Your evaluation team,
on one page.

What an educational diagnostician and a school psychologist do, what an FIE is, and what to do the next time a parent asks you about testing.
Take It To Your Campus

Who to call for what

Educational diagnosticianEvaluations of learning — reading, writing, math, cognition, processing. Certified through SBEC.
School psychologistEvaluations involving emotion, behavior, and autism; school mental health. Licensed by the state behavioral health council. (Formerly “LSSP.”)
Either of usBefore you refer. A ten-minute consult can save a 45-day evaluation, or make the one we do far better.
Not usCounseling crises, therapy, medication questions, and placement decisions. Placement belongs to the ARD committee.

What an FIE is

Full — every area of suspected disability, not just the one that prompted the referral. Individual — built for this student; there is no standard test list. Evaluation — many sources of data, and no single score decides anything.

1

Does the student have a disability under IDEA?

2

Does it create a need for specially designed instruction?

Both answers have to be yes. Only one yes means not eligible for special education — which is not the same as no support. Section 504, MTSS, and dyslexia services all still apply.

The clock — it belongs to the state, not to us

15
School days
From a parent's written request, the district must respond — consent form or written refusal.
45
School days
From signed consent to a completed written report. Extended for absences; special rules at year-end.
30
Calendar days
From the completed report to the ARD meeting that determines eligibility.

School days are not calendar days: holidays and summer don't count toward the 45, but every one of them counts toward the 30. When we ask for your input by Friday, we're usually near day 25 of 45 — and we can't move the end date.

When a parent asks you about testing

  1. Take it seriously — and get it in writing. A written request to a district administrator starts the 15-school-day clock.
  2. Route it the same day. Don't hold it until you have time to write it up.
  3. Don't promise. Don't discourage. Not “she'll definitely qualify.” Not “we have to finish interventions first.”
  4. Keep teaching. A referral doesn't pause instruction, and the data you collect while we evaluate is data we'll use.

What makes your input usable

Can't use it
“Struggles in reading. Doesn't try. Way below where he should be.”
Can use it
“Reads 42 wpm on third-grade text; class median is 96. Eight weeks of small-group phonics, gained 4.”

Specific, dated, compared to peers, with what you already tried. The second one goes into the report almost word for word.

If you read one section of the report, read the impact statement. It is the paragraph written in classroom language on purpose: what the disability looks like in a room like yours, and what helps. Every accommodation on the IEP traces back to something in that report — if one doesn't make sense to you, ask.
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