Eligibility. Recommendations v predetermination.

The parent asked:
"We have our eligibility meeting for my daughter on Monday. The school provided the evaluation results to us, and included in the report were recommendations for what my daughter would need. The school report specified that a 504 and BIP were recommended. The report stated that her disability did adversely affect her education but that specially designed instruction was not required.

The report went on to say:
"Based on the data collected, it is this examiner’s opinion that child's name is a child with a disability that adversely impacts her education and who needs more support than what she is currently receiving in the general education environment (please see recommendations). However, it also is this examiner’s opinion that there is no evidence to suggest that she requires specially designed instruction. Nevertheless, this is one examiner’s recommendation and the IEP team will make the ultimate eligibility determination.
Can you discuss the difference between making recommendations, and predetermination? Did this last statement protect the school from any predetermination claims?

I will certainly be asking why this recommendation was made to not provide specially designed instruction. Any accommodations that would be put in a 504 are accommodations that have already been used voluntarily for 2 years by her teachers. We have not seen improvement over these two years, and have seen increased struggle with my child. I believe that continuing as we have, will not yield improvement. I am worried the school will try to substitute MTSS tier 3 instead of an IEP. We have done MTSS tier 3 in the past, but are not currently.

Also, my daughter's disability is diagnosed anxiety. Her academic performance is at or above grade level. But her anxiety causes significant problems functioning in the classroom, resulting in behavior problems, including class disruption, and missed instruction time. School refusal is one of the big challenges we face. It is my belief that my child needs instruction to learn coping skills to manage her anxiety. That solely providing accommodations is inadequate to provide her an appropriate education.

I would appreciate any thoughts you have."

predetermination.