The law on Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs) . . .

Evaluations of your disabled child are critical to your child's success in school and life.  If done properly, they can provide insights into services, therapies and accommodations that your child needs to access a "free appropriate public education" or FAPE.  But if not done properly, it can prevent your child from ever getting a proper education and destroy his/her future.

The main body of IDEA 2004 enables schools to perform evaluations of children with disabilities.  20 U.S.C. Section 1414.  That section talks about initial evaluations and reevaluations and how they are performed and used by school district personnel in making special education decisions, like IEPs.

But perhaps the more important law is found in the federal regulations.  34 CFR Section 300.502 is the citation for Independent Educational Evaluations or "IEEs".  Here are the most critical sections:

"The parents of a child with a disability have the right under this part to obtain an independent educational evaluation of the child" subject to some rules.

"A parent has the right to an independent educational evaluation at public expense if the parent disagrees with an evaluation obtained by the [school] . . . ."

"If a parent requests an [IEE] at public expense, the [school] MUST, without unnecessary delay, either (i) File a due process complaint . . . or (ii) Ensure that an [IEE] is provided at public expense unless the [school] demonstrates in a [due process hearing] that the evaluation obtained by the parent did not meet agency criteria."

The most important parts of this are that (a) the parents have a RIGHT to request an IEE if they disagree with the school's evaluation; (b) the IEE must be at public [the school district's] expense; (c) the school district has ONLY two options - to enable the IEE or to challenge it via a due process hearing.  Very simple.

But, the school districts want to try to make this more difficult.  How?  They delay, delay, delay in responding to a request for an IEE.  They believe this is defensible because of the clause "without unnecessary delay."  The school district will argue that a few days, a few weeks, even a few months is not unnecessary delay.  The courts have not really dealt with this issue decisively yet.  I think it is a very fair counterargument by the parents that a few days is OK, but a few weeks or longer is not OK.  After all, the further an IEE is delayed, the further a revised or improved IEP is delayed, and thus the further the child's FAPE is delayed.

Do NOT allow a school district to linger on your request for an IEE.  If you have valid reasons to request an IEE, keep sending reminders to the school of your request.  If they delay too long, contact a special education lawyer or file a due process complaint on your own on this ground.