This newsletter issue focuses on the assessment of school-aged children to: (1) determine if a child has a disability and is eligible for special services, and (2) provide information that can drive educational programming. Section 1 is an introduction which addresses a definition of assessment, how students are identified for assessment, federal law requirements, and the federal disability categories. Section 2 briefly describes the following sources of information: school records, student work, prereferral procedures, observational techniques, interviews, testing, ecological assessment, direct assessment, dynamic assessment, task analysis, outcome-based assessment, and learning styles assessment. Section 3 then considers the parents' role in the assessment process, including before, during, and after the evaluation. The fourth section offers guidelines for assessing students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Section 5 looks at the primary areas of assessment including intelligence, language, perceptual abilities, academic achievement, and behavior and emotional/social development. The final section addresses interpretation of the results of such a comprehensive evaluation and focuses on the Independent Education Evaluation and the Individualized Education Program meeting. A list of relevant organizations and publishers completes the issue. (Contains 49 references.) (DB)