In simple terms, special education is specialized instruction and related services that a school and/or district provides to children who qualify as educationally disabled. A child could have a learning disability, an emotional disturbance, a different health impairment , or a number of other “educational disabilities”, and if the team agrees that the student is eligible, then an Individual Education Program (IEP) will be developed . All of this is to be paid for by the school and/or district at no cost to the parent. It is a schools obligation to provide a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) to children , regardless of a disability, for children 3 to 21 or graduation, whichever comes first.
This sounds like it should be simple, right? But the process is really anything but simple . The special education laws are confusing to even the most seasoned professionals, it seems. It is amazing to think that average families and parents make it through the process unharmed .
So what is the process, exactly? What is an IEP you ask? I will go through it briefly here for you.
First things first , there is a “child find” process….it is the school’s responsibility to find kids from 3-21 who may have a disability. This is where preschool screenings and kindergarten screenings come into play. The other way a district “finds” a child with a disability is through the referral process. Anyone who knows the child and feels that there is an educational disability issue can refer a child to the special education department at the child’s school . This referral should be written and describe what the problem is and it should request further evaluation. Once the school district receives this referral, it has fifteen days to “dispose of the referral”. This means that the special education team gets together to review all existing school information (like report cards, assessments, teacher comments, etc) to see if any furthere evaluation is required. At this point, the school district might say that they don’t feel a full blown special education evaluation is needed and that they will try some other classroom interventions, etc. Or, they might say that they do believe more information is needed to make a decision regarding whether or not special education is needed, and they would then propose an evaluation and ask parents to consent to some further testing.
Once the parent(s) sign(s) consent, the school has 60 days to complete the EVALUATION. During this time, the school psychologist will most likely complete an intellectual evaluation (IQ test) and some other achievement tests to see if the child is doing as well as she could be, or if there are other things going on that are getting in the way of the child’s achievement. Other professionals, such as occupational therapists or speech and language pathologists might do some assessments too, depending on the suspected areas of disability. After the testing is completed, the professionals write recommendations and reports and then an evaluation review meeting is held. Once the results are reviewed, the team can discuss whether or not the child is eligible for special education services based on whether the child is found to have an educational disability or not.
If a student is eligible, an IEP or Individual Education Program is written . The team has 30 days to develop this document. This document contains information about how the child is functioning currently, and what their strengths and challenges are. It will list a number of IEP goals and objectives and will include the accommodations and modifications a school will put in place to assist the child, and will have goals and objectives to address any needed areas of specialized instruction. It will also include what special education and related services a student will receive while at school. As and example , things listed could include an aide , or instruction in a special education classroom, or speech and language therapy, etc. For older students, (over 14), there needs to be a transition plan, that lists what activities need to be undertaken for preparing for post secondary life.