[Source:  Bilinguistics]

Evaluating bilingual children is difficult enough as it is.  Sometimes the process is made worse when we work for what we believe to be a proper evaluation and we are denied access to interpreters, bilingual personnel, and are asked to come to a conclusion without any home-language information.

Why does this happen?

Administrators are under a lot of pressure to reduce costs and make processes more efficient.  There is also a misunderstanding that evaluating bilingual children is actually more costly.  The truth is that an incorrect evaluation puts another child on our caseload and adds to the already rampant over-identification of minority populations.  The cost of 1 child in special education for one year is reported to be $5000.  No, it is worth the time and expense to get the diagnosis correct.

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