A. CHILD FIND. 34 CFR §§300.101, 111; USBE SER II.A.
Utah Virtual Academy has policies and procedures to ensure that all students with disabilities enrolled in the school, including students who are highly mobile, students who have been suspended or expelled from school, students who have not graduated from high school with a regular high school diploma, and those who are suspected of being a student with a disability and who are in need of special education or special education and related services even though they are advancing from grade to grade, students in State custody/care, students in nursing homes, and regardless of the severity of the disability, are identified, located, and evaluated. This includes a practical method for determining which students are currently receiving needed special education or special education and related services.
B. CHILD FIND PROCEDURES. 34 CFR §§300.131; USBE SER II.A.4.
Utah Virtual Academy conducts the following procedures to ensure that students suspected of having a disability are identified and located:
1. Finding students who have been receiving needed special education or special education and related services.
a. The enrollment application process includes live questions asked by an enrollment specialist about whether a student has received special education or special education and related services in the previous school or educational program.
b. Parents are asked during registration if the students received any services beyond the regular program in the previous school, and if parents respond in the affirmative, the Special Education Data Manager and Administrative Assistant are notified, and will request records from the student’s previous school.
c. Utah Virtual Academy follows all the procedures detailed on the In-State and Out-of-State Transfer Student Checklists on the USBE website. USBE SER III.C.
2. In identifying and locating students who are suspected of having a disability and have not been previously identified or determined eligible for special education or special education and related services, Utah Virtual Academy implements the following procedures:
a. Annual training of all staff on the Child Find obligation and on awareness of observed academic or social/emotional behaviors that might suggest a suspected disability.
b. Notice in a student or parent handbook and on Utah Virtual Academy website of the referral procedures and of the availability of services for eligible students with disabilities.
c. If a parent or staff member is concerned about a student in a grade below or above the grade levels served by the Charter School, or younger or older than the students served by the Charter School, the parent or staff member is referred to the school district of the student’s parent(s) or adult student’s residence.
3. Utah Virtual Academy has no responsibility for Child Find for homeschooled or private school students.
4. Utah Virtual Academy does not refer its own students to the local school district for Child Find.
C. REFERRAL. 34 CFR §300.301; USBE SER II.B.
1. Procedure.
When parent(s), adult student, or school staff member suspects a student may have a disability, the following referral procedure is implemented:
a. Teachers document results of classroom instruction and intervention using a specific checklist and submit to the Child Find Coordinator who then convenes a Child Management Team (CMT), which includes a general education teacher.
Note: Pre-referral interventions or a Response to Intervention system are not used to delay an evaluation for eligibility when a staff member or parent(s) or adult student requests an evaluation.
b. The person making the referral/request for initial evaluation completes and signs a referral form. If school personnel are making the referral, documentation of contacts with the parents about the concerns regarding the student’s educational performance is attached.
c. The referral form is given to the Special Education Coordinator for that grade level, who reviews existing data (including results of any interventions attempted and the Child Management Team recommendations) on the student and determines if the referral should go forward for a full evaluation.
(1) If it is decided that the evaluation should take place, the Charter School or Special Education Director assigns the student back to the Child Find Coordinator to oversee/conduct the evaluation, including obtaining the parental or adult student consent.
(2) If the referral is not going to result in a full evaluation, the Special Education Coordinator sends the parent a Written Prior Notice of Refusal to take the action of conducting an evaluation.
d. Utah Virtual Academy responds to each request for evaluation within a reasonable timeframe.
Note: Each school district and charter school shall provide an initial special education assessment for children who enter the custody of the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS), upon request by that division, for students whose school records indicate that they may have disabilities requiring special education services. This assessment shall be conducted within 30 calendar days of the request by DCFS. 53A-15-304.5.
D. EVALUATION.
1. Parental/Adult Student Consent. 34 CFR §300.300; USBE SER II.C.
Prior to initiating a full and complete individual evaluation, Written Prior Notice (WPN) and consent from the parent(s) of the student or the adult student is required and obtained.
a. The consent informs the parent(s) or adult student that the evaluation is being proposed because the student is suspected of having a disability that adversely affects the student’s educational performance and that the student may be eligible for special education or special education and related services.
b. The consent indicates the areas in which the evaluation team will conduct tests or utilize other assessment tools or methods with the student.
c. Reasonable efforts to obtain parental or adult student consent are made and documented by the Charter School.
d. For initial evaluations only, if the student is a ward of the State and is not residing with the student’s parent(s), the Charter School is not required to obtain informed consent from the parent if, despite reasonable efforts to do so, the Charter School cannot discover the whereabouts of the parent(s); the rights of the parent(s) of the student have been terminated in accordance with State law; or the rights of the parents to make educational decisions have been subrogated by a judge in accordance with State law and consent for an initial evaluation has been given by an individual appointed to represent the student.
e. If the parent(s) of a student or an adult student enrolled in public school or seeking to be enrolled in public school does not provide consent for initial evaluation, or fails to respond to a request to provide consent, the Charter School may, but is not required to, pursue the initial evaluation of the student by utilizing the Procedural Safeguards or the due process procedures in the USBE SER IV.I-P. The Charter School does not violate its obligation under Child Find provisions of USBE SER IV if it declines to pursue the evaluation by utilizing the Procedural Safeguards or the due process procedures.
2. When conducting psychological evaluations, Utah Virtual Academy implements the parental or adult student consent requirements of UCA 53A-13-302 (Utah FERPA).
3. Parental or adult student consent is not required before administering a test or other evaluation that is given to all students (unless consent is required for all students) or before conducting a review of existing data.
