Someone on the IEP Team to Interpret Evaluation Results

Most recently reviewed, August 2017
This info in Spanish | Esta información en español

The IEP Team must also include an individual who can interpret what the child’s evaluation results mean in terms of designing appropriate instruction. As stated in IDEA, this is “an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results.”

What this person contributes to the IEP meeting

There may be quite a stack of scores and totals on various tests of performance or other measures the child has completed as part of the evaluation process in special education. This is especially true if this IEP meeting is taking place after the initial evaluation conducted to determine if the child, indeed, has a disability and is eligible for special education.

Results may also be available from:

statewide or districtwide assessments,
class work,
observations,
outside evaluations that the parents have arranged, and
so forth.

Somehow the team has to move from those scores to that instruction…and this is the person who brings that knowledge to the IEP team meeting table.

Putting the evaluation results to use

The evaluation results are very useful in determining how the child is currently doing in school and what areas of need the child has. This is one of the evaluation’s explicit purposes as reflected in IDEA’s definition of evaluation at §300.15, which reads:

§ 300.15 Evaluation.

Evaluation means procedures used in accordance with §§300.304 through 300.311 to determine whether a child has a disability and the nature and extent of the special education and related services that the child needs.

This IEP team member must be able to talk about the instructional implications of the child’s evaluation results, which will help the team plan appropriate instruction to address the child’s needs. He or she may be a member of the team already, such as the child’s special education teacher or the public agency representative, or may be someone else entirely, such as the school psychologist.

Back to top
________________________________________________________

**Highly Rated Resource! This resource was reviewed by 3-member panels of Parent Center staff working independently from one another to rate the quality, relevance, and usefulness of CPIR resources. This resource was found to be of “High Quality, High Relevance, High Usefulness” to Parent Centers.
________________________________________