Do the Discipline Provisions of IDEA 2004 Extend to Children Being Tested for a Suspected Disability?

Yes. According to Parents Rights in Special Education (Procedural Safeguards) distributed by South Carolina's Office of Exceptional Children at the State Department of Education, Federal regulations for IDEA 2004 state that if a school had knowledge that the child is a child with a disability, the child is covered under these provisions. A school is deemed to have knowledge if a teacher or other personnel have expressed specific concerns about a pattern of behavior demonstrated by the child directly to the director of special education or to other supervisory personnel or if the parent of the child requested an evaluation. Records from the general education intervention process should be maintained. Such data will provide documentation that if there was a suspected disability at some time in the past, the school made the determination whether or not the child should be referred for an initial evaluation to determine eligibility. Therefore, it is important for schools to maintain records on children as such data could be important should a disciplinary proceeding occur later.

Communication

From chapter 4 of The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, John C. Maxwell points out that the success of your marriage, job, and personal relationships depends largely on your communication skills. He offers four suggestions for being an effective communicator:

1. Simplify your message. "Forget about impressing people with big words or complex sentences. If you want to connect with people, keep it simple."

2. See the person. "...ask yourself these questions: Who is my audience? What are their questions? What needs to be accomplished? And how much time do I have?"

3. Show the truth. "...believe in what you say...live what you say. There is no greater credibility than conviction in action."

4. Seek a response. "Every time you speak to people, give them something to feel, something to remember, and something to do."

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire--Field Marshal Ferdinand

Does Screening Initiate the Protections of Procedural Safeguards and Due Process?

According to Parents Rights in Special Education (Procedural Safeguards) distributed by South Carolina's Office of Exceptional Children at the State Department of Education, Federal requirements indicate that the screening of a student to determine appropriate instructional strategies for curriculum implementation shall not be considered to be an evaluation for elgibility for special education and related services (C.F.R. 300.302). Further explanation in the comments to the federal regulations indicates that screening refers to a process that a teacher or specialist uses to determine appropriate instructional strategies. The comments go on to describe screening as typically being a relatively simple and quick process that is used to determine strategies to more effectively teach children. This would include examples of such things as univeral screening and progress monitoring tools (e.g. DIBELS, etc.) that yield information teachers may use to more appropriately select interventions tailored to a student's area of academic need; observations of children in various environments from which analyses of behavior patterns may occur in order to direct staff to appropriate intervention selection; and diagnostic tools which assist school personnel in a deeper understanding of the student's presenting concern so that more effective interventions may be selected. It should be made very clear here that the latitude given by the regulation is NOT to be interpreted as a way to circumvent other regulations pertaining to evaluation. The difference between screening and evaluation is the intent of the activities. If the intent of the activities is to determine instructional strategies, that constitutes screening. It is clear in the regulation and subsequent comments that the ONLY activities that may be considered screening are those activities which result directly in information to be used solely for the purpose of designing instructional strategies. At any point that the intent changes to seek to determine if the student is a child with a disability or if the student is in need of special education, that is evaluation and all due process protections come into play. At that point, parents must be contacted to seek consent for intial evaluation.

C.G. v. Five Town Community School District., 49 IDELR 93, 513 F.3d 279 (1st Cir. 2008)

In her presentation at the 19th Annual CASE (Counsel for Administrators in Special Education), Julie Weatherly mentioned a case involving private placement. In this particular situation, the parents made a unilateral decision to place their student in a private school while the Individualized Education Plan (IEP)team was still working collaboratively develop and finalize a proposed IEP. Subsequently, they were denied reimbursement for the tuition as they filed their due process complaint before the IEP team process was complete. An independent evaluator was working with the district and IEP team to develop a crisis intervention plan and other positive behavioral supports for the student.
The collaborative nature of the IEP team is at the crux of the development of effective individualized education plans for students with disabilities.

A Visit to Fair-Oak Elementary School

Last week I had the pleasure of conducting a walk-thru observation in a very special self-contained classroom at Fair-Oak Elementary School. The teacher, just in her second year as an educator, demonstrated a passion for wanting to help students with disabilities achieve. Colorful posters depicting step-by-step reminders of how to complete everyday tasks were posted all around the classroom. She monitored all students for engagement thoughout the lesson and facilited learning with the use of manipulatives. Her students reciprocated a tone of respect during communication exchange. It is obvious her students care for her as much as she cares for them. This particular teacher decided to change careers because she wanted to teach. Now she is making a noticeable difference in the lives of our students with special needs.

Are There Situations When the General Education Intervention Process for Children K-12 Would Not Be Used?

According to Parents Rights in Special Education (Procedural Safeguards) distributed by South Carolina's Office of Exceptional Children at the State Department of Education, the general education intervention process usually occurs before a student referred to a support team for initial evaluation is assessed. "However, under some circumstances, it would not be necessary to begin with the general education intervention process before referring the student for an initial evaluation. This would most likely occur in an instance where a student with an obvious disability has not been identified previously. Another example might be for a student who has recently sustained a traumatic brain injury. Of course in situations such as these it would be inappropriate to delay further evaluation to determine the student's need for special education. In these kinds of cases, the data used for documentation that general education intervention would be inadequate to address the needs of the student might come from medical records, previous school records, observation, parent and teacher report, etc. However, in cases such as this, even though it is appropriate to move directly to evaluation, it is recommenderd that general education intervention and strategies occur as part of the student's special education evaluation so that the team may collect data to determine what the best instructional approach for the student might be."

Animal School

Every educator can relate to this inspirational video Dr. Lucas shared at our principals' meeting yesterday.