Why Families Fail to Get an Independent Educational Evaluation (Even When the Law Is on Their Side)

An advocate with twelve years of experience was helping a family request an independent educational evaluation. She'd worked with this family before. She knew the child. She knew what kind of evaluator they needed. She started making calls.

Then the search began.

The first evaluator had a four-month waitlist. The second didn't take district-funded cases. The third was willing but didn't have experience with the child's specific profile. Weeks passed. The advocate kept looking. The family kept waiting. Eventually, exhausted and out of leads, they made the decision that families in this situation make more often than anyone tracks: they gave up and accepted the district's evaluation.

The independent data they'd set out to get never materialized.

This isn't a rare story. The tools that prevent families from completing an IEE don't have to be dramatic to be effective. A referral list so narrow that every evaluator on it has an existing district relationship. An approval process drawn out until a willing evaluator gives up and moves on. They just have to create enough friction that people stop.

What IDEA Says About Your Right to an Independent Educational Evaluation

The right to an independent educational evaluation is one of the clearest protections in IDEA. Under 34 CFR § 300.502, if you disagree with the school district's evaluation of your child, you can request an IEE at public expense. When you make that request, the district must either pay for the evaluation or file for due process to defend their own evaluation.

They cannot simply say no. They cannot require you to explain why you disagree. They cannot cause unreasonable delays without legal consequence. The gap between what the law says and what families actually experience is where the IEE problem lives.

Why Finding a Qualified IEE Evaluator Is Harder Than It Should Be

Finding a qualified evaluator is harder than it should be, not because qualified evaluators don't exist, but because there's no shared, searchable infrastructure for locating them. Advocates find evaluators the same way they find everything else in this field: through personal networks, email threads, and asking around in professional communities. An advocate in one state gets a case involving a child who needs a specialized cognitive assessment in a city she doesn't know well, and her process for finding someone qualified is to post a question and wait. If nobody in her network happens to know someone in that city, she's starting from scratch.

For families navigating this without an advocate, it's worse. You're searching online, reading reviews, trying to determine whether someone who lists "educational evaluations" in their services actually has the specific expertise your child's situation requires. Districts are required to provide information about where an IEE may be obtained when you make your request, but that list reflects district-approved criteria, which may not be the same as your criteria.

And this is where the criteria issue becomes important. Under 34 CFR § 300.502(e), districts can set criteria for IEE evaluators, but those criteria must mirror what the district uses for its own evaluations: things like the qualifications of the examiner, the location of the evaluation, and reasonable cost parameters. What they cannot do is impose criteria so narrow that they effectively limit your choice to a handful of evaluators, particularly ones with existing district relationships. If the list you receive has two names on it and both have conducted evaluations for that district in the past year, that's worth questioning in writing.

How Experienced Special Education Advocates Approach IEE Requests

The advocates who navigate IEE requests successfully don't improvise when a family needs one. They prepare before the situation arises, and they know what to probe once it does.

Before a case requires an evaluator, they build regional lists organized by specialty: psychologists with expertise in specific learning disabilities, speech-language pathologists who've worked with complex profiles, neuropsychologists who understand the difference between a child who tests average and a child who is average. Waitlists are long, and the evaluators worth calling fill up fast. An advocate who starts building relationships with evaluators only after a family needs one is already behind.

When a family does need an IEE, experienced advocates ask evaluators directly whether they've worked with district-funded cases before and, if so, what that process looked like. Not every evaluator who is willing to conduct an IEE is willing to navigate a district's administrative requirements. Some evaluators have walked away from district-funded cases because the contracting and billing process added weeks of friction they hadn't anticipated. Finding that out early saves the family from starting the search over.

On the criteria question, experienced advocates request the district's written criteria immediately after the IEE request is made. This does two things: it locks the district into a documented standard they'll have to defend if challenged, and it gives the advocate a benchmark to use when vetting evaluators. If the criteria feel designed to limit choice, very narrow geographic requirements, qualification standards that only a small number of local providers can meet, cost caps set below the market rate for the evaluation type, those are grounds to push back formally.

