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OREGON

Family declines special services

When a Home School Legal Defense Association member family in Jackson County received a request from the local school district for evaluation of their child, they contacted us. The family had been working with their pediatrician to address their child's speech needs and had been referred to Asante Health System Special Services.

After learning that Asante's early childhood special education services would be coordinated with the local public school district, the family decided to meet their child's needs privately and turned to HSLDA Attorney Thomas Schmidt for help.

Schmidt notified Asante of the family's decision to decline evaluation of their child and to meet any needs through private service providers instead. Schmidt also informed Asante that under Oregon law, a parent may create a privately developed plan (PDP), with the assistance of one or more private service providers, to address special education needs. One of the benefits of this option is that, when testing is required in grades 3, 5, 8, and 10, the PDP team can determine an alternative evaluation to demonstrate satisfactory educational progress.

Once Asante was notified of the family's decision to decline services and take an alternative approach with a PDP team, the school district dropped the evaluation request.