More than six million children with disabilities receive special education and related services in our schools each year. The United States Government through the individuals with disabilities education improvement act or IDEA, set standards that ensure these services are made available in schools for all students.

Classroom teachers are a pivotal part of the process, by which the students receive services under this law. The teacher is a collaborator, a communicator and a facilitator for accommodations. The teacher is the individual who aside from the parent has the most day-to-day connection with the students’ progress towards their goals.

For most of this nation’s history, public schools were allowed to exclude children with disabilities. Students with certain special needs were often sent to centralized institutions. Others had no educational opportunities at all outside the home. During the 1960s Federal legislation began to guarantee and protect the educational rights of children.

1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

In 1975 congress first enacted the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It ensured that all children including children with disabilities had the right to receive a free appropriate public education. The law has been revised many times, congress passed the most recent amendments in December 2004 the final regulations published in August 2006.

The name of the law is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. IDEA lists 14 categories of disabilities, they are autism, visual impairment including blindness, deaf-blindness, deafness, developmental delay, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment and traumatic brain injury. Children with these disabilities have specific rights protected by law. These include a free appropriate, public education which is sometimes referred to as “FAPE”

The idea of public education is that it is an extension of democracy and it is extension of all children coming together for the opportunity to learn together and to understand the differences of a democracy and work towards being able to go on to be productive citizens together and this extents that to children with special needs.

Beyond setting the standards for special education, IDEA mandates how special education is funded. States must ensure that a wide range of procedures and processes are in place in order to be eligible to receive funding under IDEA.

Each state must specify and implement certain requirements concerning dispute resolutions children with disabilities in private schools and much more. This program presents the six principles of IDEA takes a close look at Individualized Education Plans or IEPs. Outlines what happens in an IEP meeting and names the roles of the IEP team members.

IDEA sets high standards for achievement and guides how schools provide special services in order to meet the individual needs of students with disabilities. Teachers in an inclusive classroom must know the basics of IDEA, so that they know what is expected of them and their school.

The IDEA law contains four major parts:

• Part a, outlines the general provisions of the law and defines specific terms.
• Part b, describes the way that IDEA is funded.
• Part c, describes early intervention services for infants and toddlers.
• Part d, describes national activities to improve education of children with disabilities.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF IDEA

The six basic principles, which govern the education of special needs students, are

1. Zero reject
2. Nondiscriminatory evaluation
3. Appropriate education
4. Least restrictive environment
5. Procedural due process, and
6. Parent and student participation.

The first four principles of IDEA are the stems by which students receive their education. They ensure that students get the free and public education to which they are entitled. The last two principles are safe guards. To ensure that the first four steps are executed properly.

1. Zero Reject:

Zero reject IDEA was designed so that no child is denied a free, public education. In other words, we reject the idea that a child cannot be educated due to a disability. For the purposes of IDEA a child includes anyone from ages 3 to 22. Students with the most severe disabilities must not be excluded. Students with behavior problems caused by disability must not be excluded. Even children with contagious diseases must not be excluded.

• Schools are required to determine whether or not a child has a disability
• The school determines specific services needed for the child: child study team, social worker, school psychologist, specialized therapist, teacher, school administrator, parents, autism, visual impairment, deaf-blindness, deafness, developmental delay, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities.

2. Nondiscriminatory evaluation

This principle has two parts. First, schools are required to determine whether or not a child has a disability. And second, if the evaluation shows that a child has a disability then the schools child study team or special education team will determine appropriate services that the student will receive. This team consists of appropriate clinicians such as a social worker, school psychologist and her specialized therapist, teachers, a school administrator and parents. If the child is found to have one of the IDEA disabilities, he or she is eligible for special education and related services. A team must meet within 30 calendar days after a child is determined to be eligible.

3. Appropriate education

Under this principle each student will have an individually designed plan or IEP with specific measurable goals. These goals will be based on objective and subjective evaluations. And what appropriate education looks like for someone who is 6, is very different from for a child who is 16. So, you know it helps a child transition from grade to grade and in that it scaffolds the child for the needs of the next grade. An IEP is a written document, it lists the special educational services a child will receive as well as how they will be implemented. A team develops the IEP and the teacher is part of that team.

4. Least restricted environment (LRE)

A school will provide a learning environment that is as inclusive as possible.

Once the IEP has been created the school moves on to providing the next principle. Least restricted environment or LRE. To meet this principle the school will provide a learning environment that is as inclusive as possible. Here they will learn alongside their typically developing peers to the maximum extent that is appropriate. This model of delivery is the most beneficial for both students with and without disabilities. Inclusion is important because we all want to be included and we all want to be accepted and we all want to matter. It used to be known as mainstreaming. It is now known as inclusion into general education. General education refers to academic curriculum, extracurricular activities and even non-academic activities like recess and transportation. Least restricted environment should be the goal for all special education students. This provides a learning environment that most resembles that of the regular education peers. A student with the disability may be placed in regular education classroom with or without an instructional aid. His inclusion can foster a sense of belonging as well as promote understanding and compassion from his typically developing peers.

