Independent Educational Evaluations in New Jersey

A New Jersey IEE is a second full evaluation by someone the district does not employ. You ask for it after you disagree with the Child Study Team’s testing. The person families usually hire is a Learning Disabilities Teacher-Consultant in private practice.

We list independent New Jersey evaluators who do IEEs — LDT-Cs across the state.

Browse New Jersey IEE evaluators

CST testing first, then the disagreement

The Child Study Team writes the district evaluation. That file is what the IEP uses unless you replace or supplement it. An IEE is not a screening, not I&RS notes, and not a 504 intake. It is a written battery — cognition, academics, processing — with findings the IEP can act on.

Paying yourself is always an option. Asking the district to fund the IEE is a separate letter. Those two clocks should not be mixed up.

Put the request on paper

After you disagree with the CST evaluation, write the director of special education or the CST case manager. Name the evaluation you disagree with. Date the letter. Keep a copy. The district then funds an independent evaluation or takes the next procedural step to defend its own testing. A hallway conversation is not the request.

They may send criteria — credentials, instruments, what the report must contain. New Jersey LDT-Cs who already do private work are used to those lists. Do not let the team park you in another intervention cycle if the testing you disagree with is already complete.

Families still write a check when they want a faster date, a reading or twice-exceptional look the CST never ordered, or a report the district file will not produce. Parent-paid does not make the document unofficial. The IEP team still has to consider it.

504 is not this process

A 504 plan is a different path. Disagreeing with a 504 evaluation, or wanting classroom accommodations only, is not the same as an IEE after a CST special-education evaluation. If you need eligibility language for an IEP, book an IEE. If you only need a 504, say that at intake so the evaluator writes for the right table.

Who writes the New Jersey IEE

The person families usually hire is a Learning Disabilities Teacher-Consultant (LDT-C). That is the credential this market uses for school-facing independent evaluations. Ask whether they have delivered reports to New Jersey IEP teams and whether they will attend.

A hospital neuropsych can be useful when medical differential is the question. It is often slower and not always the format a CST wants. For an IEP-facing IEE, start with an LDT-C who says they do independent evaluations.

Money, weeks, and the meeting

Private comprehensive evaluations in New Jersey typically land around $1,500 – $3,200. Band, not a bid. Ask what is in the battery, whether the written report is included, and whether IEP attendance is extra.

Send the finished report to the case manager before the IEP. Bring a paper copy. You are asking the team to consider named findings — SLD, dyslexia, eligibility — not to “review outside testing.” If this IEE followed a written disagreement with the CST, say that in the room.

If reading is the actual question, see dyslexia testing in New Jersey; if you need testing-company documentation, see SAT/ACT extra time in New Jersey — or all guides.