5 year old on the spectrum, where should Mom begin?

thumper1
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:15:43 +0000

That was a big meeting with lots of personnel, but it did not seem to the Mom that they were evaluating her son, rather reading what the pre-school teacher said.



That meeting was convened to determine IF they had sufficient information to do an assessment. It was NOT the assessment itself. The school district would use the infor provided by the parents and preschool to determine what to do next.



How long should a proper evaluation take with the school district? Should she call and ask her local school district to make an appointment with their psychologist? This is SoCal so I would think they would have all the required people & knowledge.



There are federal and state timeline guidelines that determine this. I can only comment on MY state guidelines…I do not know CA’s. In CT, we have 60 calendar days from the date of the referral meeting to do the evaluation AND reconvene to discuss the results AND determine whether or not the child has a disability AND whether the child needs special education services AND to get the kiddo into program.

The parent needs to contact the Director of Special Education for the school district in which she resides. She can explain that she is making a PARENT REQUEST for an evaluation based on the information the preschool has provided to her. This director should be able to tell her the procedure…who to direct the request to and what needs to be included. This request should be done IN WRITING. Personally I would either hand deliver it, or send it certified mail/return receipt requested.

The district is then mandated to convene an IEP meeting to discuss the referral. At that meeting, it could go a number of ways.


The team could determine they have sufficient info and know what they are assessing for…and would have the parents sign a written consent to do the evals.
Team could determine they have sufficient information but do not have in house resources to conduct an eval and agree to contract with someone to do this.
Team could say they don’t yet have enough information to formulate a good assessment procedure and then determine what else they need to know (e.g. observation with peers, screening of K readiness skills, etc).
Team could say that current information doesn’t support a special education assessment (this underlines the importance of the parents providing SUFFICIENT info to the school district when the parents make the referral).