Special Education Process

Schools must locate, identify, and evaluate those children in Virginia, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, who need special education and related services to meet the Child Find regulation in the law. This includes children who are:

• Enrolled in public (including charter), private, or religious elementary or secondary schools; • Highly mobile, such as migrant and homeless children;

• Receiving homebound or home-based instruction from the school; receiving home tutoring, or home instruction (home-schooling);

• Are suspected of being children with disabilities and in need of special education even though they are advancing from grade to grade;

• Under 18 years old, who are suspected of having a disability in need of special education and related services, and who are incarcerated in a regional or local jail for ten or more days or under house arrest;

• Suspended or expelled; • In foster care; or • Placed in a private residential placement by a Children’s Services Act team (CSA).

Additional information is available on the CSA website.

Screening is part of the identification process. Parents receive a general notice about the screening and will be notified if their child fails the screening. Schools conduct screenings based on local procedures, which will include timelines. Screenings must be done in the areas of speech, voice, language, and fine and gross motor functions. Schools also either provide information about scoliosis or do regular screenings of students in grades five through ten for scoliosis. The vision and hearing for all children in grades three, seven, and ten, must be screened within 60 days of the beginning of the school year. The purpose of these screenings is to determine if a referral for an evaluation for special education and related services is indicated.

If the decision is to evaluate the child, the special education administrator must:

• Give the parent prior written notice and a copy of the procedural safeguards in the parent’s native language, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so, about the referral, the purpose of the evaluation and parental rights;
• Inform the parent of the procedures for the evaluation process;
• Involve the parent in deciding what evaluation information is needed and request any evaluation information that the parent may have;
• Include the parent as a member of the team reviewing evaluation data and deciding whether more information is needed;
• Get the parent’s written consent to conduct an evaluation; and
• Ensure that all evaluations are completed and that a decision about eligibility for special education is made within 65 business days after the referral for evaluation is received by the special education administrator.

This timeline does not apply if:

• The parent repeatedly fails or refuses to make the child available to be evaluated;
• The parent and the school division agree in writing to extend the 65 business day timeline to obtain additional data that cannot be obtained within the 65 business days; or
• The child transfers to a new school division during the evaluation process. This exception only applies if the new school division is making sufficient progress to complete the evaluation process and the parent and the new school division agree to a specific date when the evaluation process will be completed.

Once the evaluations are completed, a decision is made to determine whether the child is or continues to be a child with a disability and in need of special education and related services. The group that makes this decision may be the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team or an eligibility group and must include:

• A parent;
• A special education teacher;
• The special education administrator;
• School personnel from disciplines providing the assessments;
• The child’s general education teacher (or, if the child does not have a general education teacher, a general education teacher qualified to teach at the child's age); and
• A person qualified to conduct diagnostic examinations of children, such as a school psychologist, speech-language pathologist, or teacher of remedial reading.
• The eligibility group must be qualified to:
• Conduct appropriate individual diagnostic assessments for children;
• Interpret and analyze the information from the assessments; and
• Develop educational and transitional recommendations.

For a child to be found eligible as a child with a disability, he or she must meet the specific criteria adopted by the Virginia Department of Education, and the child’s disability must affect his or her educational performance. Criteria for these disability categories are included in Regulations Governing Special Education Programs for Children with Disabilities in Virginia.

An IEP is a document designed to meet the child’s unique needs and must be in effect:

• At the beginning of each school year;
• Before special education and related services are provided for the child; and
• As soon as possible after the parent consents to the IEP.

TIMELINE The IEP must be developed within 30 calendar days:

• Of the initial determination of eligibility;
• After a reevaluation is completed and the IEP Team determines the child is still eligible for special education services if the team decides changes are needed in an IEP, or if the parent requests it.

The IEP Team develops the IEP for a child with a disability.  The team includes:

• The parent;
• At least one of the child’s general education teachers if the child is or may be participating in general classes;
• At least one special education teacher or related service provider of the child (this person must be serving the child if the child is participating in special education; if the child’s only disability is speech-language impairment, the special education provider must be the speech-language pathologist);
• A person from the school who is qualified to provide or supervise the provision of special education and knows about the general curriculum and about available resources (this person may be another member of the team);
• A person who can interpret what the tests mean for the child (this person also may be another member of the team, other than the parent or the child);
• Other people who are invited at the parent’s or the school’s discretion and who have knowledge or special expertise about the child, including related services personnel, as appropriate (the person inviting another individual makes the decision that the invited individual has knowledge or special expertise about the child); and
• The child, if appropriate.

The IEP Team will meet at least once a year to review and revise a child’s IEP. The IEP Team addresses:

• Progress or lack of progress toward the child’s annual goals;
• The results of any reevaluation;
• Information provided to or by the parent;
• The child’s anticipated needs.

All students with disabilities must first be considered for participation in the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments. The child's IEP must specify the child's participation in Virginia's state accountability system, whether in the SOL assessments (with or without accommodations) or the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP). It is critical that schools ensure that parents fully understand that any decisions regarding a child’s placement, even at a young age, may determine participation or non-participation in SOL assessments, which will then determine whether or not a child will be able to obtain either a Standard or Advanced Studies Diploma.

At least every three years, the school must reevaluate the child, unless the parent and the school agree that the reevaluation is not needed. This kind of reevaluation is often called a “triennial.” The child may be reevaluated more often if the parent or the teacher requests it or if conditions justify a reevaluation to determine whether the child is still a child with a disability or to determine the child's educational needs. However, a school may not conduct a reevaluation more than once a year, unless the parent and the school agree otherwise. The reevaluation is similar to the initial evaluation in terms of the process and parental involvement. As noted in the section on evaluation, the decisions are made by the same group, which includes the parent. This group begins by looking at the information already available about the child. This review may be conducted with or without a meeting. More information is collected only if it is needed. If the group decides that additional assessments are needed, parents must give written permission before the school can collect that information. If the group decides that no additional assessments are needed, the school must inform the parent. If the parent thinks an additional assessment is needed to determine eligibility or the child's educational needs, he or she must make the request for these specific purposes for the school to conduct the assessment. The school may go ahead without the parent’s informed written permission only if it has tried to get the parent’s permission and the parent did not respond.

TIMELINE

A triennial reevaluation must begin in enough time for the process to be completed before the third anniversary of the date on which a child was last determined eligible. A reevaluation for any other reason must be completed within 65 business days from the date the special education administrator receives the request. The parent and the eligibility group may agree in writing to extend the 65 business day timeline for the completion of the reevaluation to obtain information that cannot be obtained within the 65 business days. Before special education and related services for a child are discontinued, the school must evaluate the child.