Thank you

We had no problem at all...the school initiated the evaluation, which they started mid-April, had it completed by the first week in May. There was no cost to us and we agreed with the results, but had we not, the school advised they would pay for an independent evaluation of our choosing. Hope it goes smoothly for you.

I have an advocate. She told me to request testing from the school. The school can do the testing, but if the parent disagrees with it an independent evaluation can be done. However, the school pays for it. This is extremely difficult to get the school district to do. Therefore a lawyer usually has to get involved to force the issue.

We have honestly been proactive with testing RX and evaluations and had everything done prior to asking for services for just about everything. There is no more testing or evaluations that can be done other than progress now.

We have been very successful in getting what we want or the children need and the district had paid for just about all of it. We also do not take no and they know by now we will fight them and not go away. Also if you keep records and document everything the school does wrong you can use it. We never got to an attorney with anything, and barely needed an advocate and that was just one time.

Under IDEA, you have the right to an independent evaluation at district expense if you disagree with the district's evaluation. However, the district has to assess the child first before you can get an independent eval paid for by the district. So the steps would be: (1) request an IEP assessment in writing from the district (2) the district does their own testing (3) the district provides you with the results of their testing (4) if you disagree with the results of the district testing, then you make the request for an independent evaluation in writing (5) the district either agrees to the independent eval or you go to due process.