Two people have told you to get your child tested, and they meant different things. The school has offered an evaluation. Your pediatrician, or a friend whose child has been through this, said to get a neuropsychological evaluation. Those are not the same procedure, and they do not answer the same question.
Here is what separates them, so you can work out which one you actually need — or whether you need both.
What a school evaluation is for
A public school evaluates a child to decide one thing: whether that child qualifies for special education services, and if so, under which eligibility category. That is the question the law puts to the district, and it is the question the evaluation is built to answer.
It is thorough within its remit and it is free to you — the district bears the cost. The evaluators are school personnel: an educational diagnostician, a school psychologist, a speech-language pathologist, depending on the referral.
What it is not built to do is arrive at a clinical diagnosis, or explain why a child who tests as capable is not performing.
What a neuropsychological evaluation is for
A neuropsychological evaluation asks what is happening cognitively, without a predetermined administrative destination. It measures attention, memory, language, executive function, motor and sensory-perceptual function, and intellectual functioning, and adds academic testing where school planning needs it.
It can conclude with a clinical diagnosis where the data supports one, and with recommendations aimed at home and the clinic as well as the classroom.
One asks whether a child qualifies. The other asks what is going on.
Side by side
| School evaluation | Neuropsychological evaluation | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | Does this child qualify for special education services? | What is happening cognitively, and what should be done about it? |
| Who performs it | School district staff | A board-certified neuropsychologist, with testing administered by a trained psychometrist |
| What it costs the family | Nothing — the district bears the cost | The published fee, paid privately |
| What it can conclude | Eligibility under a special education category | A clinical diagnosis, where the data supports one |
| Where the report goes | The school file | Wherever you send it — school, pediatrician, specialist, attorney |
The description of the school evaluation's purpose, and of the district bearing its cost, follows the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. See the references at the foot of this post.
The two are not mutually exclusive
Plenty of children have both, and the combination is often the useful one: the district determines eligibility, and the private evaluation explains the profile the district found. A private report can also be submitted to the school team for consideration.
There is also a specific right in federal law for a parent who disagrees with the school's evaluation to request an independent educational evaluation. The conditions attached to that right — including that the district may first ask a hearing officer to defend its own evaluation, and that a parent is entitled to one such evaluation at public expense per district evaluation — are set out at 34 CFR §300.502 and are worth reading before you rely on it.
Which one you need
- Start with the school if the concern is squarely academic, the school has already noticed it, and what you want is services in that building.
- Start with a private evaluation if you want a diagnosis, if the difficulty shows up at home as much as at school, if a medical condition is in the picture, or if the school has evaluated and the result does not match the child you know.
- Consider both if you are heading into a meeting where you expect to have to make a case.
References
- U.S. Department of Education. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B, Subpart D — evaluations, eligibility determinations, IEPs and educational placements. The regulations governing what a district's evaluation must do and how eligibility is decided.
- U.S. Department of Education. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The civil rights law behind school accommodation plans, enforced by the Office for Civil Rights.
- Texas Education Agency. Parent's Guide to the ARD Process. How evaluation, eligibility and the ARD committee work in a Texas district.
