1. Student who are currently enrolled in ESOL must be referred to the BAT if they are referred to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team.
2. Students who have been exited from ESOL within one calendar year of the referral may be referred to the BAT if they are referred to the IEP Team.
3. Private school students in Montgomery County who meet one of the criteria listed above or who received all of their schooling in a language other than English may be referred to the BAT through the Division of Placement and Assessment Services as private school referrals.
No student should be referred to the IEP Team without prereferral strategies being implemented and their effectiveness documented. The Educational Management Team (EMT), including the ESOL teacher, should have exhausted all reasonable strategies and accommodations before referring an English language learner (ELL) to the BAT. The appropriate ESOL instructional specialist can provide advice and suggestions during this process. A student who does not show appropriate progress AFTER interventions or a student who shows evidence of a disability that cannot be confused with typical second-language-learning issues should be referred to the IEP Team. At that time a referral should be made simultaneously to the BAT.
| School | BAT |
| Refer to IEP Team and BAT (Use MCPS Form 336-26.) |
Assign to instructional specialist. | | Prepare documentation for screening IEP. | Determine student's dominant language. | | Invite instructional assessment specialist to the screening meeting. | Attend screening meeting, report on language dominance, participate in discussions, help with testing decisions. | | Obtain an interpreter for the IEP meeting. | | | Make testing decisions at the IEP meeting. | |
Federal and state laws require that any special education eligibility testing be conducted in a student's primary language. Language dominance is determined through consideration of a variety of factors. Dominance may vary within an individual student for communicative purposes. There are essentially three outcomes from language dominance determinations.
1. Native Language Dominant. All testing should be done bilingually. Educational and psychological assessments will be done by the BAT. Speech-language assessments in Spanish or French will be done by the BAT except in special circumstances dictated by the Speech and Language Programs office.
2. English Dominant. All testing will be done by the local school and field office personnel assigned to the school.
3. Mixed Dominant. Typically a mixed dominant student is more competent academically in English than in his or her native language, but still understands much and communicates better in his or her native language than in English. For this reason, the educational assessment is done by local school personnel, but the psychological and speech-language assessments, which measure ability rather than achievement, are completed as for a Native Language Dominant student.
1. If an assessment plan has been developed, testing is assigned based on the language dominance determination.
2. If the BAT is responsible for any of the assessments, the school will need to send the IEP meeting notes, the authorization for assessment, and ALL related MCPS forms to the BAT without delay.
3. When the BAT receives the relevant forms, the appropriate personnel will be assigned to conduct the requested assessments.
4. When all assessments are completed, the school should schedule an evaluation IEP meeting and invite the BAT psychologist assigned to the case to the meeting, if the BAT has done a psychological assessment. The school will need to obtain an interpreter for the meeting. Usually neither the instructional assessment specialist nor the bilingual speech-language pathologist will attend an evaluation meeting.
Most procedural questions can be answered by the BAT secretaries, Minnie Diana and Liliana Navia.
Other questions can be directed to the instructional assessment specialist assigned to the school:
Michael Barnet
Dusia Ekzarkhov
Dr. Alice Lee
Dr. William J. Prather
Mara Sousa
Silvia de la Torre Spencer
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