Child Evaluation & Service Center

Referral Process

We want the evaluation process to be a positive, constructive process for all concerned. We look to the school personnel who are referring a student for an evaluation to carefully prepare the student and the family for the testing experience. The Evaluation Center will provide you with the following documents (available on the CESC website):

Information for new users
CESC Menu of services that can be provided
List of the referral forms needed for the type of evaluation you are requesting
Referral forms
Referral questions (referral questions the assessment team can answer and questions the referral team cannot answer)
Parent Information Sheet
Parent Tip Sheet

Procedures

Fill out the required forms, (see List of Referral Forms Needed)
Send the completed referral packet to the Center, to the attention of Karen Waverly, department secretary. She can be reached by calling (503) 675-4162. Forms can be downloaded from our website. Please make a copy of the forms for the parent, and keep a copy for the school file.

Parent Information

Parents must accompany their children to the Center on the full evaluation days. Our team will meet with parents and explain the evaluation procedures that will be completed and answer any questions the parents may have prior to beginning testing. A parent interview will also be conducted. Parents need to plan on spending about one hour at the Center, from 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., for this process.

Pre-Referral Documentation

A key piece of our assessment is the documentation of pre-referral intervention activities that have been carried out by school personnel, prior to the student’s referral to the Center.

Intake

Our scheduling secretary, Karen Waverly, will notify the school and parents by letter when the completed referral packet is received.

The intake will be done by an Evaluation Specialist, who will consult with your school personnel via telephone, regarding the requested referral. During intake, clarifying questions may be asked about the evaluation questions, transportation, previous assessment history, medical issues, the need for interpreters, and other issues.

Karen Waverly will then schedule the student’s evaluation and mail notices to the school and parents with the dates of both the evaluation and post-evaluation conference. These notices will arrive approximately two to four weeks prior to the evaluation date.

Scheduling

Full evaluations are scheduled during the week from 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. A conference will be held at the Center on a separate day, usually the week following the evaluation, and will cover all evaluation results. Post-evaluation conferences usually begin at 3:00 p.m. and will last for approximately one hour.

Speech-Language evaluations are scheduled as a part of full evaluations only and are usually on a separate day.

Additional Information

It is very important for the evaluating planning team - which should include parents - to spend time carefully crafting the suggested evaluation questions. Your questions focus and direct the evaluation process, and determine the team we will assemble for the case. Please remember that you must also check the corresponding boxes for all the evaluation pieces which would be needed to answer the referral questions. In addition, your signature (or that of your district’s special ed director) at the bottom of this page signifies to us that your team has reviewed the questions with the student’s parents, and have given them a copy of the referral paperwork. Please sign both the front page (100) and the second page (100 A-1) of the referral, or it will be returned to you for signature.

Due to the high volume of referrals we receive, it is extremely difficult to reschedule an evaluation. Please make every effort to ensure that the student and his or her family are prepared for the evaluation, have directions and transportation to the Center, and are committed to the participating in the process. If a student does not show up for the evaluation, they will be moved to a waiting list, or referred back to your district.