Sarah Couillard
3/5/2025
BLA Capstone Prospect
For my BLA capstone research, I have decided to focus my studies on the evaluation
process for special education within the school systems. If a child has a disability or struggles in
any area of the school setting, evaluations are key to providing that child the proper support and
resources needed in aiding their education. Evaluations are given to a child through either an
initial request from the child's parent or guardian, or through a recommendation from the school
system through educators. Upon initial request, the evaluation process begins to identify if the
child qualifies for Special Education. From there, professionals will do a series of assessments
that look at all areas that the parents or the teacher are concerned about. The evaluation is a
series of tests to see if a child has a disability that affects their learning in school. The results
should entail a detailed account of the child’s strengths, challenges and needs, along with
recommendations for support and services.
I chose this topic because my career goal post graduation is to become an adjustment
counselor. Professionals in adjustment counseling help students in a school setting to overcome
personal, social, and behavioral challenges that may be impacting their education. As an
adjustment counselor, there will be times where I am asked to participate and be a part of the
educational team that evaluates students for special education. Adjustment counselors also work
closely with families and teachers regarding a child and can be beneficial in the evaluation
process given that it involves proper collaboration from both parents and teachers. As an
adjustment counselor, I will be able to conduct at-home assessments that include a home visit
where additional information can be provided about the child’s family and home situation.
Aside from my future career goal, this topic is also something that I have countless
personal experiences on and through that, I have grown a strong desire to invest my time and
studies towards throughout my college career. Through my own experience as a child going
through the evaluation process, to families that I have worked for as their nanny, and my
experience as a classroom assistant working closes with educators, this topic is something that I
have found to be a strong topic of discussion because of the multiple obstacles and inequities that
parents and teachers face throughout the process. I believe that the evaluation process can be
deemed unreliable at times and can exhibit a multitude of different obstacles that can make this
something that is inequitable for individuals under certain instances. For this reason alone, I have
made it my goal to better understand the evaluation process and focus my research on all of the
steps and processes involved in evaluations in order to understand why and where these issues
occur.
This topic requires an interdisciplinary approach because of the complexity of the
evaluation process. From an educational perspective, evaluations start and are built on the
premise of the child's strengths and weaknesses and their academic abilities. Whether these areas
of difficulty are initially identified at home by the child's parents, or identified by the child's
educators, parents and teachers must work together to evaluate a student's needs and where
additional support is needed for the child. From a psychological perspective, identifying the
potential disabilities that a child may have is a key aspect to psychology through diagnosis
processes and proper evaluations. These disabilities, as identified in the The Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act, include “autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance,
hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other
health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain
injury, visual impairment, and developmental delay.” Understanding and having proper
knowledge about each of these disabilities will aid my research and strengthen my intellectual
ability to truly understand this subject area. By combining the two, this will allow me to produce
concise and accurate research regarding the topic.
For my research, I will be using a variety of different readings, publishings, and scholarly
articles in order to construct my research and provide facts and statistics about the evaluation
process. This includes subject material provided in previous class discourse such as weekly
reading materials and textbooks, as well as scholarly articles centered around the evaluation
process and special education. I will also base my research upon the information and research
provided by both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Psychological
Association (APA). Additionally, I will be using the 603 CMR which is the Code of
Massachusetts Regulations Title 603, specifically section 603 CMR 28.00 Special Education as
well as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: A Comparison of State Eligibility
Criteria report that provides all of the criteria involved in IDEA. So far, I have yet to fully
indulge in these readings, but I have identified how I will be organizing my research using these
sources.
My key research questions will be centered around my ability to accurately present my
interdisciplinary knowledge on the evaluation process and how through my interdisciplinary
studies in both education and psychology, that my research can hold validity even though I have
yet to work directly with an educational team through the evaluation process thus far. The key
questions that I will aim to answer are as follows; “What is the evaluation process?” This means
that I will provide a detailed account of the process, who gets one, how it works, etc. and use the
concepts listed in IDEA and the 603 CMR to precisely answer this question. Question
two,“What does the evaluation process look like for a student given “X” disability under “X”
circumstances” For this question, I will rely on the personal experiences I have as someone
diagnosed with ADHD at a very young age and having gone through the evaluation process as a
child. I will also use my personal account and experience as a nanny for a family with a child
who exhibited a multitude of challenging behaviors at home but excelled in her school setting.
This question will bring me to my main purpose for my research, “Why can the
evaluation process be at times unreliable for children as well as parents and teachers and why it
presents inequities for some groups (children & parents and educators) than others” this
question is sole reason for my research and is the basis of why I chose this topic. With this
question, I will provide a variety of different reasons as to why the evaluation process can be
challenging and exhibit a multitude of obstacles for those involved. I will use the accounts of the
educators I work with currently at the Luther Conant Elementary school located in Acton MA, as
well as the account of one of families that I nannied for by interviewing and asking for their
consent to retell their stories for my research.
This question will bring me to my final question “How can this evaluation of the special
education process become more reliable and efficient for all children?” This question is very
important for my research. As I have stated in my Research Project Statement, I want to make it
abundantly clear that the purpose of my research is not to find a series of fail-proof solutions to
this problem. I am not qualified to provide a solution for each challenge faced for each and every
individual child, parent, and educational professional involved in the evaluation of special
education. With that being said, aside from my own under qualification, there has yet to be a
solution for each of the individual challenges faced by individuals involved in the evaluation
process. This alone is the overarching theme and premise of my research.
My overall purpose and goal for this research project is to provide helpful information
that can be essential for those involved with this process as well as share my personal
experiences that can be used to hold my claims validatable. I aim to comprehensively
demonstrate that throughout my interdisciplinary studies, I have built a strong understanding and
a sense of expertise towards the evaluation of special education and why these challenges occur
throughout this process. I want my research to be a piece in any conversation regarding the
different challenges faced by those starting or already invested in the evaluation process. Many
times these obstacles can leave parents feeling hopeless and disregarded by a lack of support and
resources available to them. This leaves children struggling in academics and or home life
because their journey to proper care, treatment and support is stalled. Through shared
experiences, I hope that my research can make a profound impact on those who have faced
challenges through the evaluation process and make even just one individual feel seen.
Additionally, I want my research to be something I am proud of and something that
reminds me to have confidence in my abilities. Throughout my college career, I have found
myself doubting my abilities more than I would like to admit. For that, I want to be able to use
my research as a reminder in my future career as an adjustment counselor that I am aware of the
subject matter. I want to use this research as a guide to challenges I may run into throughout my
career. This is something I am passionate about making a difference towards and I wouldn’t be
here without taking the time to focus my ability throughout my career as an interdisciplinary
studies student working towards. This piece not only serves as research, but is something that
can be used as a reminder to myself of my true abilities and build my self-confidence.
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