Student with IEP for speech, parent asked for full eval and school giving runaround.

[Momof4]

Situation: Child has had an IEP for speech services since K. Child is currently in 4th grade, has average grades but struggles with severe anxiety. Mom has emailed the teacher to ask for a full eval for possible learning disabilities (mom is dyslexic) and to rule everything out since she is pursuing treatment options for the anxiety and child has poor reading comprehension. The teacher forwarded parent's email to an administrator about 2 weeks ago. Admin came back and said that the parent's request (which was very clear and to the point in requesting a formal eval by the school psych) was "not send to the correct person." The IEP team had already planned a yearly meeting for Nov. 29th. I'm a teacher and parent of special needs teenager that I've had to fight for. I think she's being given the runaround because they don't want the 60 day evaluation window to begin this close to the holidays. I'm interested to hear others' thoughts on what the parent in this situation should do next. Thanks in advance!

[JSD24]

I would send another email.  Address it to the principal with a copy to the sp ed director for the district.  Schools should be responding 'within a reasonable period of time' which in my state (PA) is 10 days.  I don't want this discussed at a meeting as there is no paper trail of the ask for a sp ed eval.  (If your state has calendar days & not school days as how they count to 60, I can see why they want to push off starting when to count.  The winter holidays mean a lot of days that aren't school days where an eval can be done.)

This parent might also want to follow up with the state DOE as they might want to be aware of the parent requesting an eval & the school sitting on it.  The teacher should have known who to forward the email to.  I feel the state would want the teachers in this district trained on what to do when they get a request like this.  The parent went to their contact at the school - the teacher.  Teachers should be trained on who they need to escalate this to.

[Lisa Lightner]

Request in writing. Formal request: I am requesting that my child be evaluated for.... so that there is no misunderstanding.

If they refuse, they must provide PWN.

https://adayinourshoes.com/sample-letter-requesting-iep-evaluation/

[Christy McGuire]

On 11/14/2022 at 12:56 PM, JSD24 said:

I would send another email.  Address it to the principal with a copy to the sp ed director for the district.  Schools should be responding 'within a reasonable period of time' which in my state (PA) is 10 days.  I don't want this discussed at a meeting as there is no paper trail of the ask for a sp ed eval.  (If your state has calendar days & not school days as how they count to 60, I can see why they want to push off starting when to count.  The winter holidays mean a lot of days that aren't school days where an eval can be done.)

This parent might also want to follow up with the state DOE as they might want to be aware of the parent requesting an eval & the school sitting on it.  The teacher should have known who to forward the email to.  I feel the state would want the teachers in this district trained on what to do when they get a request like this.  The parent went to their contact at the school - the teacher.  Teachers should be trained on who they need to escalate this to.

I agree, email the special education director and ask for the evaluation. List specific concerns such as anxiety, family history of dyslexia, related disability (speech) as reasons.