As a former school psychologist I had to chuckle at the replies you received. My best advice would be to either contact your special education office at your school district and talk with the director about your concerns or directly with the school psychologist at your school. Sometimes there are two assigned to a school so it is easy to have another one do the assessment or attend the IEP. By directly contacting the school psychologist you may find that they are more aware of your child's case than you think or if not, you are putting them on notice that you are concerned about the legitimacy of their report. Most psychologists would respond in an agreeable manner. If not contact the district and ask for another one be sent to that school to do the evaluation. It is a reasonable request. IEE's are an option but I found many of the psychologists who do them have more of an agenda than the school district's psychologists. My best to you as you pursue this.

You can certainly ask. We looked in to this once because we did not want the old guidance counselor there. She was crazy.

Are you bringing an advocate to meetings? Ours can tell you the agenda of a particular psychologist and used that to our advantage in meetings. If you have the money to do testing you should absolutely be bringing an advocate with you to meetings.

OP here. I agree with 23:20. They do have an agenda. I provided private neuropsych Eval and they barely took it into consideration. Thank you all for your feedback.

Anonymous wrote:Of course it is possible to get a different MCPS school psychologist to do the evaluation. Don’t sign the consent form they hand you or write on it that you will not allow psychologist X to perform the eval.

Have you done this and been successful?

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone asked for a different school psychologist to attend IEP meetings and evaluate your child? I do not like the one assigned to our school/cluster and would like another one instead. The current one has his/her own agenda and doesn't review my kid's file. Just spouts off at meetings like he/she knows my kid so well.

They all have an agenda.

Of course it is possible to get a different MCPS school psychologist to do the evaluation. Don’t sign the consent form they hand you or write on it that you will not allow psychologist X to perform the eval.

I think it would be hard to get another school psychologist. However, you can ask for his data and force hom tto justify his conclusions. If you know what it is in your kids file and he does not, then you come off as the credible one.

Does it matter much which psychologist attends the IEP meeting? At our school, the psychologist only attends the triennial eligibility meeting. If you think her evaluation is wrong, get an IEE.

Hire private

Has anyone asked for a different school psychologist to attend IEP meetings and evaluate your child? I do not like the one assigned to our school/cluster and would like another one instead. The current one has his/her own agenda and doesn't review my kid's file. Just spouts off at meetings like he/she knows my kid so well.