Identification, Assessment, and Evaluation

It purpose is to determine if the student is eligible for special education and related services.

Is essential for the student's IEP!

Pre-referral Decisions

Identify students who are at risk for poor learning outcomes.

Monitor student's progress.

Provide evidence-based interventions.

Adjust the intensity and nature of the interventions depending on a student's responsiveness to instruction.

Entitlement Decisions

Identification and Classification decisions:

based on the individualized assessment, that are used to identify students as having disabilities and to determine if they are requiring special education and related services.

Screening

is the process of collecting data to determine if is necessary to have a more intensive assessment.

Referral

they involve a determination by a teacher or parent that a student may need special education.

Eligibility decisions under entitlement decisions

identification and classification decisions, based on the assessments.

I remember that in the first block of this semester during my practicum, I was able to see how the students were getting evaluated by the tests of Idaho Literacy Standard. The teacher explained that some of the students were not scoring high enough as their peers. And that they were going to get evaluated again to see if they needed special education intervention or maybe they just had a bad day. I wonder if that is something that we should always be careful about.

Programming Decisions

The assessment gives little direction to the IEP team in planning a student's specialized instruction.

Planning Individualized instruction

Writing goals

Determining special education services to be provided

Monitoring student's progress

Accountability/Outcome Decisions

Does a student continues have a disability?

Student's educational needs

Student's present levels of performance

Whether a student continues to need special education services

Whether any modification are needed to a student's IEP

The IDEA mandates:

Procedural Requirements

Consent

The school must obtain consent for the initial assessment and for any reevaluations conducted.

The school may use mediation or due process procedures to secure permission to evaluate, if the parents refuse consent.

Parent Participation

The school must include parents in the initial assessment.

The student's parents may participate in the reevaluation process.

Assessment Tools

The school is required to use a variety of assessment tools to gather relevant, academic, and functional information about the student, including information provided by the parents.

The assessment team might use technically sound instruments that assess students in all areas go the suspected disability, including cognitive, behavioral physical, and developmental factors.

The team may may not use a single procedure as the sole criterion for determining eligibility or planning educational programs.

The test must be nondiscriminatory.

This semester I am taking a class called Assistive Technology. And one of my projects was to provide ways where the students with visual impairment could participate. So while I was doing my research I noticed the importance of providing all the reading material, even the test in Braille which is a great implementation of a nondiscriminatory test. I got excited because I was able to do a test about plants with braille.

Tests must be administered in the student's native language or mode of communication, unless it is not feasible to do so.

Standardized Tests

The tests must have been validated for the specific purpose for which they are intended.

The tests must be administered by trained personnel.

The tests must be administered in accordance with the instructions provided by the producer of the test.

Assessment process

The student must be assessed in all areas of the suspected disability.

The assessment must be sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the student's educational needs, regardless of disability.

The assessment must provide information that directly assists the team in determining the educational needs of the student.

Statewide assessments

The students in special education programs must participate in statewide and districtwide assessments of achievement.

Testing accommodations and alternative assessments, if needed, must be provided to students with disabilities.

IEP team

The IEP team must include someone qualified to interpret the instructional implications of the assessment results.

Reevaluation

The assessment data must be reviewed every 3 years.

The team determines that no additional data are needed to assess continued eligibility. The school does not rot conduct a new assessment, unless the parents request it.

Substantive Requirements

Full and individualized assessment

The school must conduct a full and individualized assessment to determine whether a student has a disability under the IDEA and to determine the student's educational needs.

The assessment should assist the IEP team in planning a student's program of special education, related services, and supplementary aids and services.

Team decision making

The assessment team must include professionals with expertise in the student's disability area and the student's parents.

The team makes the decisions about the process and results of the assessment.

The parents of a child with disabilities being evaluated must be allowed to participate in the process.

Link between assessment and intervention

The results of the assessment must lead directly to intervention.

The areas of need identified in the assessment must be addressed in the student's IEP though the goals, special education services, or both.

Data collection

The IEP must include data collection methods that can be used to determine if a student is making progress toward meeting his or her goals.

The student's progress toward his or her goals must be assessed, and the results of the assessment must be reported to parents at least as often as students in general education receive report cards.

When I was in school, I just had to have almost every other week's report to present to my parents about my grades and how I was doing with school. Also, the parents had a reunion twice a month to see the progress that the students were making but also to ensure that they were all progressing, to avoid class failing or even not understanding the concepts. I think it is important to first have a good relationship between the parents and teachers to also have better communication about the student's progress.

