"Evaluation" under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is among the major responsibilities of school psychologists. This concluding article in the series on evaluation under the IDEA provides legal analysis and professional recommendations related to procedural appropriateness. Specifically, it addresses notices,…

School psychologists sometimes are called upon as a witness in a special education due process hearing. Without over-legalizing the role and responsibilities of the school psychologist, providing concise and organized attention to this topic not only reduces the discomforting symptoms of the fear/flight reaction but also contributes to more…

Since schools have generally resumed full in-person services, the legal issues for students with disabilities include not only the continuing line of cases challenging the level and efficacy of services during the pandemic but also the potential disputes about implementation or nonimplementation of "compensatory services" per federal and…

School psychologists often play a significant role in implementation of the requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) specific to independent educational evaluations (IEEs). The school psychology and special education literature addresses professional norms for IEEs (e.g., Schrank et al., 2006), but its coverage of…

After dropping steadily from 2000-2001 to 2013-2014, the percentage of students identified under the IDEA classification of specific learning disabilities (SLD) levelled off and increased slightly until the latest data available (2017-2018; NCES, 2019). Despite the recognition in the IDEA amendments of 2004 of response to intervention (RTI) as…

This article provide an analysis of the relevant court decisions from the end of 2016 to the end of 2019 specific to the IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] child find obligation. Questions investigated concerned trends with regard to frequency, distribution, and outcomes as well as whether particular factors (such as response to…

For this 15th article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the topic is employment security. More specifically, the focus here is the sufficiency of the grounds for termination of a school psychologist in the wake of what the school…

For this 16th article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the topic is the consequences of student concussions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and/or the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Section 504. More specifically,…

As a trusted link between district personnel, students, and their families, school psychologists often have questions about whether their communications are privileged like those of other professionals. In some jurisdictions, state statutes and common, or case, law recognize privileged communications for certain specified paired roles, including…

For this seventh article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, consider the summary of the disability-related case below and the questions and answers after it. The disability focus here is specific to the school psychologist, not the…

Restraints and other aversives continue to be an active area of legal activity, particularly for students with disabilities. The March/April 2016 issue of Communiqué provided an update of the case law specific to school district use of restraints (Zirkel, 2016). Since then, various sources have provided successive snapshots of state restraint and…

For this sixth article in a series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the author summarizes a case in which an Oregon school psychologist provided foster care for a child with severe behavior problems and subsequently was reported for gross neglect of…

This third article in a series of reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, asks readers to consider the summary of a Maine case presented with regard to the issue of eligibility under the classification of specific learning disabilities (SLD) under the…

For this eighth article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, consider the summary of the concussion-related case below and the questions-and-answers after it. The overlapping issues in this case are child find, evaluation, and eligibility of…

The many challenges that school psychologists face inevitably include legal issues. In light of the agreement between the two primary professional organizations for school psychologists that understanding of law is a critical competency, this study analyzed the extent of law-based articles in leading school psychology journal articles published…