I would also like to thank my family and friends for their support; especially my parents for allowing me to stay with them while I finally completed this project. And finally, to my current colleagues and support staff who have understood me so much and brought me down during the difficult times: thank you. Parents from a national sample (N = 139) responded to survey and narrative response items including demographic information, parent characteristics, child characteristics, as well as items related to satisfaction, trust, and conflict with their child's school.
Most parents had low levels of satisfaction and trust with both the special education process and school personnel. Additionally, this study began to assess the impact of private psychoeducational assessment on the parent-school relationship and found that parents' responses indicated that schools were often resistant to reviewing private psychoeducational assessment, as well as resistant to the results of private psychoeducational assessments.
Introduction
A private psychoeducational evaluation is defined as an evaluation that includes at least a cognitive assessment conducted by a professional or agency other than the public school district and paid for by the parent. The current study was designed to build on Garretson's work to further investigate parents who requested and paid for private psychoeducational evaluations despite the school district having the responsibility to evaluate the child for special education. Sometimes the school would complete a school-based psychoeducational evaluation with parental consent, and then the parents would request an additional private psychoeducational evaluation for a second opinion.
Regardless of why a private psychoeducational evaluation was performed, it was the responsibility of the school psychologist to review these external evaluations for the multidisciplinary team to determine eligibility for special education services. If IDEA mandates special educational practices that are clear in the evaluation process, why would a parent choose to have a private psychoeducational evaluation. Either these parents are not satisfied with the school or have previous negative experiences and conflicts, for which they seek a private psycho-pedagogical evaluation.
To date, no research has examined why parents seek private psychoeducational evaluations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate why parents seek private psychoeducational evaluations for their school-age children.
Literature Review
The special education process begins with the referral of a student with a suspected disability to a multidisciplinary team. When assessing a disabled child, the assessment must be comprehensive enough to identify all the child's needs for special education and related services. Family involvement is a key aspect of the special education process and parents and/or guardians are expected to be involved throughout the special education process.
The research discussed earlier has shown that parents may feel active participants in the special education process and often feel satisfied with the special education process. Garretson (1980) analyzed parental perceptions of the special education process in cases where parents requested and did not request an independent psychoeducational evaluation for their children with learning disabilities. Further, family income at or below the poverty level was found to decrease parental satisfaction with the special education process.
As a practicing school psychologist for seven years, I have conducted over 1,000 special education evaluations as part of the special education process. These parents had only learned about special education when they brought the completed private psychoeducational evaluation to share with someone in the school system. However, there is a phenomenon occurring in which parents seek a private psychoeducational evaluation, at personal cost, rather than participate in the special education evaluation process.
IDEA has strict guidelines regarding parent involvement in the special education process, as well as a comprehensive evaluation process that must be followed (IDEA, 300.502).
Method
Age at the time of the first private psychoeducational evaluation ranged from age 5 to 17 years with a mean age of 9 years (see Table 4 for the child's age at the time of the private psychoeducational evaluation). Five organizations consisting of public school districts and parent advocacy groups were identified as resources for recruiting participants. Parent advocacy groups were identified in similar geographic areas, as well as a national parent advocacy group, because of these groups recommending that parents seek private psychoeducational evaluations and thus have access to appropriate participants.
The director of one parent advocacy group did not respond to multiple attempts to contact them. Another parent advocacy group was interested in participating but had a policy of not sending any information to members unrelated to their service. The national parent advocacy group agreed to participate and is believed to be the main source of participants.
Participants were recruited through collaboration with a national parenting organization and were given access to an online survey. Although the two school districts and a regional parent advocacy group declined to participate, the National Parent Advocacy Center agreed to cooperate with the researcher. The national parent advocacy group posted a research request notice on both its website and social media, which included a letter to parents as well as a link to a web-based survey.
All participants who read the invitation to participate were asked to forward the survey link to any parents who may also have requested private psychoeducational assessments. The other parent advocacy group that agreed to participate did not post a notice of participation in the research to their members; but forwarded the request for participation to other parent resources for potential second-tier participants to consider participating. To create the Parent Questionnaire (see Appendix A), this researcher compiled a list of hypothesized reasons parents seek private psychoeducational evaluations through personal work experience and relevant research.
