Parents of children with special needs, and their attorneys, are often baffled by the poor quality of public educational evaluations. And those evaluations are key to setting the services that a child with special needs will receive in school, known as the child’s individualized education program (IEP).

In the latest issue of the Legal Intelligencer, Attorney Robin Lipp discusses a conflict of interest that contributes to this problem. Public school districts test a child’s needs, and then pay to meet the needs they identify. The fewer the needs, the less the school must pay. The best way out of this jam is to have an independent public agency conduct the evaluations in the first place. Removing the bad incentives would be a first step to better evaluations. You can read the full article here.

The Legal Intelligencer is Pennsylvania’s premier publication for legal news. Attorneys at Berney & Sang publish regularly in the Intelligencer about education and the law.

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