Have you ever sat down to write an re-eval, only to feel overwhelmed? Confused? Unsure? Hopefully, this tip sheet will have you feeling more comfortable with your role. Let's go!

The purpose of a reevaluation report is to document the results of the reevaluation that's been conducted and to document the eligibility decision that's been made by the evaluation team.

It allows educators and family members to make better decisions regarding the student's educational needs. It is not to simply document assessment results; it's meant to provide information that will change how the adults understand, work with, and provide services for students.

There is a large diversity of people reading the RR. These individuals all have different background knowledge, reading levels, and knowledge of special education terms and acronyms. Writers of the RR should take this into consideration when preparing their findings. The use of jargon, educational jargon and acronyms should be avoided or kept to a minimum. Another consideration should be the length of the report. The RR should be thorough but concise. A report that is too lengthy is often times not read completely. This results in critical information to be lost. We want those working with the student to be impacted by the findings and in turn make decisions appropriately.

• Student performance indicates a need
• Concern for appropriateness of: current IEP, placement, or identification
• Every 2 years for students with intellectual disabilities; every 3 years for all other disabilities
• Parent or LEA request
• When a student moves into the district from another school in PA
• **When a student moves into the district from outside of PA an initial evaluation should be completed.
• When a student who has been identified in early intervention with a disability recognized by school age services transfers to school age.

• The date of the report is the date that all of the information has been compiled and the report is written.
• 60 calendar days from the receipt of the consent form to complete the re-evaluation.
• The date of the report needs to reflect when the IEP team meeting is held...which must be within 30 calendar days of the completion of the RR.
• A RR must be given to the parent at least 10 school days prior to the IEP meeting unless waived by the parent.

• Timelines do not include days outside of the school term.
• The school term is defined by the day after the last day of the school year; Up to and including the day before the beginning of school.
• The start of the school year is determined by when staff returns not students.

This section targets the impact of the factors listed above in their educational performance. Could it be something environmental or something other than a disability that is causing the student's difficulties, academic or behavioral performance?

Parents are members of the IEP team. How teams gather parent input is decided at the local level. If there is no input provided by the parent, document the attempts made here. If a parent wants to provide information from an outside source (i.e. pediatrician), this is where the information can be put.

Use up-to-date and relevant assessments used by the district. Do not use assessments that are many years old.

• Progress toward IEP goals
• Performance relative to the general education curriculum
• What supports do they utilize to access the general education curriculum?
• Do they participate in an alternate curriculum?
• PSSA, PASA, Keystone, DIBELS, AIMSweb, etc., scores

Completed by the apporopriate person in the appropriate environment (i.e. reading disability observed in English class).

Teacher recommendations needs to be based on data, not opinion. If the teacher thinks the student is succeeding/failing or a strategy isn't working, all comments need to be backed up with supporting data.

3 questions:

Is this student's academic performance due to:

• not having adequate, consistent instruction in reading or math or having limited English proficiency
• provide evidence for each choice

The IEP team decides:

**No additional data is needed

OR

**Additional data is needed

State the reasons that additional data is not needed. Be sure this is completed and the questions are answered in their entirety.

Why wouldn't you need additional data? Examples include

• Sufficient information to discuss the disability
• Ample data to answer the two-pronged question
• Detailed information on the student's current level of performance
• Information provided on the student's support needs are extensive

**Be thorough but concise. This has been answered in the first seven steps.

**Reminder- Parents can say that they do want additional data. See the publications shared at the end of this tip sheet for more information.

• Issue a Prior Written Notice for Reevaluation and Request for Consent Form -School Age (NOREP)
• NOREP- This document is stating that additional data is needed and asking for parent's permission to collect this data.
• Complete assessments and gather data
• Write the interpretation of additional data (SLD component if appropriate)
• Complete #2 Section A, B, or C

If the student is found to be eligible:

• specify the disability category or categories that the student has been identified under
• write up the recommendations
• recommentations that are made should be related directly to the data collected
• be concise and specific; do not make lists and lists of recommendations

The signature page:

• must be physically signed or initialed by the reevaluation team members only when a specific learning disability (SLD) was considered during the re-evaluation process.
• does not need to be signed if a specific learning disability was not considered. The re-evaluation team should be listed on the document as team members.

Agree/Disagree Boxes- ONLY for SLD determination

• If SLD was considered, each team member decides whether to agree or disagree with the findings. If a team member disagrees, they must attach a statement that clarifies the dissenting opinion.

