Will an AAC evaluation by the school provide better services for a child who is already using AAC?

It depends on what kind of services you're getting now around the AAC. If the child already has an AAC device, they likely have a speech or AAC professional they're working with privately. Most schools want to do their own assessment so that they can provide support in the IEP. It's hard to put the AAC in the goals and in the IEP if they don't have data on it. If the school's pushing for an AAC assessment, it could just be a formality. One of the other things that districts sometimes want to do is have an AAC device for the child at school so that they don't bring their home one because they're worried about liability. If this is the case, there should be plans in place for the devices to be exactly mirrored, for example syncing the buttons or apps on both the school and home devices. What we don't want to have happen is the child using two different programs or two different files of the same program because there's motor planning that goes into using an AAC where the user learns where things are.

If you're doubting that your kid's program is appropriate, or that it's the right program, then an AAC evaluation can help with that.

Having the AAC assessment also enables the school to more easily integrate the AAC into all of your IEP goals. “Consistent access to AAC device” is the kind of phrasing that can be written into all your goals so that it’s available. You also want to have things like modeling in the IEP where the school staff will model using it. Find more in our article about example AAC goals.