An evaluation can help you learn more about your child’s needs. When the evaluation takes place outside of school, it’s called an “outside” or “private” evaluation. Sometimes a school will pay for a private evaluation—that’s when you’ll hear the term “independent educational evaluation (IEE).”
A private evaluation is an evaluation by a professional not working for your child’s school. Because you pay for this evaluation, you have complete control over a private evaluation. You can choose which type of testing to have done. You can also choose the person who does the testing. The evaluation can be comprehensive or just focused on a single issue, and you can choose if you want to disclose the results to the school or other parties.
For an IEE, the school will usually agree to pay in cases where an outside evaluation is clearly needed, including when the school doesn’t have the staff needed to do the testing that your child needs; when the school’s evaluation team thinks outside testing is needed; or if you don’t agree with the results of a school’s evaluation, you have the right ask for what’s called an IEE at public expense – which means the school pays for it. The school will often give you a list of names to chose from, but you do not have to pick from that list. It does help if the person you choose is already a Non Public Agency through the school district.
