Author: Advocate-Paralegal Ted Scott-Smith
You’ve got a little one, and you’ve got a worry. Maybe he doesn’t turn around when you call his name, or it’s the trope everyone’s heard by now, that he doesn’t make eye contact. So you do what we all do. You Google it, you ChatGPT it, and you get a thousand results. Autism research, symptom checklists, a blog post from 2013. That’s not what you’re after.
Questions about your child’s development are great, and understandable. We all have them. But getting an answer from your child’s school comes down to a few simple steps to start the process.
- Contact the right person.
- Put the request in writing.
- Say what you’re seeing and what you want assessed.
Below I’ll walk through each one, including what to write, what the school owes you back, and what happens after you send it.
I’m a special education teacher and a non-attorney advocate. I started the advocacy practice because of two phone calls. Two friends called me on the same day, both asking for information about their own child, and somewhere in the second conversation I realized that my experience from both perspectives, as a teacher and as a father of children with IEPs, could be a real asset, and that I could effect change in a different way than I could working with students directly in my own classroom. What I like to do for families, in both roles, is take these processes and boil them down so they’re clear and usable, because the hard part is rarely the law itself. It’s figuring out what it means for you and your child.
It comes up in conversation sometimes. I’ll be on the playground with my own kids, somebody asks what I do, and a little while later they’ll pause and say, you know, my son doesn’t really play with the other kids much. What do you think? Do you think he has autism?
I can’t answer that one, and honestly neither can the school. What a school can do is evaluate, and an evaluation is what turns a worry into something you can act on.
So, back to those three steps. The first one is a short email. Parents tend to work on it for three weeks and send something beautiful. It doesn’t have to be beautiful, it has to be sent. Once it’s in, the law sets the timeline for what comes next, and the sections below cover who to send it to, what to put in it, and what the school owes you back.
A verbal request counts under federal law and the district still has to respond to it, but writing is better for you.
The Request Is What Starts the Clock
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, a federal special education law), a parent can ask for a special education evaluation at any time. You don’t need a doctor’s referral, you don’t need a diagnosis, and you don’t need to wait for the school to bring it up first. Schools have their own responsibility here, called Child Find, which means they’re required to identify and evaluate children who may need special education whether or not a parent asks. But a written request from you puts a date on things, and dates are what everything afterward gets measured against.
If the district agrees to evaluate, you’ll get a consent form describing what they plan to assess. Once you sign it, federal law generally allows 60 days to finish the evaluation, though some states set their own timeline. If the district says no, it has to give you that answer in writing, in a document called Prior Written Notice (a written explanation of what the school has decided, why, and what it looked at to get there).
Do this with anything important you’re told, not just a refusal. If something gets said to you in a hallway or on a phone call, capture it. Email the person who said it with what you understood them to say, and now there’s a written record where before there was a memory.
What Makes a Request Work
A request can be short and still count, and these five things make it a better one, none of which need a professional to write.
- Put it in writing, and date it. Email counts.
- Send it to an administrator, and copy the teacher. A request that goes only to your child’s teacher does put the school on notice, but the principal and the special education director are the ones positioned to act on it quickly.
- Describe what you’re seeing rather than what you suspect. Instead of I think he’s autistic, it reads he repeats lines from the same show for most of the afternoon, he covers his ears in the cafeteria and asks to leave, and he comes undone when the schedule changes.
- Ask for an evaluation in all areas of suspected disability. That phrase is the school’s language, and what it means for you is simpler: name every area you’re worried about, not just one. If you’re wondering about autism, say so. If you’re also seeing something with reading or math, say you want an academic evaluation. If the bigger worry is anxiety, friendships, or how he handles frustration, say you want social and emotional functioning looked at too. A request that names one area sometimes gets answered in one area. If you’re not sure what to list, ask your child’s case manager, who can tell you what each assessment actually covers.
- Ask for a written response within ten days. It’s one sentence, and it changes what you have in hand later.
If You’re Told to Wait for Interventions
Sometimes a school will suggest trying interventions first, and it’s usually offered in good faith. Intervention is real, and it helps plenty of children. What it can’t do is take the place of an evaluation. The U.S. Department of Education has said clearly that a response-to-intervention process (extra support delivered in the classroom before any referral) can’t be used to delay or deny an evaluation when a child is suspected of having a disability, and the two can run at the same time.
So you don’t have to pick one. Say yes to the interventions, and in the same email, say that you’re still formally requesting the evaluation. Something like: Thank you, I’m glad to have these supports in place. I am also formally requesting a special education evaluation in all areas of suspected disability. Those two sentences keep both things moving, and they make it clear that agreeing to interventions wasn’t you withdrawing the request.
A Diagnosis and an Eligibility Category Aren’t the Same Thing
A medical diagnosis of autism and eligibility for special education under the IDEA category of autism are two separate determinations, made by different people under different standards. A diagnosis is useful information that the team should consider, but on its own it doesn’t make a child eligible, and not having one doesn’t stop an evaluation from happening. Eligibility turns on whether the disability affects your child’s access to their education and whether they need specialized instruction to reach it. This surprises the parents who arrive holding a doctor’s letter expecting it to do more work than it can. It also surprises the parents who’ve been told they need one before they’re allowed to ask.
So Do You Need an Advocate for This Part?
This is where I’m supposed to tell you it’s complicated and that you need me. It isn’t, and you don’t. It’s a letter, it takes twenty minutes, and nobody knows what you’re seeing at home better than you do.
Where it changes is after the evaluation comes back. A family in Atlanta came to me worried that their child’s IEP goals were vague and that the communication supports weren’t consistent from one day to the next. Vague goals are hard for a parent to prove and easy for a team to talk past. I read the IEP and put together specific recommendations, and the district went on to strengthen the goals, improve the AAC support (the tools a child uses to communicate when speech alone isn’t enough), add staff training, and increase inclusion time. Nothing was filed and nobody went to a hearing. The difference was knowing what the document was supposed to say.
Tips for Parents
- Put your request in writing today, even if you’re also planning to talk to the teacher. Email is fine, and keep the sent copy.
- Send it to the principal and copy the special education director.
- Write down what you see, with dates and examples, instead of naming a diagnosis you’re guessing at.
- List every area you’re concerned about, not just one.
- Ask for a written response within ten days, and ask for Prior Written Notice if the answer is no.
- When something important is said out loud, email the person who said it with what you understood, so there’s a record.
- Say yes to interventions if they’re offered, and don’t let them replace your request.
- Start a file today, with every email, form, and report in date order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a diagnosis before the school will test my child?
No. A parent can request a special education evaluation without a medical diagnosis. A diagnosis is useful for the team to consider, but school eligibility is decided under different standards than a clinical diagnosis.
How long does the school have to test my child?
Once you’ve given written consent, federal law generally allows 60 days to complete the evaluation, though some states set a different timeline. If the district declines to evaluate, it has to give you that decision in writing.
What if the school says my child is doing fine academically?
Good grades don’t settle it. Eligibility looks at more than academics, including communication, social and emotional functioning, and behavior, and a child can be passing every class and still need support.
What do I do if the school says no?
Ask for the refusal in Prior Written Notice, which should explain the reasoning and the information the team relied on. From there families have options under IDEA, including an independent educational evaluation (an outside evaluation the district pays for) and formal dispute processes. This is the point to bring in help, either an advocate who can review the record and get you ready for the next meeting, or an attorney if it’s headed in that direction.
About the Author
Ted Scott-Smith is a non-attorney special education advocate and teacher. He founded Ted Scott-Smith Special Education Consulting & Advocacy, where he helps families understand what their child’s IEP actually says, identify what may be missing, and prepare for the next meeting with a clear plan. Learn more at tedscottsmithspecialed.com
Reviewed by David Gardner, Esq.
