Overview:
A student receiving special education services must be evaluated every three years to determine if the student continues to qualify for special education services.
Alaska regulation 4 AAC 52.180 and the IDEA 34 CFR 300.303 requires that districts re-evaluate each child with a disability to determine whether the child remains eligible for special education and related services and to determine the educational needs of the child. Federal regulation 34 CFR § 300.303 requires districts to re-evaluate all students with disabilities under a variety of scenarios (bold added for emphasis):
“(1) If the public agency determines that the educational or related services needs, including improved academic achievement and functional performance, of the child warrant a re-evaluation; or
(2) If the child's parent or teacher requests a re-evaluation.
(b) Limitation. A re-evaluation conducted under paragraph (a) of this section--
(1) May occur not more than once a year, unless the parent and the public agency agree otherwise; and
(2) Must occur at least once every 3 years, unless the parent and the public agency agree that a re-evaluation is unnecessary.”
If a student’s team believes that the student no longer requires special education programming or related services in a particular area (e.g. OT, math support, etc.), the team must conduct a re-evaluation meeting prior to “discontinuing” the identified programming or service. A re-evaluation meeting may not necessarily require full assessments. Data may be obtained from the service provider or other source(s). It is a team decision.
Three-Year Re-evaluation Process
The school team should consist of the following members and this team will conduct a Pre-evaluation Team Meeting to determine areas to be evaluated.
- School Psychologist
- Case Manager
- Related Service Provider(s) as appropriate
- General Education Teacher
- Other team members as appropriate
- Literacy coach
- School Principal
- School Nurse
- Resource Specialist
Case Manager will schedule a vision and hearing screening with the school nurse. If the student fails either or both, the case manager will contact the school psychologist to determine the next steps.
Meeting
Case manager will schedule meeting with parent(s), referred to as an Evaluation Planning Meeting, to discuss areas to evaluate and sign Consent for Evaluation. All staff to conduct an evaluation should be invited to this meeting to answer questions for parent. Contact your school psychologist and resource specialist for extenuating circumstances.
Click Documents folder for process documents
Paperwork required for Evaluation Planning Meeting
► Invitation: Document a minimum of 3 attempts to contact parent.
► Consent for Evaluation
- Complete the following areas
- Click Save
- Print Preview to have a copy for parent to sign at meeting
► Written Notice Consent to Evaluate
► Provide parent with Procedural Safeguards
After the Evaluation Planning meeting with parents, case manager will complete the following paperwork.
► Referral
Complete the following
► Give original signed Consent fo Evaluate to Record Specialist
- Record Specialist will upload Consent to Evaluate in both of the following locations.
- Record Specialist will send original to SSS Record Technician
► Observation Guide
This should be completed by the Case Manager or school psychologist as appropriate. This can be completed by a related service provider if they are also the case manager (usually specific to Speech Language Pathologist). The observation should occur in an environment other than your own classroom. On notes tab, write a summary in narrative form on your observations. Refrain from assumptions, and state observable facts.
Case Manager will finalize the invitation, Consent to Evaluate and Written Notice Consent to Evaluate.
► ESER
Cover Tab
Evaluation Areas Tab
Complete the Parent Information and Observations, and Classroom Observations/Concerns
Once the above paperwork has been completed as described, the case manager will:
- Notify, via email, their Record Specialist that Re-evaluation Process docs are ready for review and confirm that the Consent to Evaluate has been uploaded to the Referral Attachment Tab AND the Attached Docs in the Evaluation Process
- If you do not have a Records Specialist assigned to your building, scan and email yourself a copy of the signed consent and upload as described above using the naming convention identified in the Naming Convention section of this manual.
- Confirm with Record Specialist or personally send the original copy of the signed Consent to Evaluate to your Record Technician via In-District Mail.
Record Technician will review the process and notify team of evaluation and timeline via email.
Evaluation
Evaluators will complete their evaluation portions and enter information into the ESER. See SE User Guide for additional information.
