Idea Act guidelines for referal in sequential order please.?

Question

Summarize, in sequential order, the mandated IDEA guidelines and processes for referring a student with a suspected disability for evaluation for special education services

the briefer the better.

I have all the info in a huge messy confusing word document, I need to sort it.

Answer 1

IDEA law does NOT state that there is to be an IEP meeting held to address the request of a special ed eval. The FIRST meeting that is held is the IEP eligibility meeting AFTER the evaluation has been done.

Here are the steps --

1. Write a letter to school (IDEA law does not state a specific person to direct your request to, I always suggest the district sped director)

2. There is specific legal 'jargon' to include in your letter, or the school might misconstrue this and give an 'assement' instead, which is illegal. (they do this a lot)

3. The 'jargon ' to include in your request is  

'I am requesting an initial full educational evaluation testing in all areas of suspected disabilities to determine if my child can qualify for special ed services as specified by IDEA law. Please consider this letter my written parental consent for this evaluation to be administered to my child'.

Date the top of this request and keep a copy for yourself.

4. The school will then send you a 'prior written notice' for their agreement to do the evaluation.

5. The school has a specific amount of days to complete the eval and hold the IEP eligiblity meeting. Some states are 45 days, some are 60.

6. I have to add here that IDEA law states in section 500.503 'initial evaluations'  that when a school or parent requests an eval to be done to determine special ed elibility, it HAS to be done.  It does NOT say they can REFUSE to do it.

But in another section  called  'child find' (can't remember statute number)     it states that *IF* a SCHOOL 'suspects' a child has a disability then they have to do an evaluation to determine sped eligilbity.

I have NEVER heard of a school to initiate doing the eval without a parent requesting it first.

If a school AGREES to do the testing (and they MUST) they have anywhere from 45 to 60 days (depends on your state) from the date of your written consent (which you are to give in your request) to have the evaluation completed and hold the IEP eligibility meeting.

I also have to add that all schools say that BEFORE they can do an eval, the child has to go thru their RTI 'response to intervention'   process first.

IDEA law has this all messed up, because in the section  300.503 it does NOT state this. It just states parents ask for eval , it MUST be done.

The reason IDEA law has this messed up is that in another part of IDEA law it  *does* state that this intervention RTI has to be done, but I'm not sure of the legalities of that.

Now, the school can do this RTI stuff at the same time as they are doing the eval you request, but they can NOT do it BEFORE or INSTEAD of doing the eval you request.

RTI is done by schools 'intervention teams' which has NOTHING to do with special education. And these teams have 'rules' and not 'laws' they have to follow. Check your state dept of education website for the 'rules' they have to follow.

These rules for  EVERY state I have checked says that when the parent asks for a special ed eligilbilty eval, it HAS to be done.

Even the rules for this does NOT state that the 'interventions' have to be doen FIRST or INSTEAD of the real special ed eval.

I have NEVER heard of a school that tells the TRUTH about this. It is just a stall tactic, plain and simple.

If you need help please email me  [e-mail]

Answer 2

The exact process for referral for a special education evaluation varies from state to state, based upon how they interpret IDEA guidelines. In general, one of the first things to do would be to contact the child's school and notify teachers, administrator's and the special education staff or school psychologist of your concerns, and find out how the child is doing and what is being done in the general education program to help the child be successful. The next thing to do would be to put in a written request asking for an evaluation and stating your concerns. IDEA mandates that a special education team must formally convene a meeting to address a request for a special education evaluation. This does not mean that the school or district must agree to conduct an evaluation, but they must meet to discuss if there is evidence of an educational disability and of a NEED for special education services. For children suspected of having a specific Learning Disability or a behavioral disorder such as ADHD ( which may qualify as a health impairment other than orthopedic) or an emotional disturbance, it is federally mandated that before consideration of special education services, there must be documented data showing that the student has received scientifically based interventions to help them be successful in general education. However, if there is reason to suspect a disability, interventions can be conducted at the same time as an evaluation. However, before the child id actually labeled as a special education student, that data must be available as it is part of the information needed to establish the NEED for special education. This is mandated by IDEA.

I know this has not been a brief answer, and I cannot answer for you how things work in your district. However, if you contact the school, they should be able to tell you how to get in touch with a parent advocate who can assist you with your difficulties and who is familiar with the laws and procedures in your district. I would also again recommend you get in touch with your school psychologist, as hopefully they could also give you more specific information. I wish you luck, and I hope that this helps you with the student you are concerned about!