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California Education Code requires an LEA (District) to develop an assessment plan within 15 calendar days of referral for assessment, not counting calendar days between the pupil’s regular school sessions or terms or calendar days of school vacation in excess of five school days, from the date of receipt of the referral, unless the parent or guardian agrees in writing to an extension, pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 56321.

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An LEA (District) is also obligated to conduct a comprehensive evaluation in accordance with IDEA, and hold an IEP meeting within 60 days of receiving parental consent for the evaluation.

 

In conducting a comprehensive evaluation  the District must: 

1. Use a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about your child, including information provided by the parent, that may assist in determining whether the child is a child with a disability. 

2. The District cannot use any single measure or assessment as the sole criterion for determining whether a child is a child with a disability and for determining an appropriate educational program for the child.

3. The District must use technically sound instruments that may assess the relative contribution of cognitive and behavioral factors, in addition to physical or developmental factors.

4. The District must ensure that these assessments and other evaluation materials used to assess a child are selected and administered so as not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis.

5. The District must provide and administer these assessments in the child's native language or other modes of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to so provide or administer. 

6. The District must select and administered assessments to ensure that if an assessment is administered to a child with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the assessment results accurately reflect the child's aptitude or achievement level or whatever other factors the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the child's impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills. 

7. The child is assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability, including, if appropriate, health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence, academic performance, communicative status, and motor abilities. 

 

TIP: Request a copy of the Districts assessment report is provided 5 days prior to the IEP meeting. Write your request in writing at the assessment plan. You have a right to receive a copy of your Child's records, which includes but is not limited to assessment reports and IEP's under  EDC § 56504.