New School Psych Advice

School Psychologist: Getting started with Assessments

10 comments

*Welcome!  I’ve tweaked my system and forms throughout eh years.  You can find a 2018 version of this post here, with updated and new forms!  🙂

Oh Spring.  What a dichotomy for School Psychologists.  The weather is warm, you can break out bright colors and iced coffee, but at the same time, you are scrambling, trying to beat the federal timeline on the most popular time of the year for special education referrals.  While that  will probably never change, I have developed a system over the years, for organizing and keeping track of my evaluations.

I’ve finally developed a system that is pretty smooth, and allows me to balance multiple evals with once without going nuts.  Here is my system:

1.  Create a cover sheet for your folder you’ll keep everything in.  This is what I use, and it’s been super efficient for me for the past 3 years.  It has everything I need on it, including:

  • Assessments I am doing
  • PPT dates, due dates
  • A way of tracking what assessments & observations I’ve done, and when I send them out/return them.


I staple that sheet to the front of your folder, write the student’s name and due date on the tab, and staple a copy of the consent for testing form to the back inside, just in case there are any questions.

2.  The same day I create this, I send out a copy of all forms I need other people to fill out (developmental history, rating scales, etc.), and write those down on my form.  Another way I have made this really easy is having pre-written letters that I can quickly fill in.  Then, I stick those in an envelope and send them home/put them in teachers mailboxes.

 

One more tip:  Write “To:” and “From:” on the outside of your envelope.  Chances are, the parents will just cross out those words and switch them, and the chances of your envelope going back to the classroom teacher or random other person, are slim.

 

  3.  Also the same day, I get a copy of the protocols I need and put them in the students folder.  This saves last minute scrambling of me using the last protocol!

4.  Once things come in, or I finish them, I write those dates down on the cover sheet.
5.  If you don’t already, as I mentioned in this post, you NEED a report template.  It will make your life  6 million times easier.  For mine, I try to go through and update things once a year to add any new assessments I have learned.What’s your secret to Spring eval season success?

 

10 comments

  1. I love your letter to teachers for the rating scales! I noticed there is one for parents but when I click on it to download it comes up as the teacher letter. Is there another place i can look to download the parent letter? Thank you!

    Reply

  2. Hi,
    Do you have a link to the old letters for parents? I noticed you updated the page and I wanted to see the letter you used to have that you would stick to the front of the rating scales. Thank you!

    Reply

      1. Thank you so much! I had been looking for it and couldn’t find the link. It’s worded perfectly 🙂

        Reply

  3. Hello, it’s me again! I tried to log in to your freebies page and received the password via email, but it is not working. Was there a recent change for the password?

    Reply

    1. Hi still should be the same. I just tried and it worked from here-not sure if it’s case sensitive?

      Reply

  4. There we go, it worked today. It was just giving me a hard time yesterday! Again, thank you for having this website, it’s really helpful.

    Reply

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