How to Choose an Evaluator
Independent Child Study Team evaluations can play an important role in your child’s educational programming within the school or at home, but they can be expensive. Choosing the right evaluation service is critical to getting the best outcomes for your child from qualified personnel at a reasonable cost. The following are several issues to consider in making this crucial decision.
1. The independent evaluator should be someone who will assess the child in all areas of suspected disability. Parents should consider what their child’s educational needs are (academic, social, emotional, behavioral, speech/language, motor or physical, sensory, auditory, visual, etc.) and ask the evaluator which areas will be assessed to ensure that the kind of testing being conducted will cover all areas where the child is having difficulty at school. For the eligibility category of Specific Learning Disabilities in New Jersey, for example, your child should be evaluated by at least an LDTC and a school psychologist. Their evaluations should address the following areas:
- Basic reading skills
- Reading comprehension
- Oral expression
- Listening comprehension
- Mathematical calculation
- Mathematical problem solving
- Written expression
- Reading fluency
2. The independent evaluator should be unbiased. An evaluator from a private school, for example, may appear to be biased if s/he recommends placement in his school, as that might be a conflict of interest. Parents should hire an evaluator who is willing to fully consider both the school's and the parent’s perspectives, gather data about the child from both sides and render an impartial opinion about what special education services and placement are appropriate for the child. If the independent evaluator has work experience in public schools, it could be beneficial to work collaboratively with your school.
3. The private evaluator should not work exclusively as a parents' or as a school system's evaluator; this is a sure way to lose credibility as an evaluator over time.
4. The private evaluator should make clear that there is often a real difference between clinically desirable recommendations and legally mandated recommendations (e.g., the best educational program for Johnny may be at a private school catering to his specific needs, but the public school program, which offers less intensive special education services in the "least restrictive" setting, may be what the law entitles Johnny to).
5. One of the best ways to find out about good evaluators is through talking to other parents. If someone else has gone through the experience and they trust an evaluator, that’s a meaningful sign. Did their child feel comfortable after having done all the tests? Did they feel the evaluator was thorough and thoughtful in how the evaluation was done? Were the results of the evaluation helpful in working with the school to reach an agreement on meeting the needs of your child? Feel free to ask for references from any prospective evaluator. And, of course, compare prices from several evaluators.
The information above was adapted from the following sources:
https://www.fetaweb.com/02/mistakes.evaluators.crabtree.htm
https://childmind.org/article/inside-an-evaluation-for-learning-disorders/