Education

FAQ’S in Special Education

1. What is special education and how is it different from regular education?

2. Special education means specially designed instruction that meets the unique needs of a child with a disability. It could involve adapting the content, methods, or delivery of instruction. It might involve speech or language, occupational or physical therapy, counseling or social skills development, or academic support of one kind or another. Regular education is instruction with minimal modifications or adaptations which is carried out in a regular classroom setting by the regular classroom teacher/staff.

3. What is an educational disability?

4. A student is considered to have an educational disability if he/she is unable to learn successfully in the general curriculum or meet the educational standards of the grade level/school and needs special education and/or related services to learn. In order to determine whether a student is in need of special education and/or related services, the team must follow a process outlined by State Standards. This involves a variety of professionals as well as the parents, who are key participants all along the way. Children between the ages of 3 and 21 years fall under these standards.

   Disabilities may include: hearing impairment (including deafness), speech and language impairment, visual impairment (including blindness), a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, mental retardation, other health impairment, or multiple disabilities.

5. What are the steps in the special education process?

6. Pre-referral – Teacher Assistance Team review

   Referral – Team meets to determine what information is needed in order to decide whether there is an educational disability and need for special education.

   Evaluation – Standardized testing, observations, and informal assessments are administered to gather information. If the student meets eligibility criteria, the next step is to write an individual education plan (IEP).

   IEP Meeting – The Team meets to review/amend an individual plan of education for the student. This plan spells out the special teaching and/or services needed in order for the student to have equal access to learning. It targets the skills that the student has not mastered yet, not the regular curriculum. This plan is updated annually. Quarterly progress reports on the IEP are sent to parents.

   Placement Meeting – The Team meets to decide where the IEP will be

   implemented. In most cases this is in the student’s home school. Before

   an outside placement will be considered, all possible solutions in the home school must be tried.

7. How do you decide if a student is eligible to receive special education or Section 504 services?

8. When a student is having serious difficulty learning the regular curriculum even with extra help from his/her teacher or family, that student’s name is brought before a team of educational professionals for review. This team (Teacher Assistance Team @ VVCS) includes the child’s teacher, the guidance counselor, and others who either know the student or might have suggestions for how to assist them in learning. The teacher then goes back to the classroom to try the new strategies suggested. If the student continues to be unsuccessful despite the interventions, the student may be referred to the grade level case manager for a special education review.

   A special education referral is made when a disability is strongly

   suspected and it is felt that a student needs special instruction. A 504 referral is made when a condition exists that substantially limits a life activity (such as learning) and it is felt that reasonable accommodations must be made in order for the student to learn. These would be accommodations that are beyond normal classroom accommodations/adaptations.

   
   
   
9. What is the difference between an IEP and a 504 Plan?

10. An IEP is a more comprehensive document with specific timelines and conditions that must be met. It spells out the child’s disability and present level of performance, lists modifications and accommodations, spells out skills to be taught, and has built in quarterly progress reports.

    A 504 Plan describes the condition impacting the student’s learning and spells out the "reasonable accommodations" that will be made by the school to assist the student in accessing his free and appropriate education. It may involve follow up, but has no specific time line unless built in at the time of the meeting. A 504 Plan may be short term, depending upon the reason for its implementation.

11. Who should I contact if I have questions about special education?