How to Start the Special Education Process for your Child
Your child was just diagnosed with ADHD, autism, or a learning disability. Now what?
Parents are often handed a diagnosis without clear next steps. They want to help their child but don’t know where to start.
Schools can provide guidance, access to services, and accommodations for special education students. Unfortunately, getting access to those supports isn’t an easy as making a phone call.
Parents need to follow the process set forth by their state to get into the system.
Step 1: Engaging Child Find
Children from birth to age 21 are eligible to receive special education services under federal law. Teachers and schools are obligated to report students whom they suspect may have an educational disability to a centralized process known as Child Find.
Once a written request is made for a Child Find meeting, it must be scheduled within 30 days
Child Find reviews the data, evaluation reports, and meet with the parents. Sometimes, parents have private evaluations done by physicians, clinicians, or community professionals and can submit that paperwork. Other times, Child Find may request an evaluation through the school.
Once a case is reviewed, Child Find will make a recommendation for eligibility for special education services.
Step 2: Working with your Educational Management Team
In public school, you are assigned a team of professionals who will support your case. These individuals are part of your Educational Management Team. They are often in-school or in-district representatives from different resource areas such as special education, general education, speech and language, occupational therapy, and sometimes central office administrators.
This team reviews the findings and works with your family to determine what formal and informal interventions are required to support the student. This is a collaborative process to identify areas of academic impact and related service needs. The team then creates a legal document, whether it’s an IEP or a 504 plan, to outline the formal interventions required.
Step 3: Review & Revision
The IEP process is a back-and-forth. It can take a few rounds of revisions for parties to identify and then implement the plan.
Sometimes, one or both parties have questions or differences of opinion on the plan. This is where an educational advocate would be able to help to facilitate the conversation. A strong educational advocate will know the laws, special education, and have an understanding of what services or resources are available in that district or geography.
Bringing in an advocate early on can speed the process. This is because qualified educational advocates can speak the language of education. This closes gaps in understanding and makes the process easier for both sides.
Step 4: Data & Documentation
Data should drive decision making. The more data you can collect about your child, their condition, academic and socio-emotional performance will help the team.
School teams should utilize at least 3 data sources to determine areas of impact.
It is important to continue collecting data after the initial IEP or 504 plan are implemented. These plans should be reviewed on a quarterly basis.
If a student is not making progress, a review meeting should be held to review data and revise services as needed.
Step 5: Communicate
Sharing information with your school, teachers, and providers is critical in supporting a student with an educational disability.
Parents may request regular communication with the school. This could be teacher notes, progress reports, informal or formal conferences. Parents should provide any updated information on their child and feedback to help the school team better support the student.
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Remember, it’s a marathon and not a sprint. It may take time to get the ball rolling but the long-term positive impacts are worth the wait.