Teaching · Related Services

When reading, attention and worry overlap, sort the evidence before the story.

Tag every piece of evidence with the need it bears on, its method and who it came from. The page shows which needs converge, which rest on one source, and which shared difficulties are still not clear.

Start an evidence recordWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Related Services toolkit, $99 for 152 items.

The evidence record

One record per student evaluation, dated. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Related Services$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A need-by-need view of the evidence for one student, with the strength of each case, the overlapping difficulties sorted, and a drafted summary.
Who it is for
School psychologists, evaluation team members, special education teachers and school counselors.
Format
Browser organizer. One saved record per evaluation; printed with its summary or as a blank form; CSV of the evidence; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Related Services toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Related Services space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
workratingsinterviewthree lines of evidence meeting at one point
Drawn for this page. A need is well supported when different methods and different people point to it, and the team can say what would tell two needs apart.

How to use it

  1. Write the question the team is answering.
  2. Add each piece of evidence with its need, method and informant, including evidence that points away.
  3. List the difficulties that two needs could each explain, and how you would tell them apart.
  4. Read which needs converge and which rest on one source.
  5. Gather the missing evidence before the team meeting.

Start an evidence record

How the evidence is rated

Converging evidence

Good practice in school evaluation is to use several methods and several informants and to look for agreement across them. A need seen in work samples, ratings and observation by different people is a stronger finding than one score or one report, and evidence pointing away belongs in the record too.

Every need, not one label

The evaluation must be sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the child’s special education and related service needs, whether or not they are commonly linked to the disability category in which the child is classified (34 CFR 300.304(c)(6)). A student found eligible for a reading disability still needs a plan for attention and worry if the evidence shows them.

What it is not

It rates the evidence, not the student. It diagnoses nothing and decides no eligibility.

Sources

  1. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 34 CFR 300.304(b) and (c)(6): a variety of assessment tools, no single measure, and identification of all needs.
  2. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 34 CFR 300.306(b): limited English proficiency may not be the determinant factor.
  3. National Association of School Psychologists (2020). Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services: data-based decision making.
  4. Pennington, B. F. (2009). Diagnosing Learning Disorders: A Neuropsychological Framework (2nd ed.). Guilford: comorbidity of reading disability and attention problems.

The example student and evidence are made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.