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Hearing Tool 52: The independent evaluation as evidence: an IEE at public expense

THE RULE

If you disagree with an evaluation the district did, you have the right to an independent educational evaluation, an IEE, by a qualified examiner who does not work for the district. And you have the right to ask that the district pay for it (34 C.F.R. § 300.502(a), (b); 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(1), (d)(2)). An IEE is an evaluation conducted by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the agency responsible for your child.

Here is the mechanic that makes the request more than a funding question. When you ask for an IEE at public expense, the district has exactly two lawful moves, and no third. Without unnecessary delay, the district must either fund the IEE, or file its own due process complaint to show that its evaluation was appropriate (34 C.F.R. § 300.502(b)(2)). If the district files and a hearing officer agrees the district’s evaluation was appropriate, you may still get an independent evaluation, but not at public expense. If the district does not file and does not fund, it has not met its obligation. So a written request for an IEE at public expense puts the district to a choice: pay, or take on the burden and the cost of a hearing to defend its own testing.

Two limits ride with the right. First, the district may set reasonable criteria, the qualifications of the examiner and the location, the same criteria it uses for its own evaluations, except that it may not impose conditions that would deny you the right (34 C.F.R. § 300.502(e)). It may publish a cost cap, but a cap that effectively prevents you from obtaining a qualified independent evaluation is not enforceable, and you may show that unique circumstances justify a higher cost. Second, you are generally entitled to one IEE at public expense each time the district completes an evaluation you disagree with (34 C.F.R. § 300.502(b)(5)). Whether you pay or the district pays, an IEE you obtain must be considered by the district in any decision about your child, and it may be presented as evidence at a hearing (34 C.F.R. § 300.502(c)).

New York states the same procedure in 8 NYCRR § 200.5(g)(1). The district may use the same location and examiner-qualification criteria it uses for its own evaluations, to the extent consistent with the parent’s IEE right, but it may not impose additional conditions or timelines. After a request for an IEE at public expense, it must provide the IEE or file to defend its evaluation without unnecessary delay. The current statewide text checked July 25, 2026 sets neither a fixed number of days nor a statewide dollar cap.

WHY IT MATTERS

An IEE does two jobs at once, and most parents use only the first. The first job is proof. A hearing over FAPE or placement usually comes down to a contest of evaluations, and an independent evaluation by a qualified examiner who does not answer to the district is often the single strongest exhibit a parent can put in (H-Tools 55, 56). It is the document that says, in a professional voice the hearing officer will weigh, that the child needs something the district did not offer.

The second job is pressure, and it is the one Manual I never reaches. Because the district must fund or file, a request for an IEE at public expense can move the district into the filing seat before you ever file your own complaint. A district confident in its testing funds the IEE to avoid a hearing. A district that does not want its evaluation examined by an outside expert, and does not want to pay, is stuck: its only other lawful move is to file and defend, which starts a hearing on the district’s own dime with the district carrying the burden (H-Tool 58). Either outcome helps you. You get the evaluation funded, or you get the district into a hearing on the narrow question of whether its testing was any good.

This is also where reimbursement cases begin (H-Tool 67). The independent evaluation that shows the district’s program was not appropriate is the same evidence that supports a private placement, and it is evidence you control the timing of.