What Is an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE)? A Parent's Guide
If you disagree with a district's evaluation, IDEA gives you two options: a free IEE, or the district defends its own evaluation at a hearing. What the district can and can't do, and what an IEE actually costs you.
What an IEE actually is
An independent educational evaluation is exactly what it sounds like: an evaluation performed by a qualified examiner who does not work for the school district responsible for your child’s education. Under 34 CFR §300.502(a)(3)(ii), “public expense” means the district either pays the full cost of that evaluation directly or ensures it’s provided to you at no cost some other way. The evaluator is independent of the district; the bill, when the right applies, is not yours.
The trigger is disagreement, not a bad outcome
The right activates specifically when you disagree with an evaluation the district itself obtained — not simply because you’re unhappy with the services your child ended up with, or because you think a different test should have been used from the start. If the district evaluated your child and you disagree with what that evaluation found or how it was conducted, that disagreement is what §300.502(b)(1) requires before the rest of the process below applies. Our IEE letter generator asks you to name the specific area you disagree with for exactly this reason — a vague objection is harder to act on than a specific one.
The district’s two options — and only two
Once you request an IEE at public expense, §300.502(b)(2) requires the district to act “without unnecessary delay” — the same non-numeric standard our meeting-request guide covers, no fixed day count — and do exactly one of two things: file a due process complaint to prove in a hearing that its own evaluation was appropriate, or ensure you get the independent evaluation at public expense. There is no third option where the district simply declines and the matter ends there. If it does nothing, that silence is itself the violation you’d be citing in a follow-up letter or complaint.
The district still has to tell you how to shop for one
Under §300.502(e), the district must give you, in writing, the criteria it applies to independent evaluations — where the evaluator can be located, what qualifications they need, and the cost limits that apply. This isn’t optional paperwork; without it, you have no way to know whether the evaluator you’re considering will actually qualify for public-expense reimbursement. Ask for this in the same letter that requests the IEE, which is why our generator includes it by default.
What it costs you if the district fights it
If the district agrees, or simply doesn’t respond in time, the evaluation is free to you. If instead it files a due process complaint and a hearing officer agrees the district’s original evaluation was appropriate, the public-expense obligation doesn’t apply — you can still obtain an independent evaluation, but at that point it’s on your own dime, and the dispute shifts to the same hearing process described in our evaluation-deadline guide. Either way, sending a specific, dated, correctly-cited request is the step that starts the clock on the district having to choose — which is the entire job of the letter this tool drafts for you.
Informational only, not legal advice. Every federal citation here is quoted or paraphrased from the regulation itself, linked inline — but IDEA procedures are frequently supplemented by state and district rules this guide doesn’t cover. Confirm anything time-sensitive against your own state’s special-education regulations.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Against 34 CFR §300.502 (eCFR).