{"id":6934,"date":"2012-08-23T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=6934"},"modified":"2012-08-07T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T20:46:08","slug":"since-when-is-a-parent-required-to-be-present-for-a-spec-ed-referral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/since-when-is-a-parent-required-to-be-present-for-a-spec-ed-referral\/","title":{"rendered":"Since When is a Parent Required to be &#8220;Present&#8221; for a Spec Ed Referral?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Since%20When%20is%20a%20Parent%20Required%20to%20be%20%22Present%22%20for%20a%20Spec%20Ed%20Referral%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p>I am a teacher in the district and feel like I&#8217;m being jerked around by our sped director. She says a parent has to be <strong><em>present<\/em><\/strong> for a teacher to formally refer a student for special education testing? I don&#8217;t mean &#8220;giving\/denying&#8221; permission to test.<\/p>\n<p>Does a parent have to be <strong><em>present<\/em><\/strong> simply for the teacher to refer a child for an evaluation?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you feel like you are being &#8220;jerked around &#8221; you need to learn what the law really says.\u00a0 Look at what IDEA says about evaluations.<\/p>\n<p>Turn to p. 93 and p. 240 in your law book (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/selaw2.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition<\/span><\/a>.)\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/selaw2.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/selaw2.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>300.301(b)\u00a0 Request for Initial Evaluation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>&#8220;Consistent with the consent requirements in 300.300, either a parent of a child or a public agency may initiate a request for an initial evaluation to determine if the child is a child with a disability.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Do you see anything in the law that says a parent must be &#8220;present&#8221; to request and evaluation or for a teacher to refer a child for an evaluation?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not even sure what your director means about a parent being &#8220;present&#8221; for a referral. Ask her!<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>300.30o Parental Consent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Consent for the evaluation is another issue.\u00a0 You&#8217;ll find the requirements on p. 92 and p. 238 of your law book. <strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Avoid Word of Mouth Advice<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But do not rely on this post to give you an answer. \u00a0And you shouldn&#8217;t rely on other school people to tell you about the law.<\/p>\n<p>School personnel&#8217;s knowledge of the law is often dependent on what they were told in some meeting &#8211; or by &#8220;word of mouth.&#8221; Few school staff read the law &#8211; but often dispense advice.<\/p>\n<p>As a teacher, if you think you are getting inaccurate advice about the law, you need to find out what the law says.<\/p>\n<p>Get your own copy of IDEA and the federal regulations &#8211; and look up answers to your questions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verify School Policies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether you are a teacher or a parent&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>When the school says something<strong> must <\/strong>to be done (i.e., &#8220;parent <em>has<\/em> to be present&#8221;), you will want to be well-informed about the district&#8217;s policy.<\/p>\n<p>Ask the administrator for the written school policy containing this information.<\/p>\n<p>It is common for schools to say they have a \u201cpolicy\u201d but when you ask for a copy, you are told that it is an \u201cunwritten policy\u201d (which isn\u2019t a policy at all).<\/p>\n<p>Read:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=5740\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Unwritten Policies = No Policy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=3914\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Verifying Unwritten School Policies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am a teacher in the district and feel like I&#8217;m being jerked around by our sped director. She says a parent has to be present for a teacher to <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/since-when-is-a-parent-required-to-be-present-for-a-spec-ed-referral\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[529,1367],"tags":[1301,31,287,929],"class_list":["post-6934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parent-rights-responsibilities","category-assessments-tests","tag-eligibility","tag-evaluations","tag-parental-consent","tag-referral-for-evaluation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6934"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8049,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934\/revisions\/8049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}