What's Required
A student is eligible to receive special education services from their LEA under the following circumstances:
Texas Administrative Code § 89.1050: (b) For a child from birth through two years of age with visual and/or auditory impairments, an individualized family services plan (IFSP) meeting must be held in place of an ARD committee meeting in accordance with 34 CFR, §§300.320-300.324.
The ARD/IEP committee determines whether a child has a disability and by reasons of the disability, needs special education and related services (20 U.S.C. §§ 1401, 1414, 6368; 34 C.F.R. Part 300; 19 T.A.C. Chapter 89). Some of the things that must be considered when making the determination include the following: The full and individual evaluation (FIE) that determines if the student has a disability condition recognized under IDEA. A child is at least three but not more than 21 years of age and has one or more of the disabilities listed that prevent the student from being adequately or safely educated in public school without the provision of special services (19 TAC 89.1035). Parental consent for services
What We Do
The Role of the Case Manager/Special Education Teacher The level of need for special education services should continuously be evaluated based on data such as standardized test scores, instructional assessments tools, and academic assignments. The Special Education teacher should be collecting and analyzing the data regularly and making recommendations to the ARD/IEP Committee regarding the possibility for adjustment of IEP services or possible reevaluation for dismissal.
Special education services shall be discontinued when one of the following occurs:
No Longer Eligible for Services - If the ARD/IEP Committee determines a student does not have an eligibility condition under IDEA based upon an evaluation, or if the committee finds that the student does not need specially designed instruction provided though special education as a result of the disability condition and it's lack of impact on the student's educational access and progress, the IEP committee may determine that the student is not eligible for special education services.
- Before discontinuing services, however, the school must provide the following to parent/adult student prior to considerations of dismissal from an eligibility criteria and/or special education services:
- data specifically indicating the areas of prior deficits and it's current impact on the students educational access and/or progress
- IEP progress notes indicating that the student has successfully mastered the IEP goals/objectives that were indicated to be innate to the student's areas of special education eligibility in question
- prior written notice that specifically reports the changes being considered and why must be provided to the parent(s) and/or adult student with at least 5 day notice
Services Through Age 21 Special education services are available to all eligible students ages 3-21. A student receiving special education services who is 21 years of age on September 1 of a school year shall be eligible for services through the end of that school year or until graduation with a regular high school diploma, whichever comes first. Graduation with a regular high school diploma terminates a student's eligibility to receive special education services.
Revocation of Consent for All Special Education Services - If the school is made aware that the parent/adult student with legal rights for educational decision-making is requesting to revoke the special education services for their student of whom they have legal rights:
- the school staff in good faith effort will document and attempt to:
- Request a staffing or conversation with the parent to review the specific concerns regarding the request for revocation
- Contact the campus coordinator for the student and report the parent's request
- If the parent agrees to a staffing/phone conversation ensure that the campus coordinator is aware of the conversation date and time
- it is permissible that the campus coordinator conduct and/or initiate the conversation with the parent if notified in a timely manner by the school staff and provided the parents contact information and student's name
- A person with knowledge ensures the parent is made aware of their legal rights and the thoroughly reviews the areas of the revocation for consent guidelines, with emphasis that the decision cannot be reversed once decided upon by the parent.
- The person with knowledge communicating with the parent/adult student will review the student's current areas of special education eligibility and services that were previously agreed upon by an IEP committee to ensure the parent is aware of what would be immediately removed, should revocation occur.
3. If the parent(s) and/or adult student chooses to initiate to revoke consent for special education services and eligibility,- the school must AND prior to discontinuing special education services provide the parent/adult student with prior written notice.
- the school must also present and review the Notice of Revoking Consent form (found in eSped) for special education services to the parent(s) and/or adult student,
- and then upon completion of this process, immediately discontinue providing special education and related services to the student.
- the school must ensure that the prior written notice is archived and any meeting/conversation notes surrounding the school's efforts to review options outside of revocation for the student. This can be logged into the parent communication logs if applicable in the student data management program (eSped)
- the school must also ensure that prior ARD documents including the initial ARD and original prior written notice for consent to services is archived
- The school must also complete the Student ESPED Status form to notify district personnel of the student's status change; which will be reflected in the student data management system, (eSped) he district special education records room.
Best practices for the school, IF they deem the revocation of consent for ALL Special Education Services to violate Child Find laws for the student - The campus shall staff and include applicable district-level team members which is not limited to the campus coordinator for special education
- At the staffing review
- Can the student adequately access their education without IEP supports and services?
- The impact of the student's disability on their educational access
- The IEP progress reports and additional records that may provide insight on student progress or lack thereof
- Review if child find needs to be initiated for the student
Guidelines for Dismissal ARD/IEP Meetings
1. The student’s case manager schedules a campus based staffing and consults with any other individuals with knowledge or special expertise regarding the students including additional service providers (i.e. diagnostician, licensed specialist in school psychology and/or speech language pathologist) on the multidisciplinary team to propose assessment to review continued eligibility for special education services. 2. Determination of assessment components will be completed during the staffing. 3. Diagnostician or SLP will provide the prior written notices and Notice of Procedural Safeguards to the parent/adult student with an explanation as to why the school is considering dismissal from an area of eligibility and/or special education services. 4. Diagnostician notifies the IEP Team: classroom teacher(s), special ed teacher, speech, related service personnel (as needed), Student Support Specialist , and LEA representative.
Note: For student being dismissed from special education services, the student support specialist will attend the IEP meeting and setup an RTI Committee meeting to discuss Tier 2 support implementation and monitoring as the student transitions out of special education
5. Additional formal/informal assessment may take place, after review of consents and/or parent/adult student input. 6. IF the data and above noted areas result in an informal or formal assessment to review the area of eligibility being considered for dismissal and/or dismissal from special education in its entirety:
- The IEP Clerk will schedule an ARD to review the assessment data. This ARD can be a Revision ARD or the Annual, if the Annual ARD is due within 4 weeks of the completed assessment information.
- The campus will update the IEP progress report for the student and archive it prior to beginning a draft to prepare for the ARD
7. The ARD will be conducted by the assessment staff that has knowledge of the area of disability. 8. The ARD Committee will discuss the assessment and recommendations for eligibility, placement and programming: a. If dismissal from any or all disability areas ( ex: Speech) is deemed appropriate, the case manager will conduct an annual IEP meeting to review the evaluation stating the child is no longer eligible under IDEA. Assessment staff is required to attend the meeting. Goals and objectives progress reports should be updated prior to the IEP meeting. b. If the child continues to be eligible for Special Education Services through an IEP, but has a change in disability, the assessment staff reviews the evaluation and NEW re-evaluation will be notated in the meeting. 9. The dismissal should not occur without the parent/adult student participating in the ARD 11. Archive the ARD, notices, assessment reports and applicable documents notify applicable campus staff of any changes, and utilize the process to ensure the SEMS/PEIMS clerk acquires updated information within five school days of the meeting date.
12. Immediately Send copies of all documents to parents.
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