Evaluators will email School Psychologists and Record Technician when they have completed their portion of the evaluation.
When all areas are complete, the school psychologist will determine eligibility and notify Record Technician and Case Manager that the evaluation is ready to review with parents.
ESER
Case manager will consult with school psychologist, general education teacher, related service providers as appropriate, district representative as to when they are available for a meeting with parents. Case manager will schedule ESER review with family. Case manager will complete paperwork for meeting.
► Invitation to meeting - complete and finalize one in Ad Hoc Docs
Must invite the following roles
- Case Manager - must be present at meeting
- District Representative - must be present at meeting
- General Education Teacher - must be present at meeting
- Parent - must be invited. Parent consent is required to draft initial IEP. Best practice is to have parent in attendance.
- Evaluators - best practice to have them attend to review their evaluation results
- School Psychologist - best practice to have them attend to review evaluation results or discuss evaluation as they determined eligibility.
► ESER
Cover Tab
Evaluation Areas Tab
Nothing for Case Manager to enter here
Eligibility Tab
Case manager will communicate with School Psychologist when they want to sign this page, before or during meeting. Print this page for School psychologist to sign. Once signed, case manager will give to Record Specialist to upload to Attachments in ESER using the naming convention detailed in the Naming Convention section of this manual.
Notes Tab
Enter meeting notes here during the meeting. It is helpful to have another team member take notes during the meeting so you can run the meeting. Notes can be taken in a word document then copy/pasted into the Notes Tab after the meeting or notes can be typed directly into the plan during the meeting. It is not necessary to attach a copy of the meeting notes to the plan. Entering them into this Tab is what is required.
Summary/Participants Tab
Case manager will enter participant’s names and roles. Be sure to indicate which staff member will be acting as the roles of District Representative, Case Manager/SE Teacher, and General Education Teacher.
Case manager will print preview ESER and print the Summary/Participant page for signatures at the meeting.
Results
The first step in working with a parent in disagreement, is to discuss the concerns. The concerns can then be problem-solved by the IEP team. This is best practice for resolving parental disagreement, addressing the concerns at the school level, and expediting the process. Thoroughly document any solutions with a Written Notice and follow through with the plan in a timely manner. Remember to communicate frequently with parents to keep them informed of the implementation of solutions.
If the parent continues to have concerns, contact your Resource Specialist immediately with the concerns and what solutions have been explored with the parent.
Disagrees with Results
Team members that disagrees with the eligibility determination at the ESER meeting, may indicate disagreement in the ESER notes and Written Notice. Team member will submit an explanation of their position. Contact your Resource Specialist in this situation for next steps.
Attachment Tab
This tab will have the eligibility page with school psychologist signature uploaded here by Record Specialist. After the meeting with parents, the meeting signature page will be uploaded here by Record Specialist with the naming convention detailed in the Naming Convention section of this manual.
► Written Notice - complete all boxes
When an evaluation has been conducted, an annual review of the IEP must be held within the 90 days from consent.
► Draft IEP
ments
State & District testing accommodations must be recorded in this section.
Accommodations must be utilized and evaluated regularly to determine whether they are effective and necessary. They are not random choices; they would require evidence of effectiveness. All accommodations must be in place in the classroom, and available to the student for all related academic areas. Participation Guidelines can be found HERE
Print Preview and print for signature at meeting. Record Specialist will upload original signature to Attachments and use naming convention detailed in the naming convention section of this manual.
Record Specialist will upload signature pages using the naming convention detailed in the naming convention of this manual.
- Initial IEP signature page
- Alternate Assessment as appropriate
icaid
Case manager will enter the date on this form for any student that will be receiving a related service (speech, OT, PT).
Form is located in Ad Hoc Docs. See Medicaid section for more in-depth information.
Signed original given to Record Specialist to upload as identified below with the naming convention described in the Naming Convention section of this manual.
Possible Exception:
If you do not have a Record Specialist assigned to your school, communicate with your SSS Record Technologist about who will be uploading and editing paperwork prior to finalization.