Psychological Assessment In Special Education

The school district sent a memo to school officials and teachers to inform them that no new referrals will be accepted for special educations services until the beginning of next school year. The school district has a large number of reevaluations that needed to be conducted and the school psychologist would be unable to complete any new evaluations at that time. Many teachers in the school district were upset because they had waited to make special education referrals after they had attempted other interventions to ensure that special education was a last resort. The students that were wanting to referral struggled in school and it was upsetting that they would be unable to receive the special education services they need until nearly one-third …show more content…
A number of tools are used during evaluation and reevaluation of students. Typically the school psychologist conducts the psychological assessment. Teachers can conduct educational, sociocultural, and developmental assessment, as long as they are trained and able to effectively carry out the assessment and interpret the results (School Psychologist Files, 2015). In most districts, school psychologist are the ones responsible for conducting assessments and interpreting their results, this does not have to be the case as long as the ones that are conducting the assessments are trained and qualified to do so. Many assessments are designed to be conducted by teachers and therapists. By allowing other trained individuals to conduct evaluation assessments, the school district in this case study could better hand the large number of reevaluations and referrals that have been …show more content…
The district needs to establish a procedure that will be used when special education referrals are received and when evaluations need to take place. The district needs to decide what would be an appropriate time frame between receiving referrals and conducting evaluations. Either the district needs to hire additional school psychologist or spread the responsibly of conducting evaluations out to others individuals. If the district does not desire hiring another school psychologist, they should train teachers and other qualified individuals on how to conduct assessments, so that the school psychologist is not conducting all assessments. They need to ensure that those that are carrying out assessment are qualified and trained to do so to ensure that the results that are gathered are reliable. It would also be beneficial for the school district to establish a RTI program that is used to help cut down on unneeded referrals and to provide interventions that would benefit students and possibly be successful with keep them out of the special education