Evaluation and Assessment

The Brooks Powers Group Assessment Team provides a range of assessments at the request of caregivers and schools. Our evaluations are intended to provide information about a child’s profile of strengths in addition to identifying potential diagnoses and areas in need of intervention and support. Our providers have experience and training in understanding how information obtained from a clinical evaluation is used in an educational setting. We aim to provide information that can be useful in the process of developing educational plans, counseling and therapy interventions, parenting supports, and helping care providers coordinate services.

Independent Evaluations

Districts may request evaluations from Brooks Powers Group at any time. We routinely perform Independent Education Evaluations (IEEs), but also frequently perform outside evaluations at the request of the school district when the team determines that additional information about a student from the perspective of a licensed clinical provider is needed. Evaluations may include diagnostic clarification, assessment of specific skills or skill areas, and identification of functional levels. Goals of evaluation are typically to identify current functioning for the purpose of understanding behavior, identifying strengths and challenges, and providing information regarding present levels of functioning that may be used for development of individual education plans and behavior intervention and support plans. Assessment activities typically involve:

  • Coordination with the IEP team and Special Education administrators
  • Interviews of school staff
  • Observations of student in school setting
  • Review of records
  • Interview of caregivers
  • Individual administration of assessment tools (direct testing)
  • Administration and interpretation of teacher, student, and caregiver questionnaires, surveys, checklists, and structured interviews
  • Interview of community-based providers
  • Provision of comprehensive written evaluation summaries
  • Support in development of IEPs, FBAs, and BIPs
  • When requested, we provide child and/or disability-specific training and psycho-education to school teams

Because BPG specializes in helping develop a bridge between clinical and educational providers to meet student needs, we also are able to support:

  • Alignment of areas of psychological assessment with IDEA
  • Understanding of the difference between clinical diagnosis and educational eligibility
  • Provision of information related to adverse educational impact
  • Converting clinical goals to IEP goals
  • Identification of mental health needs that impact a child’s school functioning
  • Communication plans to connect clinical providers and school providers

Additional Assessment Components Functional Behavior Assessment. With our team of Board Certified Behavior Analysts we often conduct Functional Behavior Assessments as part of our independent evaluation work. This additional area of evaluation involves the review of behavioral data and behavioral records, targeted observation, and behavior-specific data collection. We use this information to write recommendations that can be applied directly to a student’s behavior intervention plan. We frequently include a sensory processing screen and observations as part of the assessment. This information is used to help develop appropriate accommodations and referral for OT evaluation and/or support when needed. Many children referred to BPG are experiencing some form of School refusal. We can provide evaluation of the factors contributing to school refusal, and help teams develop and implement plans to address school refusal.

Diagnostic Assessment

Many children and adolescents referred to us are highly complex, and many have multiple co-occurring disorders. Conditions typically assessed and diagnosed by the BPG evaluation team:
  • Autism spectrum disorders
  • ADHD
  • Learning disorders (including Dyslexia and Dysgraphia)
  • Communication disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Depression
  • Mood regulation
  • Behavioral disorders
  • Trauma-related disorders
  • Other neurodevelopmental disorders
  • Intellectual giftedness
BPG uses a team-based approach to assessment and evaluation. In addition to a minimum of weekly consultation within the assessment team, our assessment team consults regularly with our schools and counseling teams to ensure that our evaluations and recommendations are comprehensive. Among the assessment team, areas of expertise that can be relevant in evaluation and development of recommendations include:
  • Autism
  • Early Childhood
  • Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
  • Specific Learning Disabilities
    • Dyslexia
    • Dysgraphia
  • Trauma
  • Significant behavioral challenges
  • Anxiety
  • Intellectual Disability
  • Nonverbal communication
  • Executive Function deficits
  • TEACCH
  • Gifted/ Highly Capable learners
  • Twice exceptionality