Take all, part of none of the following:
Dear Mr/Mrs. Special Education Director:
In response to my request for evaluation dated ____, I received the following reply from Ms. Pupil Services: We typically do not recommend a psychological evaluation for children so young, due to validity concerns. We feel that a behavioral observation would give us more accurate information. Please let me know what your other concerns are, so we can request the appropriate evaluations (academic, speech and language, occupational therapy, physical therapy, ADD and Executive Functioning).
We don't know what is causing difficult child's problems in school and feel that more than observation is needed to sort things out, hence, the full and initial evaluation request and my confusion by the reply. Information available to me from the US Department of Education pertinent to IDEA 2004, Part B for children between the ages of 3 to 21 appears to conflict with XISD's email.
We want the evaluation(s) to be performed in accordance with IDEA regs. I didn't read anything that said difficult child is to young for the evaluation(s). Am I reading in the wrong place? If so, can you provide the correct federal or state regulations pertinent to a 6 year old being too young for the evaluation requested?
Sincerely,
Mom
Ditto Certified Mail
You should also be aware that school districts are only required to evaluate in "suspected" areas of disability. Although co-existing conditions are the norm rather than the exception and the fact that your child has been diagnosed with Anxiety should trigger a lot of "suspects," it won't. A Parent Report is a useful tool to help them with this aspect of the process.
