Transportation
Recommending a student for Special Ed Transportation:
Updated: September 9, 2022
This memo is an update and revision of procedures and guidance for special education transportation and modified schedule requests sent on March 9, 2021 by Brandon White. The following updated directives on Special Education Transportation Requests and Modified Schedule Requests & Homebound Placement replace this previous guidance and will be effective on September 12, 2022.
If the student is in a BEST, APPROVE, Autism Resource Room, or Life Skills classroom, you may enter special education transportation services as a part of the case conference process. However, if you are requesting special education transportation for a student with ANY OTHER placement or eligibility, additional review is required prior to the case conference.
For example, If you have a student with autism who is not placed in an ARR classroom, you will need to do additional review prior to the case conference before making the request for Special Education Transportation.
Collaborate with your Principal, Special Education Supervisor, and Special Education Support Team Member on the needs that would require special education transportation that are related to the student’s primary or secondary disability.
Remember: Any time you indicate in the IIEP system that the student’s needs are not the same as those of his/her typical peers, it must be because the student has demonstrated a need related to his/her disability in one of the following areas:
physical (e.g. non-ambulatory)
behavioral (If you are recommending transportation as a related service to address a behavioral need, the student’s behavior of concern must be documented in the special considerations and behavioral concerns tab in IIEP. You must then further document that this behavior of concern impedes the student’s learning.)
communication (e.g. non-verbal)
visual (e.g. blind)
other (must be documented and described)
It is not acceptable to recommend transportation as a related service for things like parental convenience purposes (e.g. when a parent submits a hardship transfer request).
Data should be collected to support the request as well as documentation of other supports prior to the request for additional accommodations, and the request sent via email to the Director and Assistant Director of Exceptional Learners (copying Principal, Special Education Supervisor, and Special Education Support Team Member) describing the need and including the supporting data.
Written feedback from the Director or Assistant Director of Exceptional Learners is required prior to special education transportation being proposed at the upcoming case conference.
All decisions regarding the support and accommodations for a student are a case conference decision. However, the Public Agency Representative (PAR) can only allocate the resources that are available to them. Therefore, special education transportation, in these cases, needs to be allocated at the district level prior to the case conference.
Modified Schedule Requests & Homebound Placement
If you are going to propose that a case conference committee consider a modified schedule or homebound placement, you will be required to follow these procedures:
If you are requesting an adjusted schedule or homebound placement for any student (regardless of eligibility category), additional review is required prior to the case conference.
Collaborate with your building principal, special education supervisor, and special education support team member on the needs that would require a modified schedule or homebound placement that are related to the student’s primary or secondary disability.
Data should be collected to support the request as well as documentation of other supports prior to the request for additional accommodations, and the request sent via email to the Director and Assistant Director of Exceptional Learners (copying Principal, Special Education Supervisor, and Special Education Support Team Member) describing the need and including the supporting data.
Written feedback from the Director or Assistant Director of Exceptional Learners is required prior to special education transportation being proposed at the upcoming case conference.
All decisions regarding the support and accommodations for a student are a case conference decision. However, the Public Agency Representative (PAR) can only allocate the resources that are available to them. Therefore, modified schedules and homebound placement will need to be allocated at the district level prior to the case conference.