NOPE Statement Builder

The balance

Name categories of tools and the skills being examined, not a single instrument. Parents should recognize everything that happens; you should keep the flexibility to follow the data. "As indicated" is what preserves that flexibility. An area that isn't on the notice at all means new notice and consent.

Two examples, not one

"Such as" is legally an illustration, but a single named test reads like a promise. Two examples read as illustrative and leave you a documented alternative, for example when an outside evaluation recently used the first one.

Match the box

The text above each box tells parents what the district will look at. The tool list should visibly deliver on it: vision and hearing in Health, prior schooling in Sociological, language dominance in Communicative Status.

Plain language

Notices must be understandable to the general public, so the statements say "individually administered norm-referenced tests" instead of "formal norm-referenced assessment data."

Health and OHI

An attention rating scale can appear in Health as well as Emotional/Behavioral. In Texas, OHI requires a determination from a licensed physician, physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse, so the medical statement is named. The school is not diagnosing ADHD, and the wording never suggests it is.

Autism on every notice

If these statements are standard for every NOPE, parents of students referred for other reasons will see the word autism. "As indicated" and "characteristics of autism" keep it conditional. Mention it when you walk parents through the notice.

Play-based assessment for young children

Standardized scores are less stable at young ages, and play shows what a child can do in a natural context. Naming play-based assessment on the notice tells families how their child will actually spend the evaluation.

Response to instruction belongs on the notice

Screening, benchmark, and progress-monitoring data are named in Academic Performance so the notice reflects the intervention history that should come before a referral.