4. Written Prior Notice. 34 CFR §300.503; USBE SER IV.D.
The parent(s) of the student or adult student is given Written Prior Notice (WPN) that the evaluation will be conducted. (See Section IV.C of this Policy and Procedures Manual for required components of Written Prior Notice.) Written Prior Notice is embedded in Utah Virtual Academy Consent for Evaluation form.
5. Parental or adult student consent for evaluation is not construed as consent to provide special education or special education and related services.
6. Utah Virtual Academy does not use parent(s)’s or adult student’s refusal to consent to one service or activity to deny the parent(s) or student any other service, benefit, or activity of the Charter School.
7. Initial Evaluation. 34 CFR §300.301; USBE SER II.D.
a. When the signed parental or adult student consent or refusal of consent for evaluation is received at the school, the school secretary or special education teacher writes the date it was received on the form. If parental or adult student consent is obtained, this date documents the beginning of the timeline for the evaluation.
b. The Charter School completes all initial evaluations within 45 school days of receiving the consent, unless the initial evaluation was requested by DCFS, in which case it is conducted within 30 calendar days. UCA 53A-15.304.5. The 45 school day timeline does not apply if the parent(s) fails to produce the student for the evaluation or the adult student repeatedly fails or refuses to participate in evaluation activities.
c. If the student enrolls in the Charter School after the timeframe has started in a previous LEA, the Charter School must make sufficient progress to ensure prompt compliance in accordance with a written agreement with the parent(s) or adult student as to when the evaluation will be completed.
8. Evaluation Process. 34 CFR §300.304; USBE SER II.F.
a. Review of Existing Data.
When conducting an initial evaluation (when appropriate), the Child Find Coordinator (case manager for all initial evaluation students) gathers existing data about the student’s educational performance for the evaluation team to consider. This may include student records of grades, courses completed, statewide test results, school-wide test results, classroom assessments, teacher interviews, parent(s) input, observations, notes in the student’s cumulative file, and other available information.
b. Administration of Additional Assessments.
Utah Virtual Academy uses a variety of assessment tools to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about the student as part of a full and individual initial evaluation, as indicated on the Consent for Evaluation form. This information may assist the Eligibility Team in determining whether the student is a student with a disability. Also, the information informs the IEP Team of the student’s educational needs, including information relating to enabling the student to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum. Finally, the information supports the development of the contents of the IEP.
c. The administration of the assessments follows all of the requirements of USBE SER II.F including:
(1) Use of more than one procedure, assessment, and other evaluation materials tailored to assess specific areas of educational need and not merely those that are designed to provide a single general intelligence quotient;
(2) Use of technically sound instruments that may assess the relative contribution of cognitive and behavioral factors in addition to physical or developmental factors and consider the publication date and continued validity of assessments in use when new editions are published;
(3) Selection of tools which are not discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis;
(4) Administration in student’s native language or other mode of communication, and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the student knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so;
(5) Administration of assessments to address specific areas of concern identified by the evaluation team including the parent(s) or adult student;
(6) Use of assessments for the purposes intended and in accordance with the publisher’s administration standards;
(7) Selection, administration, and interpretation by trained and knowledgeable personnel in accordance with any instructions and administrator requirements provided by the producer of the assessments and the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, ACA, NCME, 2014);
(8) Administration of psychological testing and evaluation of personal characteristics, such as IQ, personality, abilities, interests, aptitudes, and neuropsychological functioning only by personnel who have been trained and fully meet the administrator/use/
interpreter qualifications of the test publisher;
(9) Charter school assurance and documentation that all evaluators meet the assessment publisher’s administrator/interpreter/user requirements for all assessments (e.g. appropriate degree, higher education coursework in tests and measures, and supervised practical);
(10) Use of tools that assess what they purport to measure and not just the student’s disability;
(11) Assessment in all areas related to the student’s suspected disability; and
(12) Comprehensive assessment, not just in areas commonly associated with a specific disability.
d. Specific Categorical Evaluation Requirements.
Evaluations for students suspected of having a disability in each of the 13 areas of disability include the requirements for evaluation procedures and assessment of student performance in specific areas identified in USBE SER II.J.1–13.
9. Utah Virtual Academy contacts the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind for assistance with administering and appropriately interpreting assessments for students with visual and/or hearing impairments. USBE SER II.F.2.
E. REEVALUATION PROCEDURES. 34 CFR §300.303; USBE SER II.G.
1. Utah Virtual Academy conducts a reevaluation of each student with a disability when the educational or related services needs, including improved academic achievement and functional performance of a student, warrant a reevaluation; or if the student’s parent(s), adult student, or teacher requests a reevaluation.
2. A reevaluation may not occur more than once a year, unless the parent(s) or adult student and Utah Virtual Academy agree otherwise.
3. A reevaluation must occur at least once every three years, unless the parent(s) or adult student and Utah Virtual Academy agree that a reevaluation is unnecessary as there are data available to continue eligibility and determine the educational needs of the student.
4. When the parent(s) or adult student and Utah Virtual Academy agree that a reevaluation is unnecessary, the team must document data reviewed and used in an evaluation report and complete an eligibility determination document.
5. Parental or adult student consent for reevaluations.
a. Utah Virtual Academy obtains informed parental or adult student consent prior to conducting any reevaluation of a student with a disability, if the reevaluation includes the administration of additional assessments to the student.
b. If the parent(s) or adult student refuses to consent to the reevaluation, Utah Virtual Academy may, but is not required to, pursue the reevaluation by using the dispute resolution procedures provided in the Procedural Safeguards, including mediation or due process procedures.
c. The reevaluation may be conducted without parental or adult student consent if the school can demonstrate that it made reasonable attempts to obtain such consent and the student’s parent(s) or adult student has failed to respond. A written record of the attempts is maintained in the student’s special education file.