If you are concerned about your child's progress and you took the time (and spent the thousands of dollars) to have your child evaluated (privately) and you are now going through the process of ELIGIBILITYplease read. School is REQUIRED to determine Eligibility from that outside evaluation! REQUIRED. I had several discussions about this during consultations this month. This is in our state regulations. As in legal requirements that clarify/ elaborate your child's special education rights and the District's responsibilities set forth in the MA statute (M.G.L. c. 71B), the Federal statute (20 U.S.C. §1400), and the Federal regulations (34 CFR §300). Your District CANNOT PROLONG eligibility determination (and/OR the potential development of an IEP)... in order to do their own testing. "Well, we would like to do XYZ testing now..." NO. Read about this here: https://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr28.html?section=05 (28.05(2)). When you are going through INITIAL eligibility, the Team MUST determine eligibility. The Actual Quote: "The Team shall (this means MUST, REQUIRED) examine the evaluative data, ***including information provided by the parent,*** (as in YOUR private evaluation) and make one of the following determinations..." Eligible. OR Not Eligible. If eligible, they can draft a Full OR partial IEP, but they cannot just *skip* this requirement as they suggest "we want more testing...". Likewise, they cannot deny programs or services determined to be necessary by the Team! They are REQUIRED to make a decision based on the evaluation and if they develop a partial IEP, you would convene, again, and review the additional evaluations and consider the findings and decide (AS A TEAM) whether or not the new data should be implemented in the IEP. INITIAL eligibility is not "consider." It MANDATES the determination of eligibility. Please read this link to understand your rights! It is December and if you let the District do this, you are looking at a End of February to MARCH meeting. Please understand what they are doing when this happens and take a hold of your rights. #specialeducationadvocate #specialeducation #IEP #iepeligibility #teammeeting #FAPE #dyslexia #ADHD #pwn