Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 11, August 30, 2024
(1)
Child Find.
(a) LEA's serving children with disabilities
must develop and implement procedures that ensure that all children within
their jurisdiction, birth to twenty-one, regardless of the severity of their
disability, and who need special education and related services are identified,
located, and evaluated. Child Find also applies to children with disabilities
who attend private schools, including children attending religious schools,
within the LEA's jurisdiction, highly mobile children with disabilities (e.g.,
migrant children), homeless children, or children who are wards of the State
and children who are suspected of having a disability and are in need of
special education, even though they have not failed, been retained in a course
or grade or are advancing from grade to grade.
(b) Child Find includes a practical method of
determining which children with disabilities are currently receiving needed
special education and related services and is designed to ensure the equitable
participation of parentally-placed private school children with disabilities,
as well as an accurate count of these children.
(c) Each LEA in which private, including
religious, elementary schools and secondary schools are located must, in
carrying out the Child Find provisions, include parentally-placed private
school children who reside in a state other than the state in which the private
schools are located.
(d) For
children who are transitioning from Part C to Part B preschool programs, LEA's
are required to make FAPE available to each eligible child residing in their
jurisdiction no later than the child's third birthday and have an IEP in effect
for the child by that date. If the child's third birthday occurs during the
summer months, the child's IEP Team will determine when special education
services will begin. LEA's must participate in a transition planning conference
arranged by the EI service provider in order to experience a smooth and
effective transition to preschool programs.
(2)
Special
Rule. The public agency shall ensure that:
(a) Prior to, or as a part of, the referral
process, the child was provided appropriate instruction in regular education
settings, delivered by qualified personnel; and
(b) Data-based documentation of repeated
assessments of achievement at reasonable intervals, reflecting formal
assessment of student progress during instruction, was provided to the child's
parents.
(3)
Early Intervening Services.
(a) An LEA may provide early intervening
services to students from kindergarten through twelfth grade (with particular
emphasis on students in kindergarten through third grade) who need additional
academic and behavioral support in order to be successful in the regular
education environment prior to referral for special education. In order to
provide these coordinated early intervening services, an LEA may not use more
than 15% of the money received under IDEA Part B for any fiscal year.
(b) Activities. In implementing coordinated,
early intervening services under this section, an LEA may carry out activities
that include:
1. Professional development
(which may be provided by entities other than LEAs) for teachers and other
school staff to enable such personnel to deliver scientifically based academic
and behavioral interventions, including scientifically based literacy
instruction, and, where appropriate, instruction on the use of adaptive and
instructional software; and
2.
Providing educational and behavioral evaluations, services, and supports,
including scientifically based literacy instruction.
(c) Construction. