What Is a Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team? A Guide for New Teachers
By Vanessa Wood
You referred a student. The school got a parent’s consent. Now there’s a meeting you’ve been invited to — with a team you’ve never heard of.
If this is the first time you’re encountering the phrase “Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team,” you’re not alone. Most new teachers don’t learn about the MET until they’re suddenly sitting at the table. The good news: understanding what this team does and what your role is in the process makes you a far better advocate for your student than going in blind.
This post walks you through what a multidisciplinary evaluation team is, who’s on it, what happens during the evaluation phase, and exactly what the classroom teacher contributes. If you’ve already gone through the steps of learning to document student behavior, write a referral, and submit a formal evaluation request, the MET is the next step in the process — and this post closes the loop.
IEPs, 504 Plans & Special Education Law: A Guide for New Teachers
The IEPs, 504 Plans & Special Education Law guide walks new teachers through the full special ed process — from referral to eligibility to the IEP itself. $19.97.
Get the Special Ed Guide — $19.97What Is a Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team?
A Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team — sometimes called a MET, evaluation team, or eligibility team — is the group of professionals assembled to evaluate a student and determine whether they qualify for special education services.
The MET process is distinct from early intervention strategies like RTI or the Student Support Team. Those processes are school-based and informal. The MET is a formal, legally governed evaluation process — the one that determines eligibility and, if the student qualifies, sets the stage for an IEP meeting or a 504 plan.
Who Is Typically on a MET?
The exact composition depends on the student’s areas of concern, but most multidisciplinary evaluation teams include some version of the following:
1. Special education coordinator or director
Leads the process and ensures legal compliance. This person manages the evaluation timeline, communicates with the family, and coordinates all the moving parts. When you submitted the formal evaluation request, this is the person who took it from there.
2. School psychologist
Conducts cognitive and academic assessments — standardized tests that measure processing, memory, reasoning, and academic achievement. The school psychologist’s report is typically the centerpiece of the evaluation package.
3. General education teacher — that’s you
As the student’s classroom teacher, you are a required member of the MET under IDEA. You bring the classroom lens: what you’ve observed, how the student performs day to day, what interventions you’ve tried, and how they’ve responded. Your perspective is the one nobody else can provide.
4. Speech-language pathologist (if communication concerns are present)
If the referral involved language, articulation, reading fluency, or communication challenges, a speech-language pathologist (SLP) will likely conduct a language evaluation and contribute findings to the eligibility report.
5. Occupational or physical therapist (if motor concerns are present)
If fine motor skills, handwriting, gross motor development, or physical functioning are part of the concern, an occupational therapist (OT) or physical therapist (PT) may conduct assessments and join the team.
6. Parents or guardians — always members
IDEA requires that parents be meaningful participants in the evaluation and eligibility process, not just passive recipients of a report. They bring knowledge of the student outside of school — developmental history, medical context, home observations — that no school team member can replicate.
What Does the MET Do?
The team works through a structured process that moves from existing information to new data to a final eligibility determination. Here’s the sequence:
Review existing data
Before conducting any new assessments, the MET reviews what already exists: your referral, behavior logs, grades, work samples, attendance records, prior teacher notes, and any previous evaluations or records the family has provided. This is why your documentation matters — it’s evidence the team uses before they ever run a single test.
Conduct new assessments
Depending on areas of concern, the team conducts a range of assessments: cognitive testing, academic achievement measures, behavioral rating scales, adaptive functioning scales, and possibly language or motor assessments. IDEA requires that evaluations be comprehensive and cover all suspected areas of disability — not just the most obvious one.
Analyze results across all domains
Each specialist contributes their findings to a shared picture of the student. The team looks at patterns across domains: does the cognitive data align with academic performance? Do classroom observations match what the standardized tests show? Where are the gaps, and what do they point to?
Determine eligibility for special education
Using the evaluation data, the team determines whether the student meets the criteria for one or more of IDEA’s disability categories — such as specific learning disability, other health impairment, autism spectrum disorder, or emotional disturbance. Eligibility requires both the presence of a disability AND an adverse educational impact.
Write an eligibility report
The team produces a written eligibility report summarizing the evaluation findings and the eligibility determination. This document is the foundation for everything that comes next — if the student qualifies, it becomes the basis for developing their IEP. If they don’t qualify, it documents why and recommends alternative supports.
What Is Your Role as the Classroom Teacher?
New teachers sometimes feel like passive observers in the MET process — like the real work is happening somewhere else, with people who have more credentials. That’s not how it works. You have a specific, irreplaceable role:
Provide the behavioral and academic data you’ve been collecting
The evaluation team needs classroom-level evidence: dated observation notes, work samples, academic data, attendance patterns, behavioral logs. This is exactly what you’ve been building if you’ve been keeping records. Hand over everything you have. It matters more than you think. If your school uses inclusive classroom practices and have documented differentiated strategies, those notes are particularly useful.
Complete teacher rating scales or checklists
You will likely be asked to complete standardized behavior rating scales — forms that ask how often you observe specific behaviors across categories like attention, social skills, executive functioning, and academic engagement. These forms are scored and included in the evaluation report. Answer them carefully and honestly. Your responses are data.
Describe what you’ve tried and how the student responded
The evaluation team needs to understand what interventions have already been attempted — whether that’s seating adjustments, modified assignments, extended time, small-group instruction, or behavior support strategies. Document what you tried, when you tried it, and whether it moved the needle. This context helps the team understand the pattern of need, not just the current snapshot.
Attend the eligibility meeting and add your observations
When the evaluation is complete, the team meets to review findings and determine eligibility. You should attend this meeting. Your job there is to listen, contribute observations when asked, and ask questions if something in the report doesn’t match what you’ve seen in the classroom. You are not there to advocate for a particular outcome — you’re there to make sure the team has the full picture.
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The First-Year Classroom Playbook covers the systems and paperwork new teachers face — including how to navigate special ed processes. $19.97.
Get the Playbook — $19.97What Happens After the MET Meeting?
Once the team has reviewed the evaluation data and reached a determination, a few things happen depending on the outcome:
- If the student is found eligible: The IEP process begins. The team — now functioning as an IEP team — meets to develop an Individualized Education Program. You’ll be part of that process too, and what you contribute there is just as important as what you brought to the evaluation. If you haven’t been to an IEP meeting before, that post walks you through what to expect.
- If the student is not found eligible: The team documents why, based on the evaluation data. This isn’t the end of the student’s story — the team typically recommends alternative supports, and the data gathered during the evaluation can still inform how you support this student in the classroom. Ineligibility doesn’t mean nothing is going on; it means the student didn’t meet the legal threshold for special education services under IDEA.
- In both cases: Parents receive a written copy of the evaluation report and the eligibility determination. They have the right to disagree with the findings, request an independent educational evaluation (IEE) at the district’s expense, and challenge the decision through formal dispute resolution procedures. These are their rights — and the special ed coordinator will walk them through those options.
You Did Your Part
The multidisciplinary evaluation process can feel overwhelming from the outside — full of acronyms, legal language, and professionals who’ve been doing this for years. But you have a specific, grounded role in it, and that role starts long before any formal meeting happens.
You did your part — you noticed something, you documented student behavior, you wrote a referral. Now the team does theirs. Trust the process you helped start.
Your job going forward is to keep showing up — at the eligibility meeting, on the rating scales, with your observation notes — as the person who knows this student best in the room where learning happens. That’s not a small role. It’s often the most important one.
More First-Year Classroom Resources
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Browse all resources →Related Reading
The step right before the MET — what to do when a parent requests a formal evaluation.
The observation data you give the MET starts here.
How to initiate the process that leads to an evaluation.
What comes after eligibility — if the student qualifies.
The alternative outcome if the student doesn’t qualify for special education under IDEA.
The intervention framework that typically precedes a formal evaluation.