Eligibility & Public Policy & I.D.E.A

Public Policy

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A)

• Child Find: Identify and assess children aged 0-18 years for possible disabilities and eligibility for services.
• Comprehensive, Multidisciplinary Evaluation: Determine the handicapping condition through a comprehensive evaluation.
• IEP/IFSP Meetings:
  • Committee includes parents/caregivers, teachers, special education representatives, advocates, administrators, and/or needed experts.
  • Includes:
    • Current level of functioning.
    • Service delivery settings and dates.
    • Criteria for evaluation.
    • Goals of intervention.
    • Progress report schedule.
• Re-evaluation: At least every 3 years or as decided by the IEP committee.
• Due Process: Disagreements are resolved by mediators and hearing officers as allowed by law.

Eligibility

• Eligibility is determined by an Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) committee.
• Diagnoses are professional decisions.

W.H.O. Terminology

• Impairment (Disorder): Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function. What we diagnose.
• Disability: Difficulty performing tasks due to an impairment.
• Handicap: Social or occupational disadvantage due to a disability or impairment.
• Impairment does not always lead to a disability.

Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act (1973)

• Mandates that recipients of federal money cannot discriminate based on handicap.
• Children with a handicap cannot be prevented from attending public schools.

Public Law (PL-94-142): I.D.E.A (1975)

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
• Re-authorized in 2004.
• Protects the rights of disabled children in education.
• Guarantees F.A.P.E (Free Appropriate Public Education).
• Guarantees L.R.E (Least Restrictive Environment).
• F.A.P.E and L.R.E are implemented through I.E.P (Individualized Education Plan).

Public Law (PL) 99-457: Education of Handicapped Children Act (1986)

• Covers children from birth to 3 years of age.
• Public schools are not responsible; other state agencies are responsible.
• In Texas, ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) is responsible.
• F.A.P.E & L.R.E are implemented through I.F.S.P (Individualized Family Service Plan).

Campus-Based Support Team

• Parents are encouraged to bring concerns about a child's learning/behavior to the teacher or principal.
• If concerns persist, the teacher/parent can refer to the campus Student Support Team.
• The team consists of teachers and other school staff who meet regularly to address student's learning or behavior concerns.
• The purpose of the team is to address concerns early on.
• This is NOT a special education referral.
• The team, along with the child’s teacher and parents, will develop an intervention plan to be carried out in the general education setting.
• The main purpose of the interventions is to improve the child’s educational outcomes.
• The team may meet more than once depending on the student’s needs.
• The team will closely monitor and document the child’s progress.
• The team keeps the parents informed of their child’s progress.

Response to Intervention (RTI)

• Educational decisions such as placement, intervention, curriculum, and instructional goals and strategies are based on child response data.
• Tier 1: Core Instructional Interventions (for all students - preventative and proactive).
• Tier 2: Targeted group interventions (some students at risk, high efficiency, rapid response).
• Tier 3: Intensive individual interventions (individual students, assessment based, high intensity, of longer duration).
• The main goal of the RTI process is to identify children who are at risk and intervene early on.
• Children who do not respond to Tier 3 interventions in a reasonable amount of time may be referred to Special Education for an FIE (Full Individual Evaluation).
• Before an FIE can be initiated, consent for the initial evaluation must be obtained.

General Principles: Evaluation

• Evaluation procedures are not limited to the use of standardized tests.
• No single criteria may be used in making eligibility decisions.
• "No single procedure is used as the sole criterion for determining whether a child is a child with a disability and for determining an appropriate educational program for the child." \$300.532(f)
• "A variety of assessment tools and strategies are used to gather relevant functional and developmental information about the child….." \$300.304(b)
• I.D.E.A does not require the use of standardized tests when evaluating for eligibility. However, if a standardized test is available, it should be ONE of the criteria used in establishing eligibility.
• Lack of standardized tests does not absolve the SLP from assessing an area of concern. In those situations, an informal assessment must be completed.
• We do not have standardized tests appropriate for many areas of speech and language,(conversational articulation or narrative/conversation in the area of pragmatics).
• To interpret this portion of the law, 'single criteria' must be defined.
• Single Criteria: ONE of a variety of assessment tools. Assessment tools include standardized tests, interviews, observation, informal assessment, check lists, etc.
  • Therefore, one, two or three standardized tests still constitute 'a single criteria'.
• The use of standardized tests and parent-provided data would be an example of an evaluation using two criteria.