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Diagnostic Center North: How to Conduct Meaningful Assessments for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

January 28, 2025

8:30 am to 12:30 pm

SCOE: 5340 Skylane Boulevard, Santa Rosa, CA 95403

Click here to register

Presenter(s)

Intended Audience

  • School psychologists
  • Speech-language pathologists
  • Special education teachers

Comprehensive psycho-educational assessments are the cornerstone of any well-developed Individual Education Plans (IEP) and are essential for program planning. However, conducting assessments that are legally defensible and meaningful for students with significant needs can be especially challenging. Often, students with significant needs have difficulty participating in formal assessment measures and may even be deemed "untestable". This training will include strategies for how to gain relevant and meaningful information through a combination of formal and informal measures and the use of dynamic assessment.

Participants Will

  • Discuss the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and special education eligibility criteria for Intellectual Disability (ID)
  • Learn how to conduct legally defensible assessments for students with ID that yield useful, meaningful information for goal writing and program planning
  • Discuss formal and informal assessment measures to help providers develop a well-rounded assessment battery
  • Learn strategies for dynamic assessment
  • Learn how to explain ID and the implications to parents

A Certificate of Completion is available for virtual trainings, in-person trainings, Special Training Opportunities and Technical Assistance Projects. This may be used to document professional development hours or applied towards the credential requirements for Education Specialist Level II non-university activities.