FAQ on Eligibility:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IEP FAQ:

(Retrieved from http://schoolpsychologistfiles.com/iepfaq/)

What is an IEP?

Once a child has been found eligible for special education services, he or she will receive an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which is a plan of action that has been individualized to assist in the child’s education. It outlines what the specific special education services will be for the child. The IEP is a legal document that schools are required by law to follow that is intended to protect the child with a disability to ensure that he or she is getting access to appropriate educational services. Additionally, it unites all individuals that work with the child to ensure that everyone is working together. Parents and specific school staff must sign the IEP before it can be implemented. Schools are required to follow all aspects of the IEP.

An IEP consists of several parts:

• Present Level of Performance: This section outlines the student’s strengths and weaknesses. Current academic performance should be reported as well as his or her behavioral performance. Information from the most recent special education evaluations as well as classroom assessments are typically included in this section.
• Goals: An IEP should consist of specific and measurable goals for the student in the areas of need. There could be specific behavioral goals, reading comprehension goals, speech goals, etc. The means of determining how it is to be evaluated should also be included. Goals should be related to the student’s disability. For example, a student with a Specific Learning Disability would not typically have physical therapy goals.Least
• Restrictive Environment: The IEP will have a section to indicate that the student is in the environment that is the least restrictive. This means that the student is to be educated with his or her peers to the greatest extent possible.
• Services: The services section identifies what services the student needs to address the disability area. They could include academic supports, behavioral supports, speech and language therapy, occupational or physical therapy, and other services related to the disability.
• Accommodations: If the student requires specific accommodations to the general education environment, they will be listed in this section. Accommodations could include the use of a calculator, or having a test read aloud, or being seated in proximity to the teacher, as well as many other possible accommodations relevant to the student’s disability.
• Testing: A student may need specific accommodations on standardized assessments. If a student qualifies for those accommodations they will be included in the IEP in this section.
• Prior Written Notice: Prior Written Notice is a document the school system is required to provide for a child with a disability prior to any changes to special education services. Schools are required to provide this document if a change is made or if a change was proposed. The Prior Written Notice indicates what action was proposed or refused and why.

What should I expect at an IEP meeting?

Often the case manager will have written a draft which he or she will present to the IEP committee. The committee members (including the parents) will offer opinions and have discussions about the proposed plan. The IEP committee is charged with coming together for the best interest of the child and to determine appropriate services. Sometimes there can be in-depth discussions about what the most appropriate services will be. Once a decision is made, the case manager will finalize the IEP and all committee members must sign if they are in agreement.

You can expect that several people will be in attendance. Possible participants from the school include:

• The special education teacher or case manager. This person has written the draft of the IEP and will create the final copy. The case manager is in charge of making sure it is being followed. If your child is receiving services as a child with a Speech and Language Impairment, the Speech Language Therapist will likely be the case manager rather than a special education teacher.
• School administrator or designee (usually a School Principal, Special Education administrator or someone designated by the administrator)
• General education teacher
• Therapists providing services if applicable (Speech Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist)
• School Psychologist

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Special Education (SPED) Categories:

(Retrieved from http://schoolpsychologistfiles.com/categories/)

Autism

A developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.

Developmental Delay

Child with a disability for children aged three through nine (or any subset of that age range, including ages three through five), who is experiencing developmental delays as defined by the State and as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures in one or more of the following areas: Physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development; and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.

Deaf - Blindness

Concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that that they cannot be accommodated in the special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.

Emotional Disability

A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:

• An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
• An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
• Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
• A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

Emotional disability includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.

Hearing Impairment (including deafness)

An impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness. Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Intellectual Disability

Significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Multiple Disabilities

Concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.

Orthopedic Impairment

A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g. poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.) and impairments from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).

Other Health Impairment

Having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that is due to chronic or acute health problems such as attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickly cell anemia: and adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Specific Learning Disability

A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Speech or Language Impairment

A communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

An acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-0solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries inducted by birth trauma.

Vision Impaired (Including Blindness)

Educational performance of a child adversely affected due to impaired vision, despite attempts at correction.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________