Section 511 IAC 7-40-3 - Educational evaluations; in generalAuthority: IC 20-19-2-8; IC 20-19-2-16
Affected: IC 20-19-2; IC 20-32-4-14; IC 20-33-2-28.5; IC 20-35
Sec. 3.
(a) This rule applies to educational evaluation procedures that enable a student's CCC to determine:(1) whether the student is eligible for special education and related services; and(2) if eligible, the special education and related services necessary to meet the educational needs of the student.(b) These procedures do not apply to the following:(1) A test or other evaluation that is administered to all students unless, before administration of the test or evaluation, consent is required from parents of all students.(2) A screening of students by a teacher or a specialist to determine appropriate instructional strategies for curriculum implementation.(3) A review of existing data regarding a student.(4) The collection of progress monitoring data when a student participates in a process that assesses the student's response to scientific, research based interventions described in section 2 of this rule.(c) The public agency shall establish, maintain, and implement written procedures regarding initial evaluations and reevaluations, including a description of the following: (1) The way in which a parent or the public agency may request an initial educational evaluation.(2) The methods used to assign a multidisciplinary team to conduct educational evaluations.(3) The procedures used for reevaluations.(d) When referrals for any student from birth through the school year in which the student becomes twenty-two (22) years of age are made directly to the Indiana School for the Deaf, the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, or any other state operated school by other than the designated representative of the student's public school corporation of legal settlement, the following procedures shall be implemented:(1) The state operated school shall refer the person making the contact back to the public school corporation of legal settlement.(2) The referral, evaluation, and CCC meeting described in section 4 of this rule shall be the responsibility of the public school corporation of legal settlement.(e) The public agency must establish, maintain, and implement procedures to ensure the following: (1) Assessments and other evaluation materials are as follows:(A) Provided and administered in the: (i) student's native language or other mode of communication; and(ii) form most likely to yield accurate information on what the student knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so.(B) Selected and administered so as not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis.(C) Used for the purposes for which the assessments or measures are valid and reliable.(D) Administered as follows: (i) By trained and knowledgeable personnel.(ii) In accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of the assessments.(E) Technically sound instruments that may assess the relative contributions of cognitive and behavioral factors, in addition to physical or developmental factors.(2) Assessments and other evaluation materials include those tailored to assess specific areas of educational need and not merely those designed to provide a single general intelligence quotient.(3) Assessments are selected and administered so as best to ensure that if an assessment is administered to a student with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the assessment results accurately reflect the student's aptitude or achievement level, or whatever other factors the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the student's impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, unless those skills are the factors that the test purports to measure.(4) The student is assessed or information is collected in all areas related to the suspected disability, including, if appropriate, the following:(C) Academic achievement.(D) Functional performance or adaptive behavior.(E) Communication skills.(F) Motor and sensory abilities, including vision or hearing.(G) Available educationally relevant medical or mental health information.(H) Social and developmental history.(5) Assessments of students with disabilities who transfer from one (1) public agency to another public agency in the same school year are coordinated with those students' prior and subsequent schools, as necessary and as expeditiously as possible, consistent with section 5(c)(2) of this rule, to ensure prompt completion of full evaluations.(6) Assessment tools and strategies provide relevant information that directly assists the CCC in determining the special education and related services needs of the student.(7) Educational evaluations are sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the student's special education and related services needs, whether or not commonly linked to the disability category in which the student has been classified.(f) In conducting the educational evaluation, the multidisciplinary team must use a variety of assessment tools and strategies, as required in 511 IAC 7-41, to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about the student, including information provided by the parent, to assist the CCC in determining the following:(1) Whether the student is eligible for special education and related services.(2) The content of the student's individual educational program, including information related to enabling the student to be involved in and progress in the general education curriculum, or for an early childhood student, to participate in appropriate activities.(g) The public agency must evaluate a student with a disability in accordance with the requirements of this rule and 511 IAC 7-41 before a CCC can determine that the student is no longer a student with a disability, except when termination of the student's eligibility is due to: (1) graduation with a high school diploma as defined in 511 IAC 6-7.1-1(e); or(2) exceeding the age eligibility under this article; or(3) a parent's revocation of consent for special education and related services in accordance with 511 IAC 7-42-15.(h) The public agency must provide the student with a summary of performance, as required in 511 IAC 7-43-7, under any of the following circumstances: (1) A student graduates with a high school diploma as defined in 511 IAC 6-7.1-1(e).(2) A student graduates with an alternate diploma as defined in 511 IAC 6-7.1-10.(3) A student leaves high school with a locally developed certificate, such as a certificate of completion, as identified in 511 IAC 6-7.1-12.(4) A student exceeds the age eligibility for special education and related services under this article.(i) A public agency may provide a student with a summary of performance when the:(1) student withdraws from high school after an exit interview is conducted; and(2) student's parent and principal consent to the withdrawal; as specified in IC 20-33-2-28.5 (b).Indiana State Board of Education; 511 IAC 7-40-3; filed Jul 14, 2008, 1:24 p.m.: 20080813-IR-511080112FRA; filed Dec 3, 2009, 1:50 p.m.: 20091230-IR-511090057FRAReadopted filed 11/6/2014, 3:23 p.m.: 20141203-IR-511140382RFAFiled 3/18/2019, 2:33 p.m.: 20190417-IR-511180153FRAFiled 3/6/2023, 8:46 a.m.: 20230405-IR-511220325FRAFiled 3/4/2024, 10:02 a.m.: 20240403-IR-511230504FRA