In addressing the problem of assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students for special education eligibility, this brief paper organizes suggested strategies according to four principles: (1) convening a full, multidisciplinary assessment team (to include parents, educators, assessors, and a person familiar with the student's culture and language); (2) using pre-referral strategies and interventions to determine whether difficulties stem from language or cultural differences, a lack of educational opportunity, or from a disability); (3) determining the language to be used in testing (assessment of language dominance and proficiency); and (4) conducting a tailored, appropriate assessment of the child and environment that combines nonbiased, appropriate instruments with other sources of information (observations, interviews) from a variety of environments to produce a multidimensional assessment. (DB)