www.sacllc.net
Phone 281-814-0588 • Fax 281-754-4845
P.O. Box 2272 • Cypress, Texas 77410
Essential Elements of a School Psycho-Educational Report
Elements MUST BE in report:
A. General Considerations
1. Assessed in all areas of suspected disability including, if appropriate,
information about health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status,
general intelligence, academic performance, communicative status,
and motor abilities.
2. Formal language
3. Written in 3rd person.
4. Correct punctuation, grammar, and spelling.
5. All names spelled correctly
6. Base on district standards for assessment and decision making
7. Informed written parent consent
8. Completed within timelines
B. Identifying Information
a) Student’s name, date of birth, age, school and grade
b) Report dates
c) Evaluator’s name
d) Parents name and contact information such as telephone number
C. Sources of Data
1. Full names and dates of administration for all tests and rating scales
including the form or edition followed by the acronym (as specified by
the test manual) in parentheses. Test can then be referred to by its
initials throughout the remainder of the report
2. All interviews, records reviewed and any other in formal assessment
procedures listed and dated
D. Reason for Referral
1. Source of the referral
2. Specific concerns of the referral source including purpose of
evaluation, specific questions to be answered reported
E. Background Information
1. Current placement and any services
2. School history including multiple school changes, school settings,
attendance, history of academic difficulties in specific area or areas
and significant life events.
3. Review of school records including report cards, grades, behavior
reports, previous test results including standardized assessments
 IF IN REPORT
EXPLAIN IF NOT
www.sacllc.net
Phone 281-814-0588 • Fax 281-754-4845
P.O. Box 2272 • Cypress, Texas 77410
Elements MUST BE in report:
4. State assessment results
5. Teacher concerns including areas of strength and weakness,
performance on tests and daily assignments, attention, motivation, and
peer relationships
F. Parent concerns
1. Information provided by the family relevant to the learning problem
such as birth, developmental, and medical history, parent concerns and
perception of problems, interventions reported by the parent such as
tutoring, medical intervention are included.
G. Response to Intervention
1. History of interventions and student responses
2. If reading a concern, statement addressing essential components of
reading instruction
3. Documentation of academic achievement data linked to reason for
referral (if available)
a) Comparisons of the student to a criterion such as TAKS (vertical
scale), teacher tests, daily assignments, benchmark assessments.
b) Documentation of performance or progress monitoring data linked
to reason for referral.
c) Comparisons of the student to him/herself over time: includes
running records, math time fact quizzes, TPRI, early literacy
probes, early mathematics probes, objective tracking, TAKS
(vertical scale), TAKS (TPM scale)
H. Classroom Observation
1. In the area of referral concern
2. In multiple settings for ED and AU evaluations and may be best
practice for others as well
3. Describe number of students, number and types of teachers, class
activity, general class involvement
4. Describe the task on which the student was working, student’s
attention, level of motor activity, effort, task success, general
behavior, and whether the student required
5. Teacher attention to target student and others. When behavior is a
concern also observe peer interactions, disruptive behaviors, etc.
I. Behaviors During Testing
1. Describe general observations including specific examples concerning
the student’s behavior in the testing situation such as response style,
 IF IN REPORT
EXPLAIN IF NOT
www.sacllc.net
Phone 281-814-0588 • Fax 281-754-4845
P.O. Box 2272 • Cypress, Texas 77410
Elements MUST BE in report:
involvement and motivation throughout the tests, activity level,
attention, general attitude toward testing, verbal communications
skills, students response to success failure, and feedback.
J. Health, Vision and Hearing
1. Report results of vision and hearing screening. Note if glasses or
hearing aids are required/used.
2. Include information about pertinent medical history including
hospitalizations, conditions which might impact schooling, syndromes,
medications taken, and previous medical diagnoses.
K. Reporting of Results
1. State adherence to, or exceptions to best assessment practices
(ethnicity and race considered in test selection, economic disadvantage
or of the exclusionary factors were not primary factors in test results,
tests were administered in the student’s primary language)
2. Modifications to standardized administration
3. Cautions or limitations that may affect interpretation of the findings
including normative sample, sensory impairment, impact of
impulsivity and attentional difficulty.
4. Either in a table and or in the text, report for each test, subtest, cluster
name:
a) Description of the tests and what it measures
b) Derived scores (not raw scores) such as standard scores, percentile
ranks and confidence intervals and other types of scores may be
appropriate depending on the tests used, age of the child etc.
c) Meaning of terms such as standard score, percentile rank, relative
proficiency index
d) Type of norms used (age, grade)
e) Verbal description found in the test manual of the scores
5. Consistent use of score ranges throughout the report or explain why
different ranges and description apply
L. ELL and Bilingual Assessment
1. Language background is considered in choosing tests and interpreting
results.
