Initial or Re-eval?

The small stuff that I did today involved "inviting" general education teachers to a series of initial and re-evaluation planning meetings as well as doing paperwork for the meetings that I have coming in the next two weeks.

Then I attended a re-evaluation planning meeting at one of my out-of district placements.  The meeting was so fast that it took me longer to travel to the location than the meeting itself.  By way of explanation, I did get lost on the way there and the parent participated by phone.

In the afternoon I attended a coworkers meeting.  This was actually the second meeting for this student since the first time around the parent didn't show.  Here is the situation: the student had been eligible in another district under preschool disabled.  Due to family problems, the family had to move.  They moved in the middle of the re-evaluation that would have moved them from preschool to Part B (everything above preschool) in the previous district and moved around a lot.  So the time line is completely thrown off and when the family moved into our district, the parent requested an evaluation as though it were an initial.  So it was processed through our department as an initial.  Following that logic, we need written consent before we can start testing.  This makes the parent's absence from the initial referral conferences problematic.

So during this meeting, as we were awaiting the parent's arrival (they never showed) I brought up the idea that the kid is actually still in special education because they were previously eligible.  The problem is that the family moved before the paperwork was completed and the time lines are thrown off.  So by treating this as an initial we may be denying the student of a Free and Appropriate Public Education.  In addition, we can start the evaluation because, since the student is still in special education, we have implied consent since we only need written parental consent in an initial.  The assigned caseworker was going to speak with our director about this way of thinking and see if it holds water.