Special Education Referral Process: Jackson R-2 School District
The success of every student is the concern of the Jackson R-2 School District. Sometimes a student is not making the educational or developmental progress which would be age-appropriate. Teachers, parents, day-care providers, doctors, or others often are the first to notice a delay in some area.
Delays may be seen in motor activities, speech, language, vision, reading, math, and/or behavior. Often delays signal a significant problem that may require specific interventions. In order to provide certain interventions, a referral for a special education evaluation is needed.
If you have concerns regarding your child’s progress, talk with his/her classroom teacher. Together you may be able to determine some intervention strategies that may help your child. If after interventions are implemented, your child is still struggling a referral should be made to the building counselor. Within five days of the receipt of a referral from a parent, the counselor will send home a copy of “Procedural Safeguards for Children and Parents” which explain you and your child’s rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for the special education process. A multidisciplinary team will be convened to review any existing data on your child. As a parent, you will be part of this team and be responsible for reviewing the existing data and determining if a special education evaluation is warranted. The team has thirty days from the date of the referral to make this decision.
If the team determines that a comprehensive special education evaluation is warranted, the parent must give signed permission to give any tests. An evaluation team of many different district experts will most likely be involved in the evaluation. The team will have 60 days to complete the evaluation and hold an eligibility meeting with the parent to review the evaluation results. This evaluation team, including the parent, will be responsible for reviewing the data to determine if there is evidence of a disability.
To receive special education services, the child must meet eligibility criteria in one of the sixteen categories as identified in the Missouri State Plan for Special Education. Those categories include: autism, deaf/blind, emotional disturbance, hearing impaired/deafness, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, learning disability, language impairment, sound systems disorder, speech/fluency, speech/voice, traumatic brain injury, vision impairment, and young child with developmental delays.
If a student meets eligibility under IDEA, the team must develop an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) within 30 days of the eligibility determination meeting. IEPs are reviewed at least annually and revised as necessary. Parents play a key role in the development of the IEP. Their input is critical to this document. The IEP team must also determine the appropriate placement that ensures the child with a disability is educated to the maximum extent appropriate with children who do not have disabilities.
The special education process is an important component of the public school setting. The Jackson R-2 Special Education Department will continue to strive to help parents navigate through the many avenues of this process.
