has anyone requested an IEE (Independent Educational Eval)?

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ahhh school has returned, and with it, the never ending fight with the school and the IEP process.

i am interested if anyone has had to request an IEE and how it worked out and what they did at the eval.

currently, my 4 1/2 yr old sons IEP from this past spring is for speech/language eligibility, and he gets OT services based on that. the school psych report says he is not eligible for autism based services and says he doesnt meet the autistic criteria. it is wrong, of course, and all the teachers and therapists that work with him agree that it is wrong. this year he is having a lot of behavioral issues, he had none last year. now he is hitting, kicking, pushing, and having 3+ meltdowns a day. he attends a mainstream Headstart preschool that just so happens to be inside of a school for special needs kids. his teachers are suggesting he does what another asd child in the class does, mornings in headstart classroom and afternoons in an asd classroom. there may be problems with this due to the fact that our home school district is the one providing services and the one that refused the asd diagnosis, and the asd class is in the special needs school which is in another school district.

so, i am trying to figure out if i ask for them to re-evaluate him, or i request an IEE, or whether i can push for asd placement based on our private psych eval diagnosing aspergers. also, whether it matters that we initially agreed with the IEP they put in place last year after they determined him ineligible as asd.

any previous experiences with IEEs or any ideas?

Ahhh, your story sounds very much like ours. We had a competent eval with a dx of AS but the school did everything to state that my daughter did not qualify for an educational dx of AS. I did request an IEE and they sent me all the paperwork to get the eval but things became so bad at school that I withdrew my daughter before we were able to obtain the IEE.

They will give you a list of "acceptable" providers to obtain the IEE from. My understanding is that you don't HAVE to use a provider from their list but your provider must be at the same cost as the proiders on thir list and their qualifications must match the providers on the list. HOWEVER, and this is the BIG problem with an IEE, they don't have to put any more weight on the IEE than they have on your privately obtained Eval!! ! That's the whole problem with the system. It may help you to have 2 outside evals in an IEP meeting but the committee can still OVERRIDE the evals.

I just wasn't willing to put my daughter through yet another extensive eval without some assurrances that it would help her situation. Over the course of one calendar year my daughter had about 20+ tests done and I felt that was sufficient data for the school district to understand her issues. If you have a district that will continue to stonewall you, there is not much recourse except REFUSAL at the IEP meeting, with possible mediation after that.

An advocate may be more helpful to you than an IEE.

I also wanted to add that you can call an IEP meeting at any time to disagree with his placement. You don't need an IEE and it doesn't matter if you argreed with the IEP last year.

Keep in mind too that they may tell you that an outside evaluation is a "medical" evaluation, and not an "educational" one. My independent evals, with educational recommendations didn't do squat for me.

IMO You are better off investing in an advocate. It's been my experience, with an advocate, they will bend over backwards to avoid a law suit, and advocates are used to schools and how they work.

Good Luck!

i know we can request an iep meeting, and we are doing so. the main issue is that their school psych evaluated him and concluded NO autism. i dont think there is any way we can get them to consider part time placement in the asd classroom without the agreement of the school that he has an asd. we need that educational dx.

we unfortunately cannot afford to hire an advocate, but i am looking around to see if there are any available that work for free. for right now, we have to do it on our own, but thankfully we have the support of his teachers and therapists, even tho it seems the school isnt listening to any of us.

Call the IEP meeting and disagree with the school's assessment of no ASD. Bring as many people to the meeting as you can to validate your refusal. Look for non profit advocates in your area. Tell them at the IEP meeting that you are going to disagree until they agree to the proper placement, even if that means an IEE or mediation.

Document everything that is not being done suffiecently in the meanwhile. Take everything you have to strengthen and support your opinion to the IEP meeting. You are an equal member of the tem and your opinion carries as much (or more even according to IDEA) weight as theirs. Hold your ground and show them you will not back down. Take the steps to start the IEE process at the meeting. Having 2 evals against theirs might help.

Glad I found this topic, I'm having the same problem. I guess I didn't know the right "language" to use during the past two years when I begged the school for help for my son. Sounds like it's not easy to get help. I finally got a medical diagnosis a couple of weeks ago for my son and daughter who go to different schools in the same district and have been informed by one of the schools already that they don't accept medical diagnoses.

Check out www.wrightslaw.com. They have a fantastic book called "From emotions to advocacy" that helps you learn to advocate for your child, as well as other books and articles. They go over why schools refuse you and what to do, to how to write an effective IEP. They have a lot of resources on that website and I found it very helpful.

(this is assuming you are in the United States)

Im going through the same sort of thing right now with my son's school. They keep refusing him any services or even accommodations despite the school district diagnosing him as ASD because he "tests so well" so therefore it isnt impacting his education. Ridiculous. After getting the run around last year and the first part of this year, I hired an advocate who reviewed his records and drafted a letter requesting an IEE. It was an incredible letter! We had a meeting a few days after it was sent which my advocate attended with me that really moved things along. The school still is trying to get out of giving him an IEP but next week we have another meeting which at that point they will be forced to give in. I couldnt have done it without my advocate who knows the laws and also works in education so knows which buttons to push to get things done. Good luck getting your IEE and IEP!