Evaluation Procedures

ECKCE Special Services has a responsibility to serve all students in the district with special needs. ECKCE publishes child find information in the local newspapers and on the district’s public website. Brochures will be placed throughout the community.

Public notice of child find is published each year in the following:

-          Free screenings are provided monthly for children ages birth through five.

-          Coordination with community early childhood programs and Community Infant Toddler programs occurs as needed.

-          Student intervention teams, using a problem-solving format are also used K- 12.

A child may be referred for an evaluation if one of the following conditions is met:

1.  School personnel have data-based documentation indicating that general education interventions and strategies would be inadequate to address the areas of concern for the child. This information should be submitted in a written document developed by the building SIT (Student Intervention Team). This may include, but not be limited to, the following: reviews of student performance on local and state assessments; achievement tests; analysis of student achievement of grade level indicators and classroom performance measures, examination of office referrals and suspensions; and reviews of teacher, counselor and parent concerns. Also included should be the following: a description of parental involvement; the reason for referral which describes the concern in comparison to peers; baseline data for the area of concern; plan(s) for intervention; progress monitoring; and examples and descriptions of all interventions implemented and results.

2.  School personnel have data-based documentation indicating that before the referral, or as a part of the referral, all of the following conditions were met:

(A)  The child was provided with appropriate instruction in regular education settings that was delivered by qualified personnel.

(B)  The child’s academic achievement was repeatedly assessed at reasonable intervals that reflected formal assessment of the student’s progress during instruction.

(C)  The assessment results were provided to the child’s parent or parents.

(D)  The assessment results indicate that an evaluation is appropriate.

3.  The parent of the child requests and gives written consent for an evaluation of the child, and the district agrees that an evaluation of the child is appropriate. Such requests are to be immediately delivered to the school psychologist who will obtain consent for evaluation and deliver parent rights. The building SIT will collect data on strategies and interventions as part of the evaluation process.

To ensure that parents have knowledge about their rights under the special education law, the district is required to provide the parent with a copy of the Parent Rights in Special Education Notice:

●     At least one time in a school year; and

●     Upon a referral or parent request for initial evaluation;

●     First formal complaint or due process complaint filed in a school year;

●     Upon a disciplinary removal from school that constitutes a change in placement; and

●     Upon parent request.

The notice is to be written in language understandable to the general public and provided in the native language of the parent.

Parent/Family: The parent or family member is a very important part of the team. They contribute valuable insight about the child in settings other than school. The parent is the primary resource for family, developmental, medical, and school related histories. They also provide consent to obtain further histories from other agencies. In Kansas, “parent” is defined as:

●     A natural (biological) parent;

●     An adoptive parent;

●     A person acting as a parent (meaning a person such as a grandparent, stepparent, or other relative with whom a child lives, or a person other than a parent or relative who is legally responsible for the welfare of the child);

●     A legal guardian;

●     An education advocate; or

●     A foster parent, if the foster parent has been appointed the education advocate of an exceptional child.

Administrator: Typically, this is the building principal or his/her designee. Responsibilities include clarifying administrative issues concerning the facility, scheduling of “specials” (i.e. music, P.E., art, shop), integration of a child, use of computers, etc.

Occupational Therapist: The occupational therapist (OT) assesses the child’s fine motor abilities such as upper extremity function, self-care, visual-perceptual skills, and normal growth and development. Assessments include formal and informal tests. The OT provides results of the evaluation to determine the child’s need for OT services.

Physical Therapist: The physical therapist (PT) assesses gross motor skills that deal with gait and mobility, as well as coordination, through formal and informal testing. Information derived from this assessment, will determine the child’s need for PT services.

School Counselor: The school counselor provides information regarding the child’s feelings about school, home, self, and others. Observations, formal, and informal assessments provide this information. School Nurse: The school nurse provides screening information for vision, hearing, weight, coordination, and the child’s general health history.

School Psychologist: The school psychologist is responsible for interpreting the data collected through the general intervention process and the standardized tests that assess the child’s academic and intellectual abilities. Through classroom observations and informal discussions with the child, the school psychologist assesses the child’s perceptions of school and home. The school psychologist may act as the facilitator at the staffing and is responsible for ensuring all paperwork is completed.

Speech/Language Clinician: The speech/language clinician assesses the child’s speech and language abilities through the use of formal tests and careful observation of his/her conversational speech. These tests evaluate the child’s sound production, expressive and receptive language, grammar, fluency, and voice quality. The speech

clinician makes recommendations for speech therapy, based upon the results of the evaluation. The speech clinician may also provide valuable information for the classroom teacher and parents to put into practice outside of the therapeutic environment.

