09/25/2026
📣 Have you paid for a private or independent educational evaluation (IEE)?
When a school district’s evaluation is inaccurate, incomplete, or does not fully assess a student’s needs, a family may seek an independent educational evaluation (IEE). But families often struggle to find evaluators who will accept the state rate because it falls far below what they charge.
For example, a neuropsychological evaluation at one firm may cost $6,600, while the applicable state rate may cover only a little over $2,000.
Districts often fail to act in compliant manners in this situation. It is rare to see a district file for a hearing to prove why THEY do not have to pay the full $6,600 amount. This can lead to a purgatory of dispute requiring legal action to resolve.
Many of us in the special education advocate world see our purpose as to work ourselves out of a job. To these ends, a select group of us have been working with the Massachusetts State Auditor’s Office to investigate and document this gap. Our goal is to drive wholesale change to the state rate regulation and including aligning the rates with the market to enable access.
To accomplish this, the State's Auditor Office needs real-life documents showing actual evaluation costs to complete its investigation and support recommendations for change.
📄 What is needed:
An invoice, bill, contract, written quote, or email showing the cost of a neuropsychological, dyslexia, speech and language, occupational therapy, audiological, vision, or other evaluation.
🔒 You can redact names and personal information.
Please leave the type of evaluation, provider, and cost visible. The Auditor’s Office has also said it will redact personal information before including a document in its report.
📩 Send an email with the relevant attachment to [email protected] with a cc to me [email protected] to help us keep track of responses received.
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Thank you for helping to manifest a future where educational justice is the norm.