There are 10 questions that make up the SLD component. All 10 must be completed regardless whether the student was found eligible or not. If SLD was not considered, it is best practice to write, "Not Applicable," to each of the 10 questions. When there is an overlap of information between sections of the RR, it is permissible to refer the reader to the other sections or copy information from one section to another (can incorporate into sections 5 & 6; cut and paste).

Question #1: Teams need to determine if the student is making adequate progress in each of the eight areas. These areas are: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading fluency skills, reading comprehension, mathematics calculation, and mathematics problem-solving.

Sources of data include but are not limited to:

• benchmark assessments, progress monitoring data, district-wide assessments, statewide tests of achievement, and norm-referenced tests academic achievement. **Multiple courses of data collected over time should be used during the decision making process.
• Achievement in the above areas should be evaluated in relation to their age or state-approved standards. To warrant identification, the student's achievement level should be significantly deficient.

Question #2: Which process/model what used to determine eligibility?

1. RtII
2. Severe Discrepancy between Intellectual Disability and Achievement
3. Must comply with LEA's Special Education Plan

In order to identify as a student with SLD, using the RtI model the student must:

• Show a deficit in achievement (of age or state-approved standards) as well as an inadequate rate of improvement when provided with intensive interventions.
• Documentation of appropriate instruction in the general education setting, evidence that the students rate of improvement was significantly inadequate when given multi-tiers of researched-based interventions, and evidence that researched-base core instruction and interventions were offered with fidelity for a specific length of time.

In order to identify as a student with SLD, using the Discrepancy model the team must:

• evaluate the student's pattern of strengths and weaknesses
• evaluate the student's performance of achievement- is it significantly below age or grade level?

Question #3: The instructional strategies used and the student-centered data collected:

• explicitly describe instructional strategies and/or interventions used and their impact
• report information gathered through CBA and progress monitoring
• include data collected as part of the evaluation process

Question #4: The educationally relevant medical findings, if any:

• summary of student's relevant medical history or current state
• describe any medical issues that could account for deficits in academic performance
• information provided by family
• hearing/vision screening results
• If there is no relevant medical issues or history, provide a statement.

Question #5: The effects of the student's environment, culture, or economic background:

• Is there any evidence that these factors are negatively impacting academic achievement?

Question #6: Data demonstrating that prior to referral or as part of the referral process for a specific learning disability, the student's regular education instruction was delivered by qualified personnel, including the ESL program, if applicable:

• Document that the general education was delivered by qualified personnel as well as the ESL curriculum was delivered by a qualified teacher.

Question #7: Data based documentation of repeated assessments of achievement at reasonable intervals, reflecting progress during instruction, which was provided to parents:

• Results of academic assessments collected over time used to monitor achievement & how was that information provided to the parent.
• Examples include: universal screenings, progress reports, PSSA scores, local assessments.

Question #8: An observation in the student's learning environment (including the regular classroom setting) to document the student's academic performance and behavior in the areas of difficulty.

• observe in learning environment
• should be in a setting where academic difficulties occur
• document interactions with peers and teachers
• comment on relationship between student's behavior and academic functioning

Question #9: Other data, if needed, as determined by the evaluation team:

• Any other information collected
• Information from outside sources/evaluations

Question #10: Include a statement for each item below to support the conclusions of the evaluation team that the findings are not primarily a result of:

• Visual, hearing, motor disability (screenings completed in school)

• Intellectual Disability-If a student displays inadequacies in reading, but performs proficiently in mathematics and displays appropriate adaptive behavior, the evaluation team may chose to rule out ID without administering intelligence tests or adaptive behavior measures. However, if there are concerns about significant cognitive and adaptive behavior difficulties, assessments of these things are recommended.

• Emotional Disturbance: For student's who display behavior problems, the evaluation team must determine whether the student's learning problems are instigating the behavior problems, or whether underlying emotional problems are impacting the student's ability to acquire academic skills. ED is generally determined through the use of behavior rating scales and functional behavior assessments.

• Cultural Factors: Teams must determine whether the student's difficulties are related to cultural and language acquisition factors.

• Environmental or economic disadvantage: Teams must determine whether situations such as homelessness, child abuse, nutrition, chronic stress, and other factors have impacted the student's ability to learn. Interviews with the family and developmental histories are useful tools to assess and document these issues.

• Limited English Proficiency: Teams must determine whether the student's language acquisition has any impact on their ability to learn.

https://www.pattan.net/assets/PaTTAN/65/65ef4eec-c33e-49ce-9f92-2cd0de1e2ef7.pdf

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