Special Education Teacher(s): A special education teacher with knowledge in the area of concern may be present at the staffing. The teacher(s) who is currently working with the child provides information on skills the child has acquired and his/her educational needs. The student’s strengths and needs should be determined through data collected during classroom observations, formative assessments, progress monitoring, or formal tests.

Transition Coordinator: When appropriate, i.e. when the student’s IEP requires a transition planning component, the transition coordinator should be invited to insure IEP compliance with indicator 13.

Technical Assistance:

Technical assistance may also be provided to teachers as it pertains to classroom strategies that meet the needs of students.

Other: The parent may opt to invite someone who can offer information or support at the staffing. This may be a friend, relative, or a professional.

Please note: Representatives of community-based services may be invited to a meeting ONLY with signed parental consent UNLESS such representatives are there at the invitation of the parent.

The purpose of the evaluation is to determine if a student qualifies for one or more of the following areas of exceptionality.

Autism - A developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three but not necessarily so, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are: engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. This term shall not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance.

Developmental Delay (age 9 and younger) - A deviation from average development, to the extent that special education and related services are required, in one or more of the following developmental areas: physical, cognitive, adaptive behavior, communication, or social or emotional development. The deviation from average development shall be documented and measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures.

Emotional Disturbance - A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:

•         An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors

•         An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers

•         Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances

•         A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression

•         A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. This term includes schizophrenia, but shall not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is

determined that they have an emotional disturbance.

Gifted - Performing or demonstrating the potential for performing at significantly higher levels of accomplishment in one or more academic fields due to intellectual ability, when compared to others of similar age, experience and environment.

Learning Disability - A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term shall not include learning problems that are primarily the result of any one of the following: visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; mental retardation; emotional disturbance; or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Intellectual Disability - Significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Multiple Disabilities - Co-existing impairments, the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that those needs cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.

Orthopedic Impairment - A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance and includes impairments caused by any of the following: congenital abnormality (such as clubfoot or absence of a limb); disease (such as poliomyelitis or bone tuberculosis); and other causes (such as cerebral palsy, amputation, or fractures/burns causing contractures).

Other Health Impairment - Having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the education environment and meets the following criteria: is due to chronic or acute health problems (including asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactive disorder, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia, and Tourette Syndrome); and adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Sensory Impairments – Includes the following:

•         Hearing impairment: a permanent or fluctuating impairment in hearing that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but does not constitute deafness as defined in the regulations.

•         Deafness: hearing impairment so severe it impairs a child’s ability to process linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, and adversely affects the child’s educational performance.

•         Visual impairment: visual impairment that, even with corrections, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. (Includes both partial sight and blindness.)

•         Blindness: visual impairment that requires dependence on tactile and auditory media for learning

•         Deaf-blindness: combination of hearing and visual impairments which causes such severe communication needs, as well as other developmental and educational needs, that cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for the hearing or visually impaired.

Speech or Language Impairment - A communication disorder, including stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Traumatic Brain Injury - Acquired injury to the brain, caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functioning disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects educational performance. This term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, including: cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. This does not include brain injuries that are congenital, degenerative, or induced by birth trauma.

PARENT NOTIFICATION OF SIT OR MTSS STRATEGIES:

The question is often asked, “At what point do we get the parent involved in SIT or MTSS?” The recommendation is that parents are involved from the very beginning of the process. Parents usually know their student has an issue and are worried about it. If they are from certain backgrounds, they are suspicious about what “the school” might “do”. If you have them involved from the very beginning, it eliminates the suspicion. It becomes what it should be – a partnership in problem-solving for the sake of the child. Parents have an enormous wealth of student t-specific information. They know sleeping habits, eating habits, exercise habits, homework habits, friends, fears, worries, joys, and re-enforcers. They also need to know what we are seeing at school. Parents need to see the data we are collecting and the decisions being made based on that data. They need to see that a wide array of strategies is being tried. They need suggestions about what they can do at home to support the efforts at school. At certain decision points, parents will be asked to sign consent. This is better done if they are fully informed. Parents, even the most difficult ones, are your best ally in solving student problems. Cultivate those relationships and the child will usually benefit.

1.  The general education teacher through the SIT (Student Intervention Team) process will indicate if OT/PT/Speech concerns are present and will provide pertinent classroom data indicating the areas of the student’s strengths and needs.

2.  The school psychologist and building administrator will determine if additional classroom performance data is needed; if so, the referred student returns to the SIT team.

3.  The school psychologist will coordinate the evaluation and will notify those involved of the referral. The school psychologist will attempt to obtain consent for the evaluation from parents. Included in the packet sent to parents will be a cover letter describing the process, “Prior Written Notice to Evaluate” (found in Chapter 9), parental rights, and parent questionnaire (found in this chapter).