Ensure that administrators, special education teachers, general education teachers, and evaluation personnel understand the importance of the identification/assessment/evaluation process:

Don't use a school wide MTSS or RTI program or pre-referral interventions to delay or deny special education evaluation

Involve a student's parents in the assessment process

Use a variety of assessment instruments to allow the team to determine eligibility

Accountability Efforts and Students with Disabilities

Conduct relevant and meaningful assessments that will help the IEP team plan student's special education programs.

The school district must provide information about where the IEE can be obtained.

Parents have the right to request one if they disagree with the school's results.

I find this very interesting because where I am from in Peru. Usually, the school would not provide any IEE, not in the private or public schools because they think it should be outside of the school entity. Although, I say that in Peru the schools do not care about Special Education and the parents have to be the ones that are taking care of it, and not having the school support at all. It is really sad.

If the school district officials go to hearing and their evaluation is found to be appropriate, the parents still have a right to an IEE, but not at a public expense.

Needs to be done every three years.

It is a comprehensive evaluation conducted on a student already in special education.

Usually is similar to the original pre-placement evaluation, and it must meet the procedural requirements.

It should be conducted to determine how to teach the students in the most appropriate manner.

Informed parents consent is required for a school to conduct a reevaluation.

Medical Diagnosis and Eligibility Determination

MDT may use a medical diagnosis as part of the eligibility determination, when appropriate.

A medical diagnosis is not required as part of the evaluation but if the MDT team feels it necessary , it should be provided at public expense.

A medical diagnosis of disability, therefore, is not enough to determine the existence of a disability.

Child Find

All states must ensure that all the students with disabilities, from birth to age of 21, has to state either they need special education and related services or are suspected of having disabilities.

the students are:

identified

evaluated

located

They should include:

Public awareness programs

Mailings to parents

Television and radio advertisements

Coordinate activities with local service agencies

Parental Consent

School should:

Notifiy the parents in writing of their intent to conduct an evaluation.

Obtain their consent to proceed.

Pre-referral Evaluation

They are conducted in the general education program to attempt to ameliorate or remediate the problem prior to referral to special education.

Preplacement Evaluation

IDEA (2004) established a timeframe of 60 days to complete an evaluation after receiving parental consent.

Comprehensiveness of the Evaluation

Purpose of the evaluation:

To determine whether a child has a disability covered under the IDEA and if he or she needs special education

Determine the content of the child's special education program.

Evaluator should collect:

Relevant functional and developmental information.

Information from the student's parents.

Information relating to allowing a student to access and progress in general education.

classroom-based assessments and observations from teachers and related services providers.

Qualification of Evaluations

The evaluation is conducted by the MDT members, it should have at least one teacher or specialist in the area of the child's suspected disability.

Evaluation Materials and Procedures

Test and other evaluation materials must be:

provided and administered in the student's native language or mode of communication unless not feasible to do so.

validated for the specific purpose for which they are used.

administered by trained personnel in conformity with instructors.

The evaluation must be tailored to assess specific areas of educational needs.

The evaluation must be designed to reflect the student's aptitude or achievement level rather than reflecting the student's disabilities unless intended to so.

No single procedure is used as the sole criterion to determine FAPE.

Decisions are made by a multidisciplinary team, including one person knowledgeable in the area of suspected disability.

The student is assessed in all areas of suspected disability.

Special Rules for Eligibility Determination

1. The MDT should prepare a written report of the evaluation results consisting of:

whether the students has a specific learning disability

what the basis for making the determination is

what relevant behavior was noted during the observation

whether educationally relevant medical findings apply

whether there is a severe discrepancy between achievement and ability that is not correctable without special education

whether environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage affects the child's ability to learn.

2. Team members should certify in writing whether the report reflects their conclusions. If it does not, the dissenting member must be submit a separate statement.

Non-Discriminatory Evaluation

Larry P. vs Riles (1979)

A federal district court in California banned the use of standardized IQ instruments to evaluate African American student for placement in classes for students with educable mental retardation.

The court ruled that such tests contained racial and cultural bias and discriminated against students from racial minorities.

In 1986, the Larry P. ban was expanded to include IQ testing of African American students for all special education placements.

Parents in Action on Special Education vs Hannon (1980)

The court further held that they could be used in the special education placements of African American children.

The court also found that the school district had not used the IQ tests as the sole basis for special education placement, thereby complying with the IDEA.

Crawford vs Honig (1994)

According to Gorn (1996), IQ tests can be valuable part of the evaluation process as long as they are paid, are not racially or culturally discriminatory, and are not used as the sole criterion for placement.