[summer]

OK, codder too, I have thought about the research you are waiting for, and I am wondering if the answer is this:

With respect to the disability students, when they leave the public school system and enter a private school, an IEP or something akin to it follows them into the private school.

MI_too and Principled, is that correct? (as I am not a special ed teacher) [codder too, the IEP is the student's individual academic plan.]

Consequently, there is something like an assessment -- but it is not a "state assessment."

[codder too]

Re: Your assertion that an IEP is something like an assessment...

An IEP would serve only as a "guide" for the private school the student is entering, voucher in hand. Public schools MUST follow it, private institutions may choose not to but will probably hear from parents who think that the IEP is the only correct course for their child. They have become accoustomed to demanding services based on it.

The assessments I refer to are the "HIGH STAKES" versions that will be required by every state as part of the "accountability " demands of the "No Child Left Behind" federal legislation that is driving the train.