What Families Should Know Before Requesting an IEE at Public Expense

A few things worth knowing before you start the process:

• Make your IEE request in writing and keep a copy. The district's obligation is triggered by your written request, and the timeline starts there. An oral request gives you nothing to point to later.

• Request the district's IEE criteria at the same time. The district is required to provide this when you ask. Once you have it, use it to screen evaluators before you call them: ask whether they meet the stated qualifications, fall within any geographic requirements, and whether their rates fit within the district's cost parameters.

• Ask evaluators directly whether they've taken district-funded IEE cases before, and what that process was like. An evaluator who has done it once knows what to expect from contracting, billing, and district timelines. An evaluator who hasn't may be surprised by requirements they didn't anticipate.

• If the district's criteria list effectively points you to a very small group of evaluators, ask in writing whether those criteria are consistent with what the district uses for its own evaluations. Under 34 CFR § 300.502(e), they're required to be. A list that funnels you toward evaluators with existing district relationships may not meet that standard.

• If the district presents a contract for the evaluator to sign, you don't have to accept it the day you receive it. Read it. Look for requirements that would be unusual for an independent professional, things like indemnification clauses or non-disclosure provisions that could limit how the evaluator presents findings.

• If an evaluator withdraws because the process became too difficult, document it. Write down when you contacted them, what they said, and why they withdrew. It may not give you a legal remedy on its own, but it's part of the record. If a pattern emerges, that pattern may be relevant to a due process complaint about unreasonable delay.

The advocate from that opening story still thinks about that family. She saw the same district again months later with a different child, and this time she came in with a list of evaluators she'd already researched, already called, and already confirmed were taking district-funded cases in that area. She had the district's criteria on file from a previous case and knew which provisions to watch for. It didn't undo what happened before. It just meant the next family didn't have to find out the hard way.

That's how most progress in this field works. Not through systems that make it easier, but through people who've been burned once and refuse to be burned the same way twice.

Frequently Asked Questions About Independent Educational Evaluations

What is an independent educational evaluation and when can I request one?

An independent educational evaluation, or IEE, is an evaluation of your child conducted by a qualified professional who does not work for the school district. Under IDEA, specifically 34 CFR § 300.502, you have the right to request an IEE at public expense any time you disagree with an evaluation the district has conducted. You don't have to explain your reasons. The district must either pay for the evaluation or file for due process to defend their own.

Can a school district deny an IEE request?

No. A school district cannot simply refuse a request for an independent educational evaluation at public expense. Their only two options are to fund the IEE or file for a due process hearing to demonstrate that their own evaluation was appropriate. If they do neither, they are out of compliance with federal law.

Who pays for an independent educational evaluation?

When you request an IEE at public expense, the school district pays. If the district files for due process and a hearing officer sides with the district, you still have the right to an IEE but would pay for it yourself. Parents can also obtain an IEE at their own expense at any time, regardless of whether they've disagreed with a district evaluation.

What criteria can a school district use to limit which evaluators qualify for an IEE?

Districts can set criteria for IEE evaluators, including the qualifications of the examiner, the location of the evaluation, and reasonable cost parameters. But those criteria must be the same ones the district applies to its own evaluations, and they cannot be so narrow that they unreasonably limit your choice of evaluator. If the district's criteria point you toward only a small number of providers, particularly ones with existing district relationships, you can request in writing that the district justify how those criteria meet the standard in 34 CFR § 300.502(e).

Does the school have to follow the results of an independent educational evaluation?

The school must consider the results of an IEE in any decision about your child's education, including IEP development and placement decisions. Consider does not mean accept. The district can disagree with the IEE's conclusions, but they must document why. IEE results can also be presented as evidence in a due process hearing.