Norm-Referenced Assessment Tools for Children Birth to Age Five Years - with Potential for Remote Administration for Eligibility Determination

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor

This guidance compiles norm-referenced assessment tools for children from birth through age five that may be administered remotely to support eligibility determination for early intervention and preschool special education. It explains that strict administration procedures are required for some tools, making them difficult when in-person access is not possible, and contrasts these with parent/caregiver and observation-based approaches. The resource describes inclusion criteria, what information the tool table contains, and a disclaimer that listed tools do not imply endorsement or judgments of validity or reliability.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Purpose

What is Included

Disclaimer

Feedback Requested

Norm-Referenced Assessment Tools for Children Birth to Age Five Years with Potential for Remote Administration for Eligibility Determination updated October 22, 2020 This document and additional resources on remote screening, evaluation and assessment can be found at: [https://ectacenter.org/topics/earlyid/remote.asp](https://ectacenter.org/topics/earlyid/remote.asp) The DEC Recommended Practices and IDEA require that multiple sources of information be used to determine eligibility for early intervention or preschool special education. Depending on the child’s age, the nature of the child’s special needs, and state policy, one of those sources might need to be an assessment that is norm-referenced to produce a score that provides, for example, a percent delay or standard deviations below the mean. Some norm-referenced tools require a trained practitioner to administer structured items directly to the child using a specific script and strict procedures. When these tools are not administered according to the required procedures , the resulting scores should be suspect. Because of the strict administration requirements, these kinds of tools are not well suited for situations where the practitioner and the child and parent cannot meet in person. There are, however, other norm-referenced assessments that rely on the parent or caregiver as the source of information about the child’s behavior and what the child knows and can do. There also are tools that use observation. Depending on what needs to be observed, the practitioner might be able to use videoconferencing or videos created by the parent to observe the child. Tools that do not require a practitioner to be present with the child are better suited for remote administration. The contents of this tool and guidance were developed under grants from the U.S. Department of Education,\#H373Z190002 and \#H326P170001 . However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officers: Meredith Miceli, Amy Bae, and Julia Martin Eile. Purpose This list of tools was compiled to assist states and programs with identifying assessments that can be administered when the assessor cannot be in the room with the child. We encourage those using this resource to review the recent presentations about applying assessment principles to evaluation for eligibility remotely for Part C and Part B Preschool. What is Included The table includes norm-referenced tools for children birth through five years old with one or more domains that can be administered by observation, interview, and/or parent/caregiver checklist. The table provides a link to the website where the tool can be obtained, information about the age range of the tool, the name of domains or content areas that have potential to be gathered remotely, the administration approach, language translations available, and additional details about scoring, classifications, or use. Disclaimer The information in the table was gathered from publisher websites and online reviews. The authors do not have experience administering all of the assessment tools. For some assessments, it was difficult to discern exactly how they were administered without purchasing them. The inclusion of a tool on the table does not constitute endorsement or indicate any evaluation about the tool’s validity or reliability. Users are encouraged to thoroughly investigate any assessment tools before adoption or use. Feedback Requested We welcome feedback from individuals who have used these assessments, especially if the information about the tools in the table is incomplete or inaccurate. If you know of another tool that should be included, please send the name and publisher. Send any feedback or additional information to [Haidee.Bernstein@sri.com](Haidee.Bernstein@sri.com) and put “Assessment” in the subject line. We will revise the ta

FAQs

Why do norm-referenced assessments matter for eligibility determination?

Multiple information sources are required under DEC Recommended Practices and IDEA to determine eligibility. Norm-referenced assessments can generate scores such as percent delay or standard deviations below the mean to support decision-making.

Why are some norm-referenced tools not well suited for remote administration?

Some tools require a trained practitioner to administer structured items directly using a specific script and strict procedures. If these procedures are not followed, resulting scores should be viewed with suspicion.

What types of tools are better suited for remote administration?

Tools that rely on parents or caregivers as informants about the child’s behavior and abilities, or tools that use observation with videoconferencing or parent-created videos, can be administered without a practitioner being physically present.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor