Child Find/Evaluation Planning

What Are Highlights in the History of Special Education Law?

Prior to the mid-1970's, parents of children with disabilities were routinely prevented from enrolling their children in school for any number of reasons (e.g., there was no wheelchair ramp, their disability disturbed others, their disability was so severe educational instruction was "not worth it"). It was only after parents successfully sued school districts that excluded those with disabilities (e.g., Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children [PARC] v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 343 Fed. Supp. 279, [1972]; Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia, 348 F. Supp. 866 [1972]) that the rights of children with disabilities to public education and access to an education were first established. In 1975, with the passage of the Education of all Handicapped Children Act, educational rights for students with disabilities were outlined and school districts were prevented from refusing to educate students based on their disability. Since that time, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has expanded on the entitlement of individuals with disabilities to a free and appropriate public education. Most recently, Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District REI 1, 580 U.S. [2017]) clarified that even students with the most severe disabilities must be provided a meaningful education AND show significant progress on challenging objectives when given substantially equal opportunities as typically-developing children.

What Rights are Afforded the Parents of Students with Disabilities?

Procedural safeguards outline current parent rights related to special education. They are available in numerous languages on ODE's website at the following link: https://www.oregon.gov/ode/rules-and-policies/Pages/Procedural-Safeguards.aspx.

A copy of this notice must be given to parents at least once a school year, and a copy must be given to the parents: (1) upon initial referral or parent request for evaluation; (2) upon receipt of the first State special education complaint under 34 CFR 300.151 through 300.153 (OAR 581-015-2030) and upon receipt of the first due process hearing request under 300.507 (OAR 581-015-2345) in a school year; (3) when a decision is made to take a disciplinary action against a child that constitutes a change of placement; and (4) upon parent request.

Parent and Student Rights with regards to Section 504 are outlined in the ODE 504 Handbook.

504 Parent Rights

What is Child Find?

Child find is a legal requirement that schools find all children who have disabilities and may require disability-related accommodations or supports. To meet this requirement, MRSD implements an ongoing system to locate, identify, and evaluate all children birth to 21 residing within our jurisdiction who have disabilities, regardless of the severity of the disability, and need early intervention, early childhood special education, or special education services. Response-to-Intervention (RTI) and the Individual Problem Solving (IPS) process serve as important tools in identifying students with disabilities.

What is the IPS Process?

This section will be updated...

Where can I Learn More About Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and Implementation Science?

UDL Backchannel: Molalla River School District August 26th, 2019

What are Best Practices in Evaluation Planning?

When school teams suspect a child has a disability or are made aware of a child with a disability, they are obligated to hold an evaluation planning to decide whether an evaluation is needed to determine whether a student is eligible for special education. The evaluation planning meeting involves bringing together parents, teachers, and someone who is knowledgeable and experienced in the evaluation and education of children with disabilities to discuss concerns and review existing data on the child. If appropriate, the team develops an evaluation plan that addresses all areas of suspected disability.

The school team should come prepared to the evaluation planning meeting. This means:

Case manager has collaborated with counselor and others to have data and other information necessary to develop working hypotheses about strengths and weakness in academic skills, psychological processes, and functional capacities (e.g., interpersonal skills, behavioral and emotional regulation, etc.).
If the evaluation planning meeting is the result of a written parent request for evaluation, the counselor and case manager have discussed who will facilitate the meeting, etc (See Sped Faqs for more guidance on parent requests).
Case manager is aware of whether vision and hearing screenings have been completed and the results.
Case manager has completed Initial Evaluation Planning Form, in collaboration with RTI team, counselor, etc.
Specialists (e.g., school psychologist, speech and language pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist) are invited to evaluation planning meetings when it is known in advance that their testing may be needed. When students’ are receiving related services (e.g., speech and language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy), a member of the related service they are receiving should be invited to evaluation planning.

If additional evaluation needs come up during a meeting and the discipline that would be involved is not present, the team should adjourn the meeting until that discipline can be present or take a break and call the discipline member to see if they can participate by phone or come to the meeting.

Parent permission is not printed until each specialist involved in the evaluation has added their recommended tests and test descriptions into the Parent Permission form in Synergy.

If the referral involves concerns about inattention, other health impairment, emotional disturbance, or intellectual disability, a release of information is obtained during the meeting to facilitate a medical statement request to the student's physician, nurse practitioner, or physician's assistant.

Evaluation Planning Meeting Notes

Pre-referral Intervention Plan (2014).doc

Initial Evaluation Planning Form

Referral for Special Education Evaluation

What should IPS teams consider when referring English Learner (EL) and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) students for evaluation?

MRSD staff are committed to affording students the rights that are theirs by virtue of guarantees offered under federal and state constitutions and statutes, including the rights to equal educational opportunity and freedom from discrimination (see MRSD Board Policy Section J: Students “Student Rights and Responsibilities”). A recent review of district data indicates EL and CLD students are significantly more likely than their same age peers to be referred for special education evaluation. This overrepresentation highlights the importance of providing and documenting culturally appropriate interventions before students are referred for special education evaluation.

MRSD staff recognize there are countless reasons why EL students may underachieve. With exception for situations that require immediate referral for evaluation (e.g., traumatic brain injury, physical disabilities, Down Syndrome, blindness, deafness, clinical diagnoses), MRSD staff use their knowledge of each student’s cultural and language histories to eliminate all other potential reasons for learning difficulties, particularly those that can be explained by culture or the process of second language acquisition, before referring for a special education evaluation. When EL students are referred for special education, evaluation teams collaborate with ELD staff following the framework outlined in the MRSD Nondiscriminatory Assessment Guidance document. This document was developed in the context of ODE's wonderful guidance on assessment process for CLD Students.

What might our team ask the parent of an EL or CLD student to determine whether our concerns warrant a referral for special education evaluation?

A sample parent interview is available: here

How do we Know When a Student is on Track to English Language Proficiency

ODE has offered the following guidance: here

Special_Education_Assessment_Process_for_Culturally_and_Liguistically_Diverse_(CLD)_Students_with_logos_and_links_1489.pdf

Nondiscriminatory Assessment Guidance

Patty Ehleringer (patty.ehleringer@molallariv.k12.or.us) can be contacted for Spanish and English interpretation and translation.

What is the typical referral process for students with suspected Communication Disorder (CD; the following is from MRSD Speech and Language Guidelines)?

1. The Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) provides classroom teachers with information regarding communication development and possible communication concerns. The SLP may also provide suggestions for addressing specific areas of concern through modeling and examples of expansion and other techniques. The teacher or parent may bring language concerns to the Student Support Team (SST) for consideration. If a teacher or parent have a concern regarding articulation, speech fluency, and/or voice, the SLP may be contacted for a screening consent form to be signed.

2. The general education team may agree that a referral for Supported Education is needed.

3. A team meeting will be held to determine if the referred student requires an initial evaluation. If data are present to support the need for an evaluation, the Speech Language Pathologist will determine what areas of speech and language are to be evaluated, based on the student’s needs. If data are not present to support the need for an evaluation, a prior written notice will be generated to explain the decision not to evaluate.

How does school attendance and chronic absenteeism factor into special education evaluations?

When students attend school 94% or more of the time, they are considered to have good attendance. Attendance above 90%, which means the student is missing less than two full days out of 20, is still considered acceptable. In contrast when school attendance is below 90%, a student would reasonably be expected to show academic delays as a result of their chronic absenteeism.

Chronic absenteeism is a primary cause of academic problems for many students (for information on Chronic Absenteeism in Oregon see here. However, poor attendance can also indicate worsening problems outside of school and, in some cases, disability. There are no minimum attendance requirements for referring students for special education evaluation. If the parent or school team suspects that chronic absenteeism is related to a disability, an evaluation planning meeting should be held. However, it will be important for evaluation staff to be aware of ongoing attendance interventions, as a student with chronic absenteeism can only be found eligible for special education so long as a lack of appropriate reading or math instruction is not the primary reason for insufficient academic progress.

Chronic Absenteeism Resources

(the forms below are available in the Chronic Absenteeism section of the MRSD Supported Education Resources folder available: here).

What Should our Teams Consider When Referring "Highly Mobile" Students for Evaluation?

Along with military-connected children, migrant children, and homeless children, children who are in foster care are considered "highly mobile" and experience frequent moves into new schools and districts. See Letter to State Dirs. of Special Educ., 61 IDELR 202 (OSERS/OSEP 2013). The Department of Education maintains that highly mobile children should have expedited evaluations and eligibility determinations.

Are there times when the IPS Process should be abbreviated?

Our child find obligation asserts immediate referral special education evaluation is appropriate in some situations (the following list is not exhaustive):

Staff have compelling evidence that typical interventions would not adequately address concerns (e.g., physical disabilities, intellectual disability, Down Syndrome, blindness, deafness)
Parents request an evaluation in writing. In this situation, the team should respond by scheduling an evaluation planning meeting.
Staff are made aware of a disability (e.g., receive a psychological or medical report, currently provide a student with psychiatric medication) and have data suggesting the student is having significant academic, developmental, behavioral, or functional problems at school

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