If you do not sign the permission papers, they do not have the right to evaluate your child.
There is a lot of good information on your child's rights and special education at wrightslaw"
Also there are additional rights depending on the state you are in and they may be found on the web site for the dept of education for your state.
Schools tend to use the "interfering with the learning of others" catagory to have a student removed.
Can you give more info on the situation?
Hopefully others will add more to this.
vickie39092.3955092593Does anyone know if it is legal for a school to make you have your child evaluated by a shrink? Do they have the right to say your child can't come back to school until you do??Wow. That is unreal. I cannot believe they are taking themselves seriously. What hits a vein is that it's really none of their business in the first place. Mental health is a private matter. They are educating him, not co-parenting!
Ok, so just make sure you generate a blazing documentation trail. If it's not in writing, it did not happen. The letters need to be polite, they need to state your concerns about how the school is (mis)handling things--details, and they need to state how you are addressing your son's needs. The documents are what tell the story when it comes to school matters, not what you say. Think about how ridiculous they will look if you document that they want a psyche eval because a teacher felt he had no emotion when she felt that he should.
Speaking strategically, I've heard that you need to seriously consider the services offered--like calling up and discussing the services offered by the school, and asking lots of questions. I've heard that it's a bad move to outright decline them. I've also heard that sometimes an evaluation from an outside professional is "less" if they don't go to the school and observe the child.
At this point, I would personally not tell them about the private eval. I would ask the therapist to draft a letter to the school to get them off your back.
Stick to your guns. It sounds like the teacher has a bad case of stupid.I am assuming that the school offered to provide a mental health evaluation. They need your signed consent, and they cannot refuse to offer free access to public education if you don't sign. They would need to file for a hearing for alternate placement, and in the interim he would either keep going to the school, or he would be at an alternate placement pending hearing results. Depends on the rules there.
I would send him to a therapist for strategic reasons, if nothing else. You could send a letter thanking them for offering to evaluate your child (or come up with some plausible/logical reason for declining), however you are addressing his needs, and he is scheduled to see an experienced licensed therapist. I would not give the name, and I would not sign for the therapist to contact the school. This way, you are not just declining the offer -- you are doing something about it. You could ask the therapist to send a letter to the school at some point in an effort to get them to back off. It does not look good if you turn down their services but don't provide the assistance yourself. You could also schedule him for a evaluation with a child psychiatrist but not tell the school about it. Then wait for the results of the evaluation, and decide if sharing it with the school would benefit you or get the results you want.
I've read some bad stories about schools getting involved in evaluating children for mental health services, or providing same. Things can just get out of control, and the subjectivity of school personnel start driving the car. That's definately an area where a parent should stay in the driver's seat.
NoTellin39092.4752546296I was going to say for any kind of testing they cannot do unless you sign and agree to it. If you are having difficulties you may wish to look into getting an advocate in your area. Thanks for all your feedback.