By law, schools must provide special help to eligible children with disabilities. This help is called special education and related services.
You may ask the school to evaluate your child, or the school may ask you for permission to do an evaluation. If the school thinks your child may have a disability and may need special education and related services, they must evaluate your child before providing your child with these services. This evaluation is at no cost to you. The evaluation will tell you and the school:
If you decide to ask the school to evaluate your child, it is necessary to submit the request in writing. Parents Helping Parents has a letter to request assessment posted on our website.
The public school may also think your child needs special help, because he or she may have a disability. If so, then the school must evaluate your child at no cost to you.
However, the school does not have to evaluate your child just because you have asked. The school may not think your child has a disability or needs special education. In this case, the school may refuse to evaluate your child. It must let you know this decision in writing, as well as why it has refused.
If the school refuses to evaluate your child, there are two things you can do immediately:
- Ask the school system for information about its special education policies, as well as parent rights to disagree with decisions made by the school system. These materials should describe the steps parents can take to challenge a school system's decision.
- Call Parents Helping Parents at (408) 727-5775 and ask to speak with someone in the Education Department.
Parents Helping Parents offers specific trainings designed to help parents with this process. To view upcoming trainings click here.
Parents often have many questions regarding Special Education. There is an excellent article from NICHCY which attempts to answer many of the commonly asked questions. You can read that article by clicking here.
