Abstract:
This was an exploratory study that sought to answer why parents seek private psychoeducational evaluations for their children. Parents from a national sample (N = 139) answered survey and narrative response items including demographic information, parent characteristics, child characteristics, as well as items related to satisfaction, trust, and conflict with their child’s school. Results indicated that parents seek private psychoeducational evaluation due to belief that private psychoeducational evaluations are of better quality, school evaluations are biased, and school refusal to complete evaluations. The majority of parents had low levels of satisfaction and trust with both the special education process and school personnel. In addition, this study began to evaluate the impact of private psychoeducational evaluation on the parent-school relationship and found that parent responses indicated that schools were often resistant to both reviewing the private psychoeducational evaluation as well as resistant to the results of private psychoeducational evaluations.
Description:
Dissertation completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Psychology degree in School Psychology at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.
