As an administrator at a residential school for boys on the Autism Spectrum, one of the first documents we'd receive prior to a student enrolling was a Neuropsychological Evaluation (also called a Psycho-educational Evaluation or Psych Evaluation). This report includes a summary of assessments, interviews, and observations of the student. It relies on performance on the assessments, and just as important a family/student history of successes and challenges in and out of the classroom as well as feedback/rating scales from teachers.
Main Parts of a Neuropsychological Evaluation:
Basic Student info--Name, age, grade, town of residence, dates of testing
Tests, Ratings, and Inventories used and sometimes who administered the test
Reason for the testing--Why is the student/young adult being tested? What is the current situation in the student's and family's life that indicated testing might help identify strengths and weaknesses? This section often includes a paragraph summary of the student's home life, academic history, and presenting challenges associated with school, social skills, communication, or work-life. It can share student responses to past interventions and treatments/strategies that have already been tried in support of the student.
Background Information--This portion can include developmental history from birth to current age including challenges during infancy, progress and delays in reaching milestones, past testing results, family psychiatric history, mental health history, past and current medications, history of substance use, and history of aggressive, criminal, or suicidal behavior.
Results of Testing--This often includes IQ, Executive Functioning, Academic Functioning, Language, Learning and Memory, Visual Spatial & Motor Skills, and Social & Emotional Functioning. The description of these often explains the test/assessment/rating scales used and sometimes how they were administered. It also explains scores/results, and more importantly it explains what this means in terms of how the student's abilities might be affected.
Summary--What does the testing mean? How might the scores affect the student's performance in school, social settings, home life, work life, and independent living? This section often discusses student strengths based on testing and deficits/challenges around a certain process or skill-set used during testing that indicates challenges in functional performance (real-world use of skills).
Recommendations--Often the most important part of the Neuropsych, especially for many students on the Autism Spectrum and with ADD/ADHD. This section lists any issues the student has (physical, attention, learning, social, emotional) and strategies to address each of these areas.
Options for the Parent of an Autistic or Neurodiverse Student:
A. Prior to an IEP meeting, parents typically request that the district do an Initial Evaluation on their child. The school might delay testing to see if more rigorous supports for the child helps (called Response to Intervention, RTI). If the RTI does not help the student, the evaluation is done by the school.
B. Parents can disagree with the school's Initial Evaluation of their child. For example, if the student struggles in reading and keeping up with the pace of their peers in class and the evaluation shows no/fewer concerns in the reading areas, parents can disagree with the findings and request that independent testing is done outside of the district. Parents can request that the district pay for this outside testing.
C. Parents can have independent testing done along with district-based testing. Parents might choose to have the school do an evaluation to determine if an IEP is needed, and they can also have a Neuropsychological, Psychoeducational, or Psych evaluation done independently. The benefit of parents paying for and doing this on their own are that parents can choose to keep these results private and not share them if they choose. Or parents can share them to increase data/information showing that their child needs and IEP and services.
Links we like related to testing, identifying needs, and the special education/IEP process:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/screening.html
https://www2.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html
https://utahparentcenter.org/publications/infosheets/referral-and-evaluation/
https://idrpp.usu.edu/act-early-utah/index