504 and Special Education Services

Welcome! We invite you to use this site to receive information and updates for how BISD will support students with disabilities during school closures! We want you to know that we already miss seeing your children in our classrooms! We are working hard to come up with ways to continue supporting your child's academic progress during these school closures. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need guidance or support for your child receiving Special Education or 504 services!

BISD is committed to continuing your child’s IEP services during the required school closures in response to COVID-19. Our staff are working to develop plans of support and services that are as comparable as possible to the IEP your child would be receiving if attending school in our school buildings.

Your child’s therapy provider will make recommendations for the best way to serve your based on the following information:

• Your child’s unique needs

• Your child’s progress on current IEP goals

• The content of your child’s current IEP goals and objectives

• Instructional materials and services provided by your child’s teacher

• Input from the parent regarding the best way to provide services

Virtual/At Home therapy may be recommended in the following ways:

• Posted activities and lessons to your child’s Google Classroom

• Phone calls to you and your child

• Emails to you and your child

• Virtual/At Home, interactive sessions with your child

• Sending physical packets with activities for you to do with your child

Your child’s IEP will be adjusted to reflect the change in services during the time of school closures due to COVID-19 through an ARD Committee Meeting or IEP Amendment. It is possible that some IEP goals cannot be addressed during the time of school closures due to the nature of the skills within the IEP and the inability to provide in-person services to your child. We will be working to collaborate with you regarding the changes to all applicable services in your child’s IEP.

Your child’s IEP will be adjusted to reflect the change in services during the time of school closures due to COVID-19 through an ARD Committee Meeting or IEP Amendment. It is possible that some IEP goals cannot be addressed during the time of school closures due to the nature of the skills within the IEP and the inability to provide in-person services to your child. We will be working to collaborate with you regarding the changes to all applicable services in your child’s IEP.

Privacy and Security for you and your child are important to BISD and its providers. While every attempt will be made to protect student confidentiality and the student’s FERPA rights, it is possible that privacy may be compromised. For example, a telephone conversation could be overheard by someone who is not part of the therapy session. The following steps taken by BISD providers and parents are expected to support confidentiality of student information:

How BISD will secure your child’s sessions:

• Utilize district-approved, FERPA compliant platforms for engaging in video-conferencing

• Provider will be in a private, secure location within their home to provide Virtual/At Home therapy..

• Provider will use a BISD provided device.

• Provider will not record any 2-way therapy session.

• Provider will utilize an agreed upon platform (such as FaceTime) if FERPA approved platforms are not available in the student’s home.

• Provider will ensure sessions are completely closed when completed.

• Provider will ensure the use of security features when using Zoom.

How you can secure your child’s sessions:

• Ensure your child has a private location without interruptions to participate in the therapy session.

• Ensure your child has earbuds to use during therapy sessions.

• Ensure your child does not record the therapy session, which could be accessed by others who access the computer.

• Ensure your child signs out of their account and closes the session completely prior to leaving the computer.

Physical Therapy:

Physical therapy services delivered Virtual/At Homely to students involve the use of electronic communications (audiovisual and/or telephonic) to enable the physical therapist or physical therapist assistant, who is located at a site that is different than the site at which the student is located, to interface with the student, parent and/or student’s teacher in order to deliver physical therapy services. The services delivered will not be hands-on in nature but will address the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals that physical therapy is currently supporting at school.

Informed consent for Physical Therapy will be obtained by your child’s therapy provider. Please contact Mary Voelker at 512-772-7863 or mvoelker@bisdtx.org if you have questions or need assistance.

Counseling:

If you previously agreed for you/your child to receive related service counseling, Bastrop ISD will not be required to obtain additional consent to provide counseling through Virtual/At Home methods. As noted in previous informed consent documents, the content of counseling sessions is kept confidential unless you give us permission to share it. There are exceptions to this: for example, we are required to report suspected child abuse or a threat of imminent harm to oneself or others. On rare occasions, we may be required to release records when requested by a court of law. Please contact Dr. Lisa Hewitt at 512-772-7879 or lhewitt@bisdtx.org if you have questions or need assistance.

If you or your child is experiencing a mental health crisis, please call an agency that can provide immediate support, such as one of the following:

• In the event of a life-threatening emergency, visit your local emergency room or call 9-1-1.

• If it is not a life threatening emergency, but a mental health crisis requiring immediate professional intervention, call Bluebonnet Trails at 1-800-841-1255

• The National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-784-2433 is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

• The Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7 support via text message. Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor.