CHC has been a trusted community resource for nearly 70 years, providing life-changing services for ADHD, learning differences, autism, and anxiety and depression. While we recognize that this process must be overwhelming for you and your family, we invite you to take a breath. CHC is here for you. This is what we do.

Learn more about The CHC Evaluation Model. Our in-house expert team at CHC provides single and multi-disciplinary psychological and neuropsychological evaluations. Caregivers receive a collaborative report and treatment plan for their child, teen or young adult.

Psychoeducational, neuropsychological, psychological… there are so many different types of evaluations. In a nutshell, psychoeducational evaluations provide a broad overall assessment of your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and typically include assessment of the following domains: cognitive functioning, attention, executive functioning, memory, academic achievement and social/emotional functioning.

A neuropsychological evaluation focuses on understanding the brain-behavior relationship and how that impacts the child’s behavior and learning. Many of the same domains are assessed, but neuropsychological evaluations go deeper to look at the neurological underpinnings of what may affect the practical output that we would see in psychoeducational testing. You can think of psychoeducational evaluations as identifying “what” is wrong, and neuropsychological evaluations identifying “why” the issue is occurring.

Allied health professionals, including occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, and educational specialists are sometimes added to the team in order to better assess more areas of functioning in an in-depth way. Their findings are integrated with the rest of the team to provide a comprehensive understanding of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

Psychiatric evaluations are completed by a psychiatric provider and consist of a thorough clinical interview and may potentially include rating scales. Psychiatric evaluations will provide you with a psychiatric diagnosis (if appropriate) and a recommended treatment plan.

Listen to the CHC podcast episode Assessment 101: An Inside Look at Evaluations to learn more about the different types of evaluations and which might be best for your child. You can also reach out to the Care Team to schedule a free 30-minute consultation so one of our experts can guide you.

During a CHC evaluation, we really get to know your child. Experienced clinicians work comprehensively alongside your family to learn what issues are interfering with your child’s wellbeing. Then the team collaborates and recommends a plan of action that works best for your family. All of our specialists work closely together, sharing expertise and providing customized scaffolding around your child’s unique needs.

The evaluation process begins with a parent/caregiver-only intake appointment that is typically 90 minutes in length. Please do not bring your child with you unless they are 18 years or older, in which case they do need to be present. The intake appointment allows our clinician to gather your child’s comprehensive developmental history. Your clinician will ask you to identify areas of strength and challenge areas so that they can determine the scope of the evaluation. This is your chance to share your child’s strengths and areas of concern with someone who understands and specializes in helping children reach their full potential. Based on your child’s unique history and the information provided, the clinician will recommend a psychological, psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation and determine the number of assessment sessions needed, the duration of these sessions, and whether a school observation is indicated (subject to schools allowing visitors on campus). Your clinician will also let you know if an occupational therapy (OT) evaluation and/or speech and language (SLP) evaluation is necessary in order to address your areas of concern.

Currently, our intake appointments and parent feedback sessions are online appointments via Zoom. Testing and evaluations are primarily done in person, though some components can be completed online via Zoom.

CHC utilizes Zoom’s HIPAA-compliant healthcare platform.

Collect prior assessments and available records – any prior evaluation reports, progress reports, summaries from therapy, school documents (report cards, progress notes from teachers, examples of work), school district evaluation reports, IEP documents, relevant medical information and anything else you think would be pertinent.

Please do not bring your child unless they are 18 years or over.

At the end of your intake appointment, you will be asked to pay for the time you spent with our clinician, whether or not you decide to proceed with an evaluation at CHC. If you decide to move forward with an evaluation, CHC’s Billing Office will collect a deposit of $500 to hold the appointments in the clinicians’ calendars and assist you in scheduling all of the necessary appointments.

Evaluation appointments are typically scheduled in the mornings or early afternoon. We do not offer after school testing sessions. Testing after school in the later afternoon is not recommended since youth are quite fatigued during these hours of the day, especially those with learning and attention differences. Our clinicians need to observe and assess your child at times when they will be able to obtain accurate data by assessing your child’s skills at their full potential. This does require kids to miss school for their testing sessions, and we are happy to provide a note for the school. 

