If you have concerns about your student's academic, social, or behavior progress, your first step is to get in touch with the classroom teacher. Share your concerns and the classroom teacher will work with you to develop an initial plan to address the concerns through Response to Intervention.

Your student has participated in one or more interventions for at least 6 weeks and teachers have tracked student progress. They are still struggling, so what's next?

The classroom teacher will communicate with you about the intervention process and how the student is progressing. If you and/or the classroom teacher still have concerns, you can refer the student to the special education team. This means you will work with the classroom teacher to fill out a referral form which outlines your concerns and what has been tried so far to initiate this process. The teacher will submit the form to the special education team and then a referral meeting will be scheduled to discuss next steps.

If the referral team decides we need more information, they will decide to move forward with an initial evaluation. Students who already have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) in place also participate in an evaluation every 3 years. The team will draft an evaluation plan, which outlines all of the assessments, screeners, and observations to be completed in order to gather more information. The family signs the form to give permission for the evaluation to begin.

The team has 60 days to complete the evaluation, create reports with the results, and reconvene to discuss the results and determine if the student meets requirements to be eligible for special education services.

If the team decides a student is eligible for special education under one of the eligibility categories, all of the teachers who work with the student will take 30 days to draft an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The IEP includes a profile section that outlines student strengths and weaknesses, goal areas, accommodations to be utilized in the classroom, services provided by the district, and placement (how/where the district provides the students' program).

Once the team agrees on the IEP, the family signs the document and the services and accommodations are provided to the student outlined for a year. Every year the team reconvenes to set new goals and update each section.