Program for Students with Disabilities in Victoria

Eligibility for ID and SLD-CEN assessments

Assessments Australia can conduct cognitive and language assessments for current students and students seeking enrolment, in Victorian Department of Education schools, who may be eligible for individualised support through the PSD in the categories of ID and SLD-CEN.

Schools can contact us to make a referral if there is evidence to suggest a student may fall into one of these categories.

You will need to obtain verbal permission from a parent/guardian before disclosing details to us.

Referrals can only be made by schools, and parents and kindergartens are encouraged to discuss the process with their school. You can make a referral by calling 03 9678 5100.

We will discuss the student’s history, current needs and presentation with you. If there is sufficient evidence, we will email you a referral pack.

Please note that Assessments Australia does not conduct assessments for students within other PSD categories including Severe Behaviour Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. To find out more about applications in these categories, visit the DET website.

03 9678 5100

Call us to make a referral

To make a referral you will need to call us to discuss your referral with our team. Verbal permission to discuss the student must be gained from a parent/guardian before calling to speak to us. Eligible referrals will then be sent a referral pack.

When you receive the referral forms, you will need to complete and return all supplied documentation before your referral can be processed.

Missing or outdated documentation will lead to delays in the screening of your referral.

The completed documents, including Vineland (where applicable), and any other supporting documents should be emailed back to us at PSD-AS@assessments.com.au.

Referrals are screened to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to progress to assessment (i.e. whether the student is likely to meet eligibility requirements for PSD).

If your referral does not proceed to assessment, we will send you an email outlining the reasons. You are welcome to contact us to discuss this outcome further.

Understand the process

If your referral proceeds to assessment, one of our assessors will be in touch within a week to arrange a mutually agreeable time for the assessment to occur. Assessments usually occur within three weeks of all documentation being received by our office.

We will ask you to contact the family to inform them of the assessment date. It is important to ensure an adequate space is available.

For SLD-CEN referrals, a cognitive assessment is conducted first. If the results of this meet PSD requirements, there will then be a language assessment at a later date.

Our team is made up of highly trained Psychologists and Speech Pathologists specialising in assessments of this nature.

Assessment feedback session

Following the assessment, we will provide feedback to both you and the student’s parent/guardian. Face to face feedback is preferable.

The school PSD representative should make themselves available and also contact the parents/guardians to invite them to attend the feedback session.

If parents/guardians are unable to attend face to face feedback on the day of assessment, we will make reasonable attempts to contact them by phone to provide feedback. There may be some occasions when every attempt has been made to contact guardians without success. We record these attempts on the dashboard and you are welcome to contact us for further information.

Narrative and attachment reports

Following the feedback session, you will receive a comprehensive narrative report. This is to be passed on to the student’s parents/guardian and teachers. This report includes: the student’s background, previous assessments, current presentation, test behaviour and observations, assessment results and discussion, and targeted recommendations.

Students who meet the eligibility requirements to apply to the PSD will also receive an attachment report(s), to be submitted with their PSD application. We will send the report within three weeks of the assessment date.

It is the school’s responsibility to finalise the application process by submitting the application to the Resources Co-ordination Group. Details around this are provided in the Operational Guidelines published by DET. Schools should also contact their Regional Disability Coordinator for further submission advice, if needed.