The Arizona Special Education Evaluation Guide for Parents

If your child is struggling and you have been told an evaluation is the next step, you are standing at the doorway to the entire special education process. Everything that follows, the services, the accommodations, the plan, starts here. In Arizona, a special education evaluation is a free, comprehensive assessment that the school must complete within 60 calendar days of your written consent. A team called the MET reviews the results and decides whether your child qualifies for an IEP. You are a full member of that team, and the entire process is provided at no cost to you.

I have guided families through hundreds of these evaluations across Phoenix and Scottsdale. The process can feel opaque and clinical from the outside. My goal here is to make it clear, step by step, so you know what should happen, when, and what your rights are at each stage.

What a Special Education Evaluation Is, and Is Not

An evaluation is a full picture of how your child learns, built from multiple assessments across every area of suspected need. It is not a single IQ test, and it is not a pass or fail exam. It looks at the whole child to answer two questions: does your child have a disability, and does that disability mean they need specialized instruction to access their education.

It is also not something you have to qualify for in advance. You do not need a diagnosis, a doctor’s note, or the school’s permission to ask. If you suspect a disability is affecting your child’s learning, that suspicion is enough to start. My guide to when to ask for an IEP covers the signs that it may be time.

Step 1: The Referral and Your Written Request

The process begins with a referral, which is simply a request to evaluate. That request can come from the school, but it very often comes from you, the parent.

Put your request in writing, name the concerns you are seeing, and date it. A written, dated request is the single most important document in this entire process, because it starts the legal clock and creates a record the school cannot lose. Send it to your child’s teacher and the principal or special education coordinator, and ask for written confirmation that they received it.

Step 2: Consent and the 60-Day Clock

Before the school can evaluate, it must obtain your informed written consent. Read what you are signing, and understand that signing consent for an evaluation does not commit you to any services. It only allows the assessment to happen.

The moment you sign that consent, Arizona’s 60 calendar day timeline begins. The school has 60 calendar days from your written consent to complete the full evaluation and hold the meeting that determines eligibility. This is a firm timeline, not a goal. If the school lets it slip without a valid reason, that is a compliance problem you can raise.

Step 3: What the Evaluation Assesses

A proper evaluation assesses your child in all areas of suspected disability. Depending on your child’s needs, that can include several of the following:

• Academic achievement in reading, writing, and math
• Cognitive or intellectual ability
• Speech and language skills
• Fine and gross motor skills, often assessed by an occupational or physical therapist
• Social, emotional, and behavioral functioning
• Attention, focus, and executive functioning
• Hearing and vision screening

This is why the wording of your referral matters so much. If you describe the full picture, including the parts that feel unrelated, the evaluation has to account for all of it. Your own observations about how your child functions at home are part of the data the team is required to consider.

Step 4: The MET Meeting and the Eligibility Decision

Once the assessments are complete, the multidisciplinary evaluation team, or MET, meets to review the results. The MET includes the professionals who assessed your child, school staff, and you. You are not a guest at this meeting. You are a member of the team with the right to participate in the decision.

The MET answers whether your child meets the criteria for one of the disability categories recognized under federal law, which include categories such as a specific learning disability, autism, speech or language impairment, other health impairment, and emotional disability, among others. Eligibility requires two things: a qualifying disability, and a resulting need for specialized instruction. My full explanation of what a MET is and how it works walks through the meeting in detail.

Step 5: What Happens After Eligibility

If your child is found eligible, the work shifts from testing to planning. The team develops an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, generally within 30 days of the eligibility determination. The IEP describes your child’s goals, the specialized instruction and related services they will receive, and the accommodations that support them.

If your child is found eligible for accommodations but not specialized instruction, a 504 plan may be the right tool instead. My comparison of IEPs and 504 plans in Arizona explains the difference. And if your child is found not eligible at all, that is not necessarily the final word, especially if you disagree with how the evaluation was conducted.

If You Disagree With the Results

You are not required to accept an evaluation you believe is wrong. If the school’s evaluation missed an area, used tools that did not fit your child, or reached a conclusion that does not match what you see every day, you have the right to request an independent educational evaluation at public expense.

This is one of the most powerful and least understood rights parents have. The school must either pay for an independent evaluation by a qualified examiner who does not work for the district, or file for a due process hearing to defend its own work. My complete guide to independent educational evaluations in Arizona explains when and how to use this right. If the school refused to evaluate at all, my guide to what to do when the school denies your request covers your options.

How Arizona’s Standardized IEP Template Fits In

The Arizona Department of Education has been moving toward a standardized IEP template designed to bring more consistency to how IEPs are written across districts. For parents, the practical effect is a more uniform document that should make it easier to understand and compare what your child is receiving.

This is an evolving change rather than a settled, finished rule, so the exact look of your child’s IEP may still vary by district during the transition. The substance of your rights does not change with the format. The evaluation timelines, the eligibility standards, and your role on the team remain the same regardless of which template the district uses.

Reevaluation: The Three-Year Cycle

An evaluation is not a one-time event. Your child will be reevaluated at least once every three years, often called the triennial reevaluation, to confirm they still qualify and to update the picture of their needs. A reevaluation cannot happen more than once a year unless you and the school agree to it.

You can also request a reevaluation sooner if your child’s needs change significantly or if you believe the current information no longer reflects who they are. The three-year cycle is a floor, not a ceiling.

Your Rights at Every Stage

It is easy to feel like a spectator in a process run by professionals, but the law gives you specific rights from start to finish. Knowing them changes how you show up.

You have the right to request the evaluation and to have the school respond in writing. You have the right to give or withhold consent, and to understand what you are consenting to. You have the right to be a participating member of the MET, not an observer. You have the right to receive copies of the evaluation reports, ideally before the eligibility meeting so you can read them in advance. You have the right to disagree and to seek an independent evaluation. And you have the right to bring someone with you to any meeting, including an advocate who knows the process.

None of these rights depend on the school offering them to you. They are yours to exercise. The parents who get the best outcomes are usually not the loudest in the room. They are the ones who know exactly what they are entitled to and ask for it calmly, in writing, at the right moment.