Independent Educational Evaluation in Alabama: What Parents Need to Know

The district's evaluation said your child does not qualify for special education, or the results seemed rushed, incomplete, or inconsistent with what you see at home. Alabama parents have a federally protected right to a second opinion — at public expense — called an Independent Educational Evaluation. Most districts don't volunteer that information.

What an IEE Is

An Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) is a comprehensive assessment of your child conducted by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the school district. Under IDEA and Alabama Administrative Code 290-8-9, you have the right to request an IEE at public expense — meaning the district pays for it — whenever you disagree with the district's evaluation.

You do not have to explain why you disagree. You do not need a reason beyond "I disagree with the district's evaluation." The right is automatic.

How to Request an IEE in Alabama

Submit a written request. Email is acceptable and creates a timestamp. Address it to the district's Special Education Coordinator. Your request should state:

• You disagree with the district's evaluation conducted on [date]
• You are requesting an IEE at public expense pursuant to 34 CFR § 300.502 and AAC 290-8-9

That is sufficient. Keep it simple and in writing.

After receiving your request, the district has two options under federal law. It must either:

1. Fund the IEE — provide you with a list of qualified evaluators in the area (or criteria for selecting one) and agree to pay, or
2. File for due process to defend its own evaluation

If the district does not fund the IEE and does not file for due process within a reasonable time (typically interpreted as no more than a few weeks), it has waived its right to object. Alabama districts rarely file due process to defend their own evaluations — the cost and time commitment usually make it easier to simply fund the IEE.

There is no set deadline in federal law for how quickly the district must respond to your IEE request. If you do not hear back within two weeks, send a written follow-up.

What the District Can (and Cannot) Control

The district can provide criteria for IEE evaluators — things like required credentials, geographic limits, or applicable cost limits. It cannot use those criteria to steer you toward evaluators who will simply replicate the district's findings.

The district cannot require you to use a specific evaluator. You choose the evaluator from the list (or from evaluators who meet the district's published criteria).

If the district's cost criteria exclude qualified evaluators in your area, you can challenge those criteria. The cost limits must be reasonable and must make IEEs actually accessible — not just technically available.

How to Request a Special Education Evaluation in the First Place

If your child has never been evaluated, the request process is different from an IEE. To request an initial evaluation for special education:

1. Submit a written request — email is sufficient — to the special education coordinator, the principal, or both. The email should state that you are requesting a "full and individual initial evaluation" for special education eligibility.
2. The district must respond within a reasonable time with either an evaluation plan (consent form) or a written refusal with the reasons why.
3. Once you sign and return the evaluation consent form, Alabama's 60-day evaluation clock begins. This clock runs through summer and holidays without pausing.

The evaluation must be conducted in all areas of suspected disability — not just academics. If your child has behavioral, communication, adaptive, or motor concerns, those should be assessed too. A narrow evaluation that only tests reading when you also reported behavioral concerns is potentially incomplete.

Alabama-Specific Evaluation Context

Alabama uses the AL-MTSS (Multi-Tier System of Supports) framework. Before a formal referral in most Alabama districts, students go through a tiered intervention process — Tier 1 (universal instruction), Tier 2 (small group supports), Tier 3 (intensive intervention). This data becomes part of the evaluation record for Specific Learning Disability eligibility under the Response to Instruction model.

If your district is using the pre-referral process as a delay tactic — keeping your child in Tier 2 for two years without formal evaluation — that is an RTI abuse pattern. You can bypass the RTI process entirely by making a formal written evaluation request. The district cannot require you to exhaust RTI interventions before accepting your referral.

After evaluation, Alabama districts have 30 days to hold an eligibility determination meeting. If the team determines your child is eligible, the IEP must be developed within the following 30 days.

Using IEE Results

Once you have IEE results in hand, the district must consider them in any IEP meeting or eligibility determination. Consider means they must review the report, discuss its findings, and document why they accept or reject recommendations — not that they must automatically adopt every recommendation.

If the IEE finds a different eligibility category or recommends substantially different services than the district provided, that is leverage. Bring the IEE report to the next IEP meeting with the evaluator's recommendations highlighted, and document in the meeting notes whether the district addressed each recommendation.

The Alabama IEP & 504 Blueprint includes an IEE request letter template, evaluation consent tracking, and guidance on how to use independent evaluation findings effectively in Alabama IEP meetings.

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