An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is written for a child, adolescent or young adult when he or she qualifies for services under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). IDEA Part C serves children from birth to age two while IDEA Part B serves individuals from the age of three to twenty-one. An IEP is written by a team of professionals, along with input from parents, after a child has been determined to have a significant qualifying disorder through a comprehensive evaluation. An evaluation is meant to aid professionals and parents in understanding a student’s disability and how this disability impacts the learning process. A parent must give consent for the school district to conduct an evaluation or a parent has the option to seek an evaluation on their own which is conducted with privately practicing professionals. In most cases a school district is more than willing to utilize current data provided from a qualified psychologist or psychiatrist. In some cases a district may request permission to conduct additional assessments based on their own requirements. In the case that a child was evaluated by the school system and their parent disagrees with the evaluation results the parents have the right to request an Independent Educational Evaluation or IEE at the expense of the school district. The district may then choose to argue the validity of their evaluation in court or may agree to pay for an IEE.
After a comprehensive evaluation has been conducted evaluating all areas of potential disability a team including parents, teachers, a school psychologist and administrators meet to develop an IEP. A disability qualifies a student for an IEP if it is determined to impact the child’s access to learning. Potential areas of disability for a young child include: significant developmental delay in cognitive development, physical development, communication, social and emotional skills and/or adaptive skills. For children from 3 to 21 areas include Autism, hearing impairment, visual impairment, speech/language impairment, significant emotional impairment, intellectual disability, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment (including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-ADHD), traumatic brain injury, specific learning disability or multiple disabilities.
The IEP is designed to meet the student’s learning needs and provide the student Free and Appropriate access to Public Education (FAPE). A parent has the right to decline to participate in the development of the IEP and he or she can give the school team permission to do this without the parent present. It is our belief that parent participation is very important in obtaining appropriate services, and we would suggest parents make it a priority to participate in the IEP process, as well as continue frequent communication with those professionals that serve your child. Typically a meeting is held every three years for redetermination of a child’s disability and in most cases utilizes a re-evaluation to determine whether a child continues to qualify for services and what services are most appropriate.
January 11, 2011 4:35pm
(c) Helena Huckabee