The report arrives as a PDF with thirty pages of tables, abbreviations, and numbers with decimal points. The meeting is in three days. It is tempting to skip to the last page and read the conclusion.
Please read the middle. That is where you see what was measured, what was left out, and whether your input made it in.
What the report is for
The evaluation exists to help a group of qualified professionals and you decide two things: whether your child has a disability, and what your child's educational needs are. The group draws on information from many sources, including test results, your input, teacher recommendations, and information about your child's physical condition and cultural background. Under the federal rule, no single test or measure can be the sole basis for the decision.
You are entitled to a copy of the report and the eligibility documentation at no cost to you.
A map of a typical report
Reports differ from district to district, but most follow a similar order. The headings below are typical, not required.
| Section | What it usually contains | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Reason for referral | Why the evaluation was requested, and by whom | Does it include the concerns you wrote in your request? |
| Background | History, health, prior services, attendance, language | Are the facts right? Is anything missing that matters? |
| Parent input | What you said in interviews or forms | Is your input here, in your words? |
| Classroom observation | What the evaluator saw in class | How long, when, and in what subject? |
| Tests and results | Names of tests, scores, and short descriptions | Do the tests cover every area you were concerned about? |
| Summary and strengths | The evaluator's overall picture | Are strengths listed, not only weaknesses? |
| Eligibility conclusion | Whether the team finds a qualifying disability and a need for special education | Which category, and what is the reasoning? |
| Recommendations | Suggested services, supports, and next steps | Are they specific enough to turn into IEP goals? |
The federal rule says the child must be assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability and that the evaluation has to be thorough enough to identify all of the child's special education and related service needs. If your concern is not in the report, say so.
Reading the scores without panic
Most of the numbers in a report are standard scores, scaled scores, or percentile ranks. They answer a question: how did my child do compared with other children the same age?
| Score | Usual average | Typical spread | How to read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard score | 100 | 15 points | 85 to 115 covers the middle two-thirds of children tested |
| Scaled (subtest) score | 10 | 3 points | 7 to 13 is the middle range on most subtests |
| T-score | 50 | 10 points | 40 to 60 is the middle range |
| Percentile rank | 50th | Not applicable | The share of same-age children who scored lower |
| Raw score | Not applicable | Not applicable | The count of items answered correctly, before conversion |
| Standard score | Percentile rank |
|---|---|
| 70 | 2 |
| 85 | 16 |
| 100 | 50 |
| 115 | 84 |
| 130 | 98 |
These values come from a conversion table in a Wrightslaw white paper on test scores. Different tests can differ slightly, so check the tables in your child's own report.
A percentile rank is not a percent correct. A child at the 40th percentile did not answer 40 percent of the questions correctly. It means 40 percent of same-age children scored lower.
Grade equivalents and age equivalents look friendly but are easy to misread. A sixth grader with a grade equivalent of 8.1 on a sixth-grade vocabulary test scored like a typical eighth grader in the first month of school on that test. It does not mean the child is ready for eighth-grade work.
What the eligibility conclusion means
The conclusion has two parts. First, whether your child has a disability in one of the categories the federal law lists: autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, or visual impairment including blindness. Second, whether, because of that disability, your child needs special education and related services. A child can meet the first part and not the second, and the report should explain its reasoning for each.
States may also use their own labels or add options, such as a developmental delay category for younger children, so the wording in your report may differ from this list. If the label surprises you, ask what it is based on and how it will affect the services in the IEP.
Three checks before the meeting
- Does it cover your concerns? Match your written concerns against the tests listed. If you worried about attention, writing, or social skills, look for them.
- Do the composites hide anything? A composite averages several subtests. If a child does well in decoding and poorly in comprehension, the average can land near the middle and look fine when neither skill is average. Read the subtests.
- Is it the same test over time? When you compare scores across years, compare the same edition of the same test, and treat small differences with caution. Not every change in a score is meaningful.
Questions to ask about the report
- Can you explain in plain words what this score means for classroom work?
- Which of these results led the team to its conclusion, and which did not matter much?
- Did the evaluation look at the areas in my request, including [name your concern]?
- What do the strengths here suggest for teaching?
- How do these results translate into goals and services?
If you disagree with the report
If you disagree with an evaluation the school did, you can ask for an independent educational evaluation at public expense. The school then has to pay for it or file for a hearing to show its own evaluation was appropriate. Our guide on what to do if you disagree with the IEP lays out the choices. To see where the evaluation fits in the overall timeline, read how long an IEP evaluation takes, and for the meeting itself, the IEP meeting checklist. Terms are in the glossary.