This is a new law meant to protect children by creating strict safety plans for anyone working on a school campus. While the goal is safety, it has forced insurance companies to change their rules. Because school districts in California have recently paid out over $3 Billion in lawsuits related to past abuse cases, insurance companies are now in "catastrophic risk" mode. Insurance carriers are either exiting the California market entirely or requiring individual evaluators to carry Sexual Abuse and Molestation (SAM) coverage with limits as high as $5 million to $10 million. For many independent psychologists and solo practitioners, these premiums are so prohibitively expensive that they can no longer afford to take district-funded IEE contracts. Districts are essentially trapped in a loop: their safety plans demand that IEEs meet "comparable criteria" to their own staff, but the insurance market has made it nearly impossible for small, independent experts to satisfy those same criteria without going into the red.

Before, districts had more flexibility. After July 1st, they risk losing their own insurance if every contractor doesn't meet these new rules. It is no longer a personal choice; it is a hard mandate FROM THEIR INSURANCE COMPANIES.

The "Two-Yes" Rule In a school district, the people who work with your child (Special Education) and the people who handle the money (Business Office) live in two different worlds.

• The Special Education Team looks at your child’s learning needs. When they say "Yes" to an IEE, they are agreeing that a second opinion is necessary. To a parent, this feels like the final step, but it is actually only the first half of the "Yes."

• The Business Office is the second half. They don't look at IEPs or test scores; they only look at contracts and insurance. Because an IEE is a service the district has to pay for, the Business Office must sign a contract before any work can start.

The Confusion: You might have a signed letter from the Special Education Director, but if the Business Office hasn't cleared the evaluator's insurance, the evaluator is legally not allowed to step foot on campus or start the testing.scription text goes here

Most school districts now use automated software (like Compliance 1) to manage their workers. This software is designed to be a gatekeeper and it does it’s job well.

• How it works: An evaluator has to upload their insurance papers into the district’s computer system.

• The "Red Light": If the insurance policy doesn't show exactly $3,000,000 per claim and $6,000,000 total, the computer automatically flags the file with a "Red Light."

• The Bottleneck: Once that "Red Light" is in the system, the Business Office cannot issue a check or a contract.

Can my SpEd Director fix this? Usually, no. Because this is a security and insurance mandate, the software is set up so that it cannot be easily bypassed. Even if your Special Education Director calls the Business Office and asks them to "be nice," the software prevents the process from moving forward until the insurance matches the new Safe Schools rules.

An insurance company’s only job is to predict risk. Because these new safety laws are so new, the insurance companies have no data to look at. To protect themselves, they have priced insurance as if every independent evaluator is a "large company" like a summer camp or a giant ABA company - meaning the insurance costs more than what most IEE evaluators (who often have other arms of business and only do a few IEEs per year) make in total off IEEs.

Many independent evaluators are Sole Proprietors or small business and often only do this part-time. They are now being quoted between $5,000 and $12,000 a year just for this one specific type of insurance, on top of their regular insurance. For an expert who only does a few evaluations a year, this cost simply prices them out of the market. They cannot afford to "pay to work," so they are forced to stop taking school cases. While this will likely be resolved eventually, in the interim the lack of affordability is going to, in all likelihood, reduce the number of IEE providers available.

ASK YOUR EVALUATOR IF THEY MEET YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT’S CRITERIA! It does appear that districts will not be able to relax their criteria anytime soon. Please find out if they are eligible before you find someone great, get attached to them, and come to find out you can’t use them.