Re-evaluation

Local policies may differ, but I am assuming that it can be done anytime as long as it has been completed in time to invite the parent to the conference prior to the 3 year date.

Janis

Janis is right. By federal law it must be done by the triennial anniversary date of the IEP.

The meeting has to be held 65 days before the re-eval date so that this will give the school time if testing is decided to be needed. This is part of the law of IDEA, federal not state. So, this is not negotiable for interpretation, all states must comply to this timeline. Our school was taken to court because they were holding reevals without the 65 days and we lost because the court said that we had pre-determined that the student was n’t going to need testing before the meeting took place. This is illegal.

Where in IDEA is the 65 day timeline?

The only thing I can figure out is,
is it possible the parent had filed a state complaint?( there is a 60 day timeline there) Or did they refuse consent for a reeval? Then the district would had to invoke due process on the parent,( but this would be a 45 day timeline)AND if a eval is going to be presented as evidence in a due process case they must provide it 5 business days prior to the hearing to all parties involved? I didn’t check 504 ,but it might be under this instead?

There has to be some special circumstance or else that state or school district has set that rule. We have never been told of a 65 day rule and obviously we’d be totally out of compliance by now if there was! Our distrcit has always come through with high marks on paperwork compliance (and of course we know why…money).

Janis

Okay, I got out the federal regulations and it states in Chapter 14:
The following timeline applies to the completion of multidisciplinary evaluations:

(1) Each district shall establish and implement procedures to complete a multidisciplinary evaluation for a student referred for the evaluation or reevaluation within 45 school days after receiving parental permission for an initial evaluation, after notifying the parents of a reevaluation or after receiving an order of a court or hearing officer to donduct a multidisciplinary evaluation.”
The 65 days include weekends. It also states that ” an evaluation or reevaluation report shall be completed within 10 school days after completion of the multidisciplinary evaluation. Let’s say that the date for a reevaluation was Sept 7th. If you would have the meeting Sept. 5th and the parents asked for testing, you would be out of compliance because the triennial would be postponed until the testing took place and you know how long that would take. This is especially important since the student doesn’t need to be tested unless the team feels that they should be for whatever reason. This is the states’ interpretation of that Chapter.

Shay,I honestly think this is still your state regs. IDEA states that the districts must come up with their own policies and procedures. Maybe this is what yours did?

No, this is the state regs. The regs that I have are from the state of Pa, the federal regs are on one side of the page and the state interpretation is on the other, comparing the two. But think about it, we never had to worry about this before when we tested every time we had a reevaluation. Now, with not having to test, what would happen if the parents asked for testing at the reeval? You would have to stop the meeting, schedule it for at least two months later, the result would be out of timeline. You also have to write a new IEP within a month of reevaluation, that would be out of sync as well. Having the reeval 65 days before the reeval date gives you the time to be within regulations timeline if testing is decided upon. It does make sense.

Why would the parent even have to wait until the meeting? Why wouldn’t the school either request the reeval and consent,or inform the parent that it is coming,so they might make the decision to request the reeval?

Don’t get me wrong I love the fact that there is a timeline at all. This protects the student even further then having to wait some ungodly amount of time to be identified. I don’t know if you caught my later post about 504,but I wound up having to file a complaint against my district because they were telling me my children would have to wait 18 months to be evaluated!This complaint was the only reason the district now has a timeline. Our state is considering making a timeline,but hasn’t as of yet.

Socks,

That’s what we do. We see the re-eval coming and we have the parent come in a few weeks ahead and we do a re-evaluation determination (yes, another form) and decide if more testing is needed or not. Or for example, if I have a re-eval due in March 2003 and the annual review is due this September 2002, at that annual review we will go ahead and do the reevaluation determination (RD). If more testing is needed, we just go forward from that point and complete the re-eval a little early. If not, then the date we did the RD becomes the new third year re-eval date.

Janis

Sounds practical to me. Why would the three year dates change?

I just meant that the new re-eval date will change to the date you have the meeting to discuss the re-eval testing even if it is early.

Janis

ahhh,gotcha:-)