1.0 Identification System Standards

Identification means the continuous and systematic effort by the district to identify, locate and screen students, birth through age 21, who may need special education services. Identification encompasses the district's public awareness efforts within the community; efforts to identify children in private schools; and comprehensive child find efforts that include programs to identify homeless and migratory children and children who may need special education even though they are advancing from grade to grade.

Required Policies

Each district must develop a comprehensive identification system that identifies students with disabilities from birth; students with disabilities attending both public and nonpublic schools; and students of school age who are not attending school. This identification system must be included in the district's TSES Manual.

A district must include in its TSES Manual a description of its child study procedures for the identification, beginning at birth, of students who may have a disability. Minn. R. 3525.1100, subp. 2(B).

Through their Interagency Early Intervention Committees, districts are required to develop and implement policies and procedures related to public awareness systems, child find systems, and identification of children who may need special education and services. These policies and procedures must be included in the district's TSES Manual.

Legal Citation

Every child who has a hearing impairment, visual disability, speech or language impairment, physical handicap, other health impairment, mental handicap, emotional/behavioral disorder, specific learning disability, autism, traumatic brain injury, multiple disabilities, or deaf/blind disability and needs special instruction and services, as determined by the standards of the commissioner, is a child with a disability. In addition, every child under age three, and at local district discretion from age three to age seven, who needs special instruction and services, as determined by the standards of the commissioner, because the child has a substantial delay or has an identifiable physical or mental condition known to hinder normal development is a child with a disability. Minn. Stat. § 125A.02, subd. 1.

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Items to Demonstrate Compliance

Parent Resources for Early Childhood Screening: http://www.whitebear.k12.mn.us/EarlyChildhood/index.asp?ID=3006