Second, the Garretson survey focused on comparing parents who did and did not seek independent psychoeducational evaluations, whereas the present study focused only on parents who did seek private psychoeducational evaluations and on parents' beliefs and experiences with the special education process and educators; as well as the collection of descriptive information about the parents and the child for whom the private psychoeducational assessment was requested. Parental characteristics including parental education level, family income, frequency of parent-reported conflict with school, involvement with parent advocacy groups, experience with special education, and parental satisfaction with previous assessments were used as variables. independent. Responses were coded into themes related to why parents sought private psychoeducational evaluation, satisfaction, trust, conflict, and how the school obtained private psychoeducational evaluations.
Results
Thirty-eight percent indicated that they sought a private psycho-educational evaluation because of the belief that the school was biased. Twenty-nine percent of parents referred to the belief that a private psychoeducational evaluation was of better quality. It was hypothesized that lack of satisfaction may be a reason for parents to seek private psychoeducational evaluation.
In the narrative response, parents were asked to say how satisfied they were with the school in general. Of the 132 parents who responded, 49% said they felt the school was not meeting their child's needs. Parents were asked to describe their overall level of trust in the school in a narrative (n = 125).
Almost half of parents indicated that they did not feel the school met their child's needs, with 48% of respondents saying so. Conflict with the school has also been considered a reason why parents may seek private psychoeducational evaluations. The majority of parents indicated they had minimal conflict with the school as 38% indicated no conflict with the school and 27%.
Fewer parents reported 3-5 conflicts, with 17% endorsing this, and 19% indicated over five conflicts with the school (see Table 9 for parent responses regarding conflict). Only 36% of parents reported being involved in parental advocacy at the time of the private psychoeducational assessment (see Table 12). Respondents who are involved in Parent Protection reported significantly higher levels of conflict with school than respondents who are not involved in Parent Protection, t p = 0.018, (Ms: 2.46 and 1.99 respectively).
When the results of private psychoeducational evaluations were shared with the school (n of parents reported at least some negative reception of the school, while 56% of parents reported positive reception of the school (see Table 15).) Parents were asked to describe to what extent they felt the Parent-school relationship was changed by seeking private psychoeducational evaluation Ten percent of parents referred to legal involvement, in addition, 6% of parents reported that the school had delayed reviewing the results.
Discussion
Parents were also asked whether they thought that the private psychopedagogical evaluation had an impact on the relationship between parents and the school. In addition, parents cited the school's refusal to conduct a psychological evaluation and failure to meet their child's needs as reasons for seeking a private psycho-pedagogical evaluation. In addition, parents identified school rejection and a school that does not meet their child's needs as reasons for seeking a private psychoeducational evaluation.
This was an exploratory study that sought to identify why parents seek private psychoeducational evaluation. In addition, it began to explore the impact on the parent-school relationship following private psycho-educational evaluation. After private psychoeducational evaluation, more than half of the participants reported that the school was resistant to private psychoeducational evaluation results.
Please answer items related to the FIRST time a private psychoeducational evaluation was conducted for your child. At the time of the private psychopedagogical evaluation, did you have previous experience with special education. At the time of the private psychoeducational evaluation, you knew that the school could conduct formal evaluations.
At the time of the private psychoeducational evaluation, did you think that the school could carry out an impartial evaluation. At the time of the private psychoeducational evaluation, how satisfied were you with the school management (principals) of the school your child attended. To what extent did you rely on special education at the time of the private psychoeducational evaluation.
At the time of the private psychoeducational evaluation, had you ever had a conflict with the school system regarding your child's education? To what extent do you think the school was responsive to the results of private psychoeducational evaluations? To what extent do you think the relationship between parents and schools has changed as a result of the search for private psychoeducational evaluation?
In your own words, describe your thoughts regarding the private psychoeducational evaluation and how the school received it. This study defines a private psychoeducational evaluation as one that takes place outside of school and includes at least an intelligence test.
Erin B. Jerome Education
Relevant Experience
