What's happening next?

After you’ve made your request and signed a consent form, the clock begins to tick for the school to complete the assessments as part of that request. The process cannot effectively move forward.

​The entire team, which includes you the Parents, teachers, specialists, like the speech and language pathologist and occupational therapist and guidance counselors will use the information gained to identify your child’s strengths, weaknesses and progress.

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​Common assessments in special education include:

• Individual Intelligence Tests: These tests used to assess a child’s intellectual functioning.
  • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
  • Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale (derived from the Binet-Simon Test):
  • Group Intelligence Tests (not as likely)

The is evaluation should include:

• Intelligence
• Academic functioning
• Attention
• Working memory
• Speed of processing
• Learning and memory
• Visual spatial skills
• Fine motor skills
• Executive functioning

 

• Skill Evaluations: child’s gross motor skills, fine manipulative skills and hearing, sight speech and language abilities.
• Reading Abilities: If you have requested an evaluations because you see your child struggling with reading and accessing the curriculum, the evaluation should include:
  • Oral language skills
  • Word recognition
  • Decoding
  • Spelling
  • Phonological processing
  • Automaticity/fluency skills
  • Reading comprehension
  • Vocabulary knowledge

 

• Developmental and Social History: The people involved in a child’s life including the child’s classroom teacher, parents, pediatrician and school specialists will contribute their knowledge to develop a comprehensive history. The goal is to report on matters such as the health history, developmental milestones, genetic factors, friendships, family relationships, hobbies, behavioral issues and academic performance.
  
  
• Observational Records: a member of the IEP team may observe your child in the classroom to report to the education team how the child behaved or accessed the curriculum during the time of observation. You can also include your own observation, at home, with a tutor, or in different settings e.g. sports, training, lessons as part of your child’s record.

 

• Samples of Student Work: A folder of assignments, tests, homework and projects can highlight your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Compile copies of work you see coming home from your child.

Who and What is Involved?
You can ask the school who will conduct the evaluations. The school should be forthcoming with this information because those people should be present at the IEP meeting to discuss the results of the evaluations. It is important that those who conducted the evaluation are available.

The following people may be involved in conducting the evaluation:

• classroom teacher
• teaching aide
• special education teacher
• speech and language pathologist
• guidance counselor
• occupational therapist
• reading specialist
• principal
• vice principal

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