4.  The school psychologist will notify special education staff when permission to evaluate is obtained. The evaluation cannot be started until consent is obtained. As per federal regulations, the team has 60 school days to complete the evaluation and develop an IEP, if needed.

5.  Evaluation begins upon receiving parent consent. Initial evaluations must include the following five sources: General Education Intervention, Record Review, Interview, Observation and Test. A variety of assessment tools must be used to gather relevant functional, developmental and academic information to determine whether the child is an exceptional child. The collected data is used to determine the following: if the child is a child with an exceptionality; whether the child needs special

education and related services; the educational needs of the student; the present levels of academic achievement and functional performance; and whether any additions or modifications to the special education services are needed to enable the child to meet the measurable goals set out in the IEP and to participate in the general education curriculum. All special education staff involved in this evaluation must notify the school psychologist when their testing is complete.

6.  All tests administered for evaluation purposes will be given by trained, licensed, and knowledgeable personnel. Test protocols will be followed in accordance with instructions by the publisher of the test. Norm referenced tests will be used for reliability and validity. Native language needs will be considered. Written materials can be obtained in a variety of languages and interpreters will be hired in accordance with the language needs of the student or family. Language needs are determined by the native language spoken or as requested by the parent.

7.  Individual special education services members will gather information and enter his/her own data into the Eligibility Report and the “Present Levels” sections, at least one week prior to the parent meeting. The school psychologist will notify the entire special services team when all testing is complete.

8.  The school psychologist will contact the team and set up a staff only in-house (if needed) and parent meeting.

9.  The team, including parents, will meet to review the evaluation results. The team will determine eligibility by answering two questions. 1. Is the child a child with an exceptionality? 2.  and by reason

thereof, has a need for special education and related services? If the decision is made to place the student in special education, an IEP will be created.

10.  If the student is not placed in special education services, he/she will be referred back to the SIT team for continued student improvement plan interventions or a 504.

11.  School psychologist will return the Note to SIT with results.

Initial Evaluation Procedures for Gifted:

1.      If the student is referred from the SIT team, the previously mentioned information is applicable.

2.  As a part of this process, the gifted facilitator will:

a.  Send out Teacher Information for Gifted Evaluation (found on website) to classroom teacher(s) to complete and return. Complete the Student Interview, as well, with the referred student. The information will be reviewed and put on the Eligibility Report (found on the website).

c.  If academic testing is needed, the school psychologist will inform the gifted facilitator, who will give a test of achievement and put this information on the Eligibility Report.

d.  Email the school psychologist when this is complete.

1.  Providers will be notified of students due for reevaluations by the MIS Clerk at the beginning of the school year. All case managers should double check caseloads at the beginning of the school year. If a student is missing from this list or there is an incorrect date, the school psychologist and MIS clerk should be contacted immediately.

2.  At the beginning of the year, the school psychologist will contact the case manager with tentative dates for reevaluation meetings for the school year. (Speech only students are the responsibility of the speech pathologists.)

3.  Team will determine if additional data is needed.

4.      The school psychologist will send to parents a packet including a cover letter describing the process, Prior Written Notice for Evaluation or Reevaluation and Request for Consent (WebKIDSS), a copy of parental rights, and parent questionnaire (found on website). Teachers will receive a Teacher Questionnaire (found on website) to complete, as well.

5.  Once consent has been obtained, the school psychologist will notify providers via e-mail and copy of permission to test form. ***The reevaluation cannot be started until consent is obtained.

6.  The evaluation begins upon receiving consent. All special education staff involved in this evaluation must notify the school psychologist when their testing is complete.

7.      Special education staff members will gather information and enter their own data into the Eligibility Report and “Present Levels” sections on the WebKIDSS program at least one week prior to the parent meeting.

8.      If staff believes an in-house meeting is needed, the school psychologist should be contacted immediately. This meeting should be scheduled at least one week prior to the parent meeting.

9.      The team will meet to discuss Eligibility Report and IEP (if applicable) with parents. Follow IEP guidelines as indicated in Chapter 3.

Reevaluation Procedures for Gifted:

1.  The team will determine if additional information is needed for the student’s reevaluation. The school psychologist should be notified of the outcome of this determination. Aforementioned reevaluation procedures should be followed if the team decides it is necessary. If the team concludes a reevaluation is not needed to determine continued eligibility for the gifted program, the school psychologist will send the parent the Reevaluation Not Needed form (WebKIDSS). The school psychologist will update the Evaluation Completion Date in WebKIDSS once the form is returned.

2.  The gifted facilitator will gather information and enter this data into the Eligibility Report and the “Present Levels” section on the WebKIDSS program. The gifted facilitator is also responsible for coordinating with other service providers for the various pieces of information needed.

3.  The team will meet and review data. Eligibility will be determined, and the IEP will be developed following the IEP procedures.