The 2004 a law called Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) stated that students identified with a disability may need special education services. This law really focuses on the families of students helping to develop the plan for their child. Students between the ages of 3 and 21, with a specifically identified disability and a need for specialized education or related services, will be provided with six principles: procedural safeguards of parental participation, child find, appropriate evaluation, free/ appropriate/ public education (FAPE), Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), and Individualized Education Program (IEP). ***A wonderful resource for families is the link below, which has explanation videos explaining the IEP to parents. https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Special-Education/The-Basics-of-Special-Education-Video-Series
The IDEA law states that families will have opportunities to be a partner in education and will be a part of the process to identify a specific learning disability. This usually happens when a child is not achieving as expected in school, or perhaps has not made adequate progress, and a teacher has shown evidence that the student has received scientifically based instruction to address his or her needs, but the child still remains stagnant. Once it has been determined that classroom interventions have not met the needs of a student and the student has not had a significant “Response to Intervention” (RTI), then the child is referred to Mrs. Rhoades, our school psychologist and special education director. Mrs. Rhoades will check for eligibility special education services. The parents will be required to provide permission for the process of their child to be evaluated. Mrs. Rhoades will test a child along with the school’s team of excellent professionals ranging from general education teachers to specialized service providers such as a speech/language therapists, or the occupational therapist, or a school physical therapist. A wide variety of assessment tools and strategies over many sessions will be used to test a child for a suspected specific learning disability. This detailed process will take some time, even a few weeks to administer, but it gives a very comprehensive view of the child as a whole.
Versailles School District upholds this process and makes every student a priority. The thorough testing and evaluation will be laid out for the parents in a step-by-step fashion making them a partner in the process. When the IEP team has compiled all of the test results, data and information they can to show the child’s strengths and areas for improvement, then there will be a meeting explaining the results. This meeting is called an ETR meeting because it is the Evaluation Team Report (ETR). Finally, if the team has come to the conclusion that a child needs an Individualized Education Program (IEP), then a few more steps will occur as the IEP must be drawn up within 30 days of determining eligibility.
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Sample IEP document:https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Special-Education/Federal-and-State-Requirements/Ohio-Required-and-Optional-Forms-Updated/IEP-PR-07-form-static.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US
Parent powerpoint: https://www.access-k12.org/cms/lib/OH16000618/Centricity/Domain/17/Special%20Ed082014.pdf