2. Initial language proficiency test results and a history of language
proficiency tests given and results (demonstrates improvement, etc.).
Language proficiency test must be less than one year old
3. Language use in school and at home
4. CALP Levels in both languages if possible.
5. History of instruction (e.g., native language instruction in Mexico for
three years, bilingual program for 3 years, English as a second
 IF IN REPORT
EXPLAIN IF NOT
www.sacllc.net
Phone 281-814-0588 • Fax 281-754-4845
P.O. Box 2272 • Cypress, Texas 77410
Elements MUST BE in report:
language for 2 years, exited last year and is now being monitored for
two years).
6. If there is no clear language dominance and the child has been
provided bilingual classes, academics must be completed in both
languages
7. Supplement processing skills with nonverbal tests.
8. Modifications should be stated and possible cultural influences and
how they may have affect test results should be reported.
9. Include informal methods (e.g., portfolio assessment, work samples,
informal language sample, reading samples)
10. Child has a disability only if there are no other viable explanations for
student difficulties.
11. NOTE: Standardized cognitive assessments were not normed
primarily normed on ELLs. Therefore, always make sure that
processing deficits and strengths are corroborated by other data!
M. Academic Performance
1. Assess in all academic areas for students suspected of intellectual
disability
2. Assess in all academic areas of possible specific learning disability
unless district only wants assessment in achievement areas related to
the referral question. The SLD assessment areas are:
Oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic
reading skills, reading fluency skills, reading comprehension,
mathematics calculation, or mathematics problem solving
3. Link academic achievement subtests to the reason for referral
4. Base strengths and weaknesses on district procedures which is
frequently one standard deviation (SS=85) cutoff:
5. Link academic achievement normative weaknesses to classroom
normative weaknesses
6. Link academic achievement strengths to classroom strengths
7. Provide description of performance with examples in each academic
area
N. Cognitive processing:
1. Assess all appropriate Broad abilities. Most districts require the
following g areas be assessed (generally with 2 subtests measuring
different narrow abilities): Gf, Gc, Gv, Gsm, Glr, Ga, Gs
2. Identify and interpret:
a) unitary broad abilities
b) Non-unitary broad abilities
 IF IN REPORT
EXPLAIN IF NOT
www.sacllc.net
Phone 281-814-0588 • Fax 281-754-4845
P.O. Box 2272 • Cypress, Texas 77410
Elements MUST BE in report:
c) Narrow abilities linked to the reasons for referral
3. Base strengths and weaknesses on district procedures (may be one
standard deviation (SS=85) cutoff)
4. Identify cognitive normative deficits linked to reason for referral
5. Identify cognitive strengths
O. Emotional and Behavioral Status
1. Give examples of behaviors that affect academic performance.
2. Psychological assessment inserted here if applicable
P. Results and Interpretation
1. Analyze, interpret and integrate data including findings from all
sources of data.
2. Organize results according to topics relevant to the question being
answered usually academic achievement areas and related cognitive
processing area.
3. In each area of performance, discuss broad ability or skills if they are
unitary.
4. If abilities are discrepant discuss narrow abilities.
5. Relate areas of weakness to reason for referral and data gathered from
other sources.
a) Include examples of errors without referring to actual items in the test.
b) Include student behaviors/comments regarding performance on
specific tasks.
c) Discuss areas of strength.
d) Relate academic achievement weakness to cognitive processing
weaknesses.
Q. Summary and Conclusion
1. Briefly restate the referral concern.
2. Summarize test results to answer referral question.
3. Connect areas of academic weakness to cognitive, academic and
behavioral results. For learning disability eligibility determine if there
is/are:
a) normative academic deficits preventing student from achieving
grade level expectations.
b) pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses.
c) relationship between the academic weaknesses and the
cognitive pattern.
d) functional limitations due to these patterns.
4. Add any additional pertinent information revealed during the
assessment.
R. Condition Report
 IF IN REPORT
EXPLAIN IF NOT
www.sacllc.net
Phone 281-814-0588 • Fax 281-754-4845
P.O. Box 2272 • Cypress, Texas 77410
Elements MUST BE in report:
1. Include condition report, with language found in state laws.
2. Indicate how the results of the assessment qualify/do not qualify the
student for the specific condition.
S. Recommendation
1. Make recommendations specific to the referral question or findings if
different from the referral question
2. Include realistic and practical interventions based on the student
strengths and weaknesses
3. Do not recommend non school-based medical or psychological
treatments or services
 IF IN REPORT
EXPLAIN IF NOT