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Gabrielle C. Sereni

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Independent Educational Evaluations for Special Needs Students

By Gabrielle C. Sereni, Esquire

Parents of students who are being evaluated for eligibility for special education services or whose special educations needs and programs are being reevaluated by a public school district have the right to disagree with the school district’s evaluation and to request that the school district pay for an evaluation by an independent educational evaluator.

School districts may be required to fund these independent educational evaluations when it is found that the school district’s evaluation is inappropriate. A school district’s evaluation may be found inappropriate for failing to accurately and thoroughly identify the student’s complete educational needs or for failing to draw conclusions and make recommendations appropriate to the student’s needs.

It is important that the parents who do not agree with an evaluation conducted by a school district make the fact of their disagreement explicit in writing in order to preserve their right to seek funding of an independent educational evaluation.

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