Private/Home School Evaluations

Students who are placed by a parent into a private/home school setting located in our District’s jurisdiction have the opportunity to be evaluated for potential disabilities and/or giftedness at no charge to the parent (Rule 6A-06.030281). The child find process will be completed in a time period comparable to that for other students attending public schools in the district.

Services Offered

St. Lucie Public Schools offers psycho-educational evaluations to local private schools for the following reasons:

  • Academic/behavior concerns
  • Speech concerns
  • Academic enhancement (gifted)

NOTE: While SLPS provides psycho-educational evaluations for a variety of areas, private school students do not receive IEPs like public education students. Instead, they receive what is referred to as a “service plan,” which only cover speech and or language therapy, with OT/PT as add-ons. Thus, these are the only services offered by SLPS to private schools.

Initial Paperwork

When a parent and/or teacher indicate a student is either showing a need for additional academic enhancement or is struggling with academics/behaviors, the private/home school entity begins the referral process by completing the required paperwork and submitting it the School District.

Initiating paperwork can be submitted in one of three ways: by mail, email, or fax. The private/home school making the request should keep the original copy.

By mail:
Dr. Lilia Kneidel
St. Lucie Public Schools, Department of Student Services
9461 Brandywine Lane
Port St. Lucie, FL 34986

By email: Dr. Lilia Kneidel, lilia.kneidel@stlucieschools.org

By fax: Please put “Attention: Dr. Lilia Kneidel” and fax to (772) 429-4589

Education and homeschooling concept
A mother helping her daughter with homeschool.

Upon receiving the initiation paperwork for academic/behavior concerns, the PSET Coordinator will arrange a meeting with the private school and/or parent to discuss the areas of concern, explain the data needed as we proceed with the referral, and suggest interventions to be implemented during the data gathering phase.

Forms Needed:

Upon receiving initiation paperwork for speech only concerns, the PSET Coordinator will arrange a meeting with the private school and/or parent to discuss the area of concern, explain the data needed as we proceed with the referral, and suggest interventions to be implemented during the data gathering phase.

Forms Needed:

NOTE: If you are concerned about speech AND language, please complete the “Academic/Behavior Concerns” checklist rather than the “Speech Only Concerns” checklist. If you are concerned about language but NOT speech, complete the “Academic/Behavior Concerns” checklist, not the “Speech Concerns” checklist.

Upon receiving initiation paperwork for academic enhancement, the PSET Coordinator will submit requests for screening measures to our District Nurse and Educational Diagnostician. Once completed, St. Lucie Public Schools will arrange a meeting with the parent and private school to review the screening results.

Forms Needed:

NOTE: On the referral form under reason for referral, there should be a specific reason listed, such as student consistently earns straight A’s, student scores in the highest percentile on assessments, student is bored with on-level work, etc.). Please don’t just write “parent request.”

Private School Re-evaluations

A private school re-evaluation is conducted for any student with a disability currently attending a private school within the School District’s jurisdiction. The option is made available to parents/guardians of students with a disability every three years.

Re-evaluations may consist of one or more of the following: 1) formal/informal assessments, 2) observations conducted by teachers, parents, or one or more members of the private school evaluation team (PSET), 3) interviews, 4) review of private school reports, and more.

The School District is required to offer re-evaluations to all ESE students and parents/guardians have the option of agreeing or refusing to have their child re-evaluated.

For questions on re-evaluations, please contact Angela Guerin, Private School ESE Program Specialist at angela.guerin@stlucieschools.org or (772)-429-4590.

Interventions

In accordance with State Board Rule 6A-6.0331 and 6A-6.03018, the private/home school entity is responsible for providing appropriate interventions and assessment of progress through progress monitoring for students in the referral process. There may not be enough evidence to support eligibility determination without proper intervention data. Thus, it is important that schools/home schools understand the need for interventions as part of the eligibility process. Academic/behavior concerns, as well as speech concerns, require interventions as part of the eligibility process, but NOT just to be evaluated.

For more information/questions on the initial referral/evaluation process, please contact Dr. Lilia Kneidel at lilia.kneidel@stlucieschools.org or (772) 429-4560.