Classroom observation portion of the CPSE evaluations?

How long did they observe your child for the classroom observation portion of their evaluation? I'm concerned because we did my DC evaluations in the therapy offices not at the school (there is no real place to do it there). Those were all 30-45 minutes in length. The classroom observation portion however was only 15 minutes long. The day they did the observation my DC was on medications and was much calmer and sedate than the teacher has seen my DC all year. The teacher stressed this at the time, in fact she begged the evaluator to stay longer in hopes that she would observe the issues we are having. The evaluator refused and told both the teacher and later myself that they only do classroom observations for no more than 15 minutes.

DC is very good one on one so the classroom evaluation was imperative. That is why we did the CPSE evaluation in the first place. DC is a totally different child in the classroom and around other children than he/she is one on one. DC had a preschool language screening and they were unable to screen my DC because DC was jumping all over, giving very inappropriate answers, or not answering at all, not looking the evaluator in the eyes. The screening was done with 2 other children, who did not have these issues. The screener told me that she had to speak with the teacher to do the screening because she could not screen my DC. So she recommended that we call CPSE. One on one DC does not do this. So obviously they really didn't see much of this behavior since it was done quietly one on one, although they did see a very limited version of this (fidgety, some lack of eye contact in one evaluation but not in the others). In fact they said that DC gave no inappropriate answers and they did not see any of the things that I was told the screener saw. The screener went so far to tell me that my DC would never be able to function in a kindergarten class if DC doesn't get the help he/she needs this year and that based on what the screener saw DC would need multiple services a week to get the help he/she needs.

How much do they take into account the teachers observations, extensive write ups that she has provided in support of DC needing help, versus what the evaluator personally observes. The evaluator told me the only things she observed was that DC practically sat on top of the other children. She further stated that based on that evaluation she can't tell if DC is just significantly immature or if there is something else going on.

Sorry for all these questions, I'm just trying to be the best advocate for my child, and you all are the only ones I can ask about these things.

Re: Classroom observation portion of the CPSE evaluations?

The classroom observation is just a small part of the Evals. Everyone realizes its just a snapshot of the child's functioning. Parent and teacher report are an important part of the Evals!