massachusetts -- where state law requires that an IEP provide ""maximum feasible benefit."" Some independent evaluators are quick to assume that no school system can provide the kind of program she is recommending. Despite the evaluator's opinion, in most cases you will have to seriously evaluate the services available within the school system before having a chance to win an outside placement at a hearing. Accordingly, you should work with the evaluator to assess how much can happen right in your child's school system.


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