On December 5, 2017, CPCS YAD Staff Attorney Michele Scavongelli testified on behalf of CPCS before the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities. As a member of a panel she offered CPCS’s view and support of S.58 – An Act Providing Equal Access to Evaluations for Children with Disabilities to the Committee.
In her testimony, Attorney Scavongelli explained that the bill is needed to establish a review and reform, at least every three years, of the rates paid to independent evaluators who provide parents with educational evaluations of their children. These evaluators are the only way to ensure that parents can participate fully in the planning and development of special education services for their child. Because the current rates in Massachusetts are well below market it is often difficult to secure evaluators to perform these evaluations.
The bill calls for rates that will provide parents with a choice of evaluators who can complete the evaluation in a timely manner and who have sufficient experience and expertise to determine the nature and extent of the child’s disability, and the nature and extent of the child’s educational needs and how they should be met.
Attorney Scavongelli concluded her testimony by offering the Committee vital, firsthand knowledge, relaying to them the experience of one of her clients and the importance of getting him evaluated.