The whole inclusive environment is to create an environment that meets the needs of all the children in the classroom, that all the children are being physically active in a certain way that to extent their ability will allow them, they are also acting in that way. If all the children are working on a particular kind of lesson that there… that there is adapted… adaptations and accommodations, that they have access to those same experiences. And so, the environment includes them as supposed to them being outside of the environment.

These four principles are the steps through which the students receive the education that will best accommodate their needs and help them achieve their potential. The final two principles ensure that the first four principles are followed properly.

5. Procedural due process

The fifth principle is procedural due process; this is a rule that makes the schools and parents accountable to each other for carrying out the principles of IDEA. If there is a dispute between parents and school the law provides a system to resolve the issue in question. IDEA strongly suggest mediation before lawyers are called in on either side. Ideally, the special education team will stress collaboration with the student’s parents. Disputes that are not handled well can take away from a positive working relationship.

6. Parent and student participation

The sixth principle is parent and student participation. In addition to being part of the IEP team parents have other rights under IDEA. For example, if the parents disagree with the initial evaluation of their child they have the right to take their child for an independent education evaluation of IEE. They can ask that the school system pay for this. Other rights include access to school records for their child as well as control over who else may view these records and the opportunity to participate in special education advisory committees. The student also has rights under this principle. They must be informed of the rights they will have when they become an adult.

Identification of Special Needs

Children may be identified as needing special services under IDEA in various ways. Through early intervention services or the child find system as well as parents and teachers referral.

Some children receive service before they enter preschool. IDEA calls for early intervention services for children zero to three years of age. Early intervention services are specialized health, educational and therapeutic services designed to meet the needs of infants and toddlers who have a developmental delay or disability.

Sometimes it is clear from the moment a child is born that early intervention services will be essential in helping the child grow and develop even before heading home from the hospital. Parents may be given a referral to their local early intervention office.

Other children may have a routine entry into the world, but may develop more slowly than others, experiences setbacks or develop in ways that seem very different from their peers. For these children a visit with the developmental pediatrician and thorough evaluation may lead to an early intervention referral. Early intervention for children age 0-3 is concerned with all the basic skills that babies typically develop during the first three years of life.

Individualized Family Service Plan IFSP

When a child under three years of age is diagnosed with a disability they are referred to an early intervention specialist. They work with the family to create an individualized family service plan or IFSP. An IFSP is a document that highlights family involvement and specifies the early intervention services provided to infants and toddlers with disabilities. The IFSP is altered to become the child’s IEP when they enter school.

Special Education Child Find – School Referral – Parents

Now let’s examine how children are referred for special education testing once they enter school. School age children are identified as needing services through child find, through a referral school personnel as well as their parent.

IDEA requires all states to have a comprehensive child find system to assure that all children who are in need of early intervention or special education services are located identified and referred.

States conduct child find activities which are designed to find students in need of services, such activities include running public awareness campaigns, conducting screenings to identify preschool children with special needs and assisting state and local agencies with the identification process. The school system may ask to evaluation a child based on teachers’ recommendations, observations or results from academic testing. A school may recommend that a child receive further screening or assessment to determine if he or she has a disability and needs special education in related services. When the school personnel or child find identifies an individual as a candidate for special education their parents will be asked for permission to evaluation them.

Parents are often the first to notice that their child’s learning behavior or development may be a cause for concern and they may also request that their child be evaluated. Under the federal IDEA regulations an evaluation must be completed within 60 calendar days after the parent gets consent. However, if the states IDEA regulations give a different timeline for completion of the evaluation the states’ timeline applies. Evaluation should be administered in a way that doesn’t discriminate and should use assessments that are based on norms of the child’s peers.

Assessments may evaluate academics, adaptive behavior, communication skills, motor skills, social and emotional skills and intelligence. If the assessment determines the child will benefit from special education services, a formal plan will be created for the child in the IEP process. If there are disagreements during the assessment and evaluation any party may initiate the formal resolution process.

Every beginning has an ending. IDEA also provides guidelines for how students with special needs can transition into adulthood. This transition planning becomes formalized as part of the students IEP.

The IEP

Every child who receives special education services must have an IEP. An IEP is a written statement for a child with a disability. It is developed, reviewed and revised. The process of developing this vital document is of great interest and importance to educators, administrators and families alike. As a teacher you will be playing a major role in the development of IEP. But you’ll be playing even more significant role in the execution of the IEP. in a formal meeting in keeping with specifically legal regulations and requirements. In other learning modules, we will explain in detail what an IEP is, who takes part in it, and how an IEP is different than an IFSP.