Walk me through the eligibility procedures in deciding whether a student would benefit from receiving special education services

It is my understanding that before a child may receive Special Education services, there must be a full and individual evaluation to see if the child is eligible or has a disability defined by IDEA. In order to do so, there will be two ways to find out about it, either by child find or by referral or request for an evaluation. On the first one, parents ask for permission to evaluate the child, on the second one, a school teacher or counselor can refer the child for the service, agreement can be verbal but it is suggested to put it in writing. Parental consent is needed before a child may be evaluated; this evaluation must also be conducted within 60 days after parents gave consent.

In my school district, the child is evaluated by a diagnostician and basically the evaluation must answer three specific questions:

a.                           Does the child have a disability defined by IDEA that requests the special education service?

b.                          What are the child’s educational needs?

c.                          What special education services are good for the disable child?

If parents disagree, they have the right to ask for an IEE or independent educational evaluation.

The eligibility is decided by a group of qualified professional, in my case the diagnostician, special education facilitators. Special educators decide if the child has a disability defined by IDEA, and if parents disagree a hearing can be requested. Once the child is eligible for services, an IEP must be conducted and it will have to take place within 30 calendar days after a child is determined eligible. On the other hand, when the IEP is scheduled, diagnostician contacts parents and other participants involved. Notification must be done ahead of time so parents can attend the meeting. Parents must be informed about the time, the place and the reason of this meeting as well. Also, they must inform the parents who will attend the meeting and let them know that they can invite anyone who has expertise on the field to attend this meeting.

IEP meeting is held, and written. Parents are part of the team who made decisions on this meeting. They are invited to participate actively on their child’s IEP meeting. Before the child receive any kind of special education service for the first time, parents must give consent. After the IEP is written, services are provided; this includes accommodations, modifications, and other types of support that must be provided to the child to accomplish the annual IEP goal. The progress is measured and progress report is given to the parents with the same frequency that it will be given to a child with no disability at all. Last but not least, the IEP is reviewed by the IEP team; this occurs once a year or more often if parents request it. When parents disagree with the IEP placement, they might want to discuss them and try to work out an agreement, some of the options are additional testing, independent evaluation, mediation or due process hearing.

To conclude, a child is revaluated, at least, every three years to see if a child continues with a disability defined by IDEA and what the educational needs are.