This is dependent on the scope of the evaluation but most evaluations will include anywhere between 2-4 testing sessions with the psychologist or neuropsychologist, each typically lasting 2-3 hours. For occupational therapy and speech/language evaluations, 1-2 sessions are needed for each specialty area, with each session lasting 2-3 hours.  Your clinician will explain how many sessions are needed at the end of the parent intake appointment.

For evaluations with just one clinician, the parent feedback meeting should be scheduled about 1 week after the last testing session with your child. For evaluations with multiple clinicians, the feedback meeting is scheduled further out, typically about 2 weeks after the last testing session, to allow time for all of the clinicians who assessed your child to gather for a case consultation meeting. This is the clinicians’ opportunity to share observations and data and create a support plan to present to you at the feedback meeting. 

Parent feedback meetings are typically 1.5 to 2 hours in length. During this meeting, your clinicians will review all of their observations and testing results with you, with a broad focus on areas of strength and areas for growth. Parents are encouraged to participate and ask questions throughout this meeting. The clinicians will discuss any applicable diagnoses at this time and also offer you a clear plan moving forward, which may include a range of supports such as school-based accommodations, therapy recommendations and at-home strategies. Parents will receive a 1-2 page summary of the findings at this meeting so that they can get started on the support plan and communicate the core findings to other important collaborators such as teachers, therapists and physicians.

You will get the comprehensive written report within 1 month of your parent feedback meeting. Clinicians are working on several different reports at any given point in time, so it usually takes a few weeks to integrate all of the findings and recommendations, especially when an evaluation included a team of clinicians. Reports are not prepared prior to the parent feedback meeting because families often provide updates at this time and the discussion that occurs at this meeting may impact the write-up (e.g., what supports have already been tried by the school and family, which strategies have worked most effectively in the past). It is not usually possible to expedite reports, but please do communicate with your clinicians directly about any special needs you may have around timing well in advance (e.g., a school meeting schedule, testing accommodation request deadline).  

Connect with your evaluation team and let them know! The comprehensive reports are very detailed and often feel overwhelming. We encourage all of our families to reach back out after they have read through the report with any follow-up questions. Our clinicians can meet with you in person or via videoconference or phone to address any questions you may have after you review the report, at no cost to you. We want parents to feel empowered to support and advocate for their child after completing an evaluation at CHC, and a key component is making sure parents understand the core findings and recommendations. We are also more than happy to speak with your child’s educational team about the findings and recommendations as long as we have a signed release from the parents to do so.

Most psychological/psychoeducational evaluations cost $5800 and most neuropsychological evaluations cost $6600, which is commensurate with the rates in our local community. Additional costs are incurred if an occupational therapist and/or speech-language pathologist are added to the evaluation team. The total cost of the evaluation (minus the deposit) is split into two payments, with the first half being due on the date of the first testing appointment and the second half being due on the date of the parent feedback meeting. Testing appointments usually begin about one month after the parent intake appointment and occur over a period of a few weeks, pending our clinicians’ availability and compatibility with your family’s schedule.  

CHC evaluations are comprehensive and multidisciplinary and sometimes include multiple specialists. The total cost of the evaluation includes client testing (both in person and via Zoom), scoring and interpretation of tests, coordination with educators and other providers, consultation with other clinicians, a parent feedback meeting and report writing. 

CHC is considered an out-of-network provider by all insurance plans. CHC is committed to helping you work with your insurance provider and provides a super bill on a monthly basis. Your Client Billing Team is happy to answer your questions and provide you with paperwork needed to request reimbursements. For billing questions or to request a copy of your billing statement to request reimbursements, please contact the Client Billing Office at accounts@chconline.org.

Yes! Comprehensive evaluations are a big financial investment for families, and we encourage families to apply for financial support by completing our application for financial assistance.

The cost of living in the Bay Area affects all of us. At CHC, we believe that cost should never be a barrier to accessing care. Our simple two-page form takes into consideration more than just financials, including a narrative section to explain extenuating or unforeseen circumstances. Many families who do not believe they would qualify are approved, with assistance ranging from 5 to 95 percent. We believe every little bit helps and, thanks to the generosity of local donors and philanthropists, CHC is happy to help!

To determine your eligibility for financial assistance, CHC takes several things into consideration including annual household income, number of individuals supported by your family’s income, living expenses, clinical needs, and special situations facing your family. Your information will be kept confidential.