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4. Continuous evaluation.
Special education placement should not be a dead
end. Evaluation should be an on-going process.
Most academic measurement occurs only at infrequently
spaced intervals. Such measurement does
not allow the teacher to monitor the effectiveness of
instructional procedures so that they can be redesigned
for individual children. Such measurement
also does not monitor change in a child's performance.
Children may have great difficulty or may
improve dramatically within widely spaced assessments
- and it will go unnoticed. Assessment of
children with special needs is not a one-time practice
to be followed up at two- or three-year intervals (as
is the present practice of many states).98 For children
placed within a special program, provision
should be made for the on-going measurement of
their schoolroom functioning at regular, short-term
intervals, with the option always available to change
programs or move back to a nonspecial class.
Due Process in Special Education Placement
Any assessment that results in a change in the
child's educational program should also require the
fully informed and written consent of the child's
parent or guardian before it may be begun. Under
no circumstances should a child be removed from
the regular educational program until a complete
evaluation, comprising the four essential components
described above, has been performed and the results
of the evaluation presented to an educational placement
committee. This committee should include no
fewer than: 1) the assessment speciaUst most involved
in the evaluation, 2) the child's present
teacher, 3) the child's potential teacher, 4) the
child's parents, and 5) the child, whenever possible.
The parent and child should be permitted counsel
or an advocate of their choosing and have complete
access to the materials upon which the evaluation is
based. In addition, other policies should be incorporated
into special education procedures to become
routine educational practice, such as:
1. All communication concerning assessment
should be in the native language of the parent or
legal guardian.
2. Parents should be notified in writing that
their child has been referred for an assessment.
They should be notified as to who recommended
the referral and the particular purpose of the evaluation
in detail.
3. The assessment devices to be used in the
evaluation should be described, as much as possible,
in non-technical terminology.
4. A tentative schedule for start and completion
of the evaluation should be agreed on.
5. A completion date for the development of
an appropriate educational program also should
be agreed on.
6. The parents should be told of their rights
to reject or accept both the assessment and the
educational program.
7. The parents should then decide if their
child is to be assessed. Such permission should be
in writing.
8. Parents should also have the right to all
records giving rise to and generated by the assessment.
Local districts could provide a trained
assessor to interpret the evaluation to parents.
However, even without such a person, the parents
should have access to raw data, including IQ
scores and teacher judgments.
9. Final or interim written reports should not
be distributed until parents have seen a copy of
the evaluation. The parents should be given the
opportunity to clarify points and to add further
material. If there is a disagreement between the
evaluator and the parents, an opportunity for the
parents to provide a dissenting view (in writing,
if warranted) should be offered.
10. The parents should decide to whom the
written evaluation may be released. The school
should not decide to send out material about any
child without parent permission.
II. The school may decide, in the face of parental
refusal for assessment and/or placement,
that assessment and/or placement is essential. In
such a case, a specific statement of need and
record of parental refusal could then be forwarded
to the superintendent of schools for review in
terms of the attendance, child welfare, or child
98 Appendix N, Table III summarizes present provisions for
special education in the districts we visited.
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