aba lawyer referral

[music playing] we understand you havesome concerns. yes, we're asking for anoutside evaluation. well be specific. what's wrong withour evaluation? when a parent asks for anindependent educational evaluation, the school districtmay ask the parent why they disagree with theschool district's testing. but the school district cannotrequire an explanation.

and they cannot delay theprocess just because the parent doesn't give theman explanation. well as you know, technicallyi don't have to explain why. but because i have concerns,i'll be happy to share them with you. we're worried abouthis attention. this evaluation didn't sayanything about attention. well, he would have hadto be paying attention to take these tests.

yes, but that was one-on-onein testing. i'm talking about the classroomenvironment. let's ask the specialed teacher. do you see a lack of focusin the classroom? in the resource room,he's very attentive. but that's another smallclass environment. i'm talking about inthe mainstream. his special ed teacherknows him the best. so how is he doingin your class?

don't you remember? we talked about this at theparent teacher conference. you told me you have to repeatyourself constantly to him. yeah, but he's gettinga lot better. but that was onlytwo weeks ago. but it's improved. if you're really concerned,i suppose i could do some attention rating scales. so let's pause here.

the whole purpose of gettingan independent educational evaluation is for theparent to get an independent second opinion. it's not designed for theschool district to have another opportunityat testing. while i appreciate that, it'smy understanding that i'm entitled to disagree with yourevaluation and ask for an independent educationalevaluation. how can you disagree with ourattention testing if we

haven't done it yet? you did a psych eval, i disagreewith it, and now i'm asking for independentpsych eval. what if we use the psychologist from the high school? let me be clear, becausethis is important. an independent educationalevaluation, as defined by federal law, is one that isperformed by someone who is not an employee of theschool district.

so having a different employeeof the school district do the testing is not an independenteducational evaluation. i thought an iee couldn't bedone by a school employee. well who do you want to use? let's pause for a moment. before deciding upon who doesthe independent evaluation, a parent should get an answerto their request. is it yes, or no? so are you approving theindependent eval?

well that depends on whoyou want to use. we have an approved list thatyou can choose from. now this can get alittle tricky. when a parent's request foran independent educational evaluation is approved by aschool district, the school district should have a list ofevaluators who meet the school district's criteria to doindependent educational evaluations. but here's what you needto understand.

the parent is not limitedto that list. the parent is entitled to choosewhomever they want to do the evaluation, as long asthat person meets the school district's criteria. so as a parent, if you havesomeone in mind who you'd like to evaluate your child, makesure you ask the team for their criteria for independentevaluators-- just to make sure that theperson you have in mind actually meets their criteria.

well if you're agreeing to theevaluation, i'd be happy to look at your list andget back to you. but i've heard some really goodthings about dr. jones. absolutely not. i do not agree with dr. jones. if that's who you want,i won't approve it. but i thought you were agreeingto the iee and giving me your list? i'm agreeing to the iee,but not with dr. jones.

why? we've had some bad experienceswith him, and we don't like him. remember this-- the whole point of a parent'sright to an independent educational evaluation is thatthey can get a second opinion that's unbiased abouttheir child. for that reason, schooldistricts cannot impose conditions upon the evaluatorthat would prevent the parent

from getting a truly independenteducational evaluation. you mentioned your criteria. can i get a copy ofthat, please? we don't actually havethat written down. we decide that on a case-by-casebasis, like we're doing here. as a matter of fact, the federallaw does require that when a parent requests an iee,the school district must give

that parent their criteria. so are you agreeingor disagreeing? i'm not hearing a need for anindependent evaluation. but let's ask the team. team, do you need an outsideevaluation to work with him? no. i don't need any help. i'm doing just fine. while it's valuable to get theteam's opinion, the right to

an independent educationalevaluation is for the parents, not the school district. so i'm not hearing a need. so the answer is no. well, it's my understanding thatif you deny my request for an iee, you haveto initiate a hearing without delay. is that something you'regoing to do? we don't have to initiatea hearing.

the statute couldn't reallycouldn't be more clear. if a parent requests anindependent educational evaluation, and the schooldistrict denies that request, the school districtmust initiate a due process hearing. unfortunately, thisbears repeating. the denial of a request foran independent educational evaluation must triggera due process hearing by the school district.

this is a commonly overlookedarea of the statute. i'm pretty sure you do. no, we don't. [throat clearing] ok, we'll do the evaluation. we'll use dr. smith,he's very good. i'll call him right now. and can i please havea consent form? it's important for everyone toremember that an independent

educational evaluation isthe parent's right. the choice of the evaluatoris the parent's-- as long as it meetsdistrict criteria. i'd be happy to considerdr. smith, if you can get me his resume. and i'll let you know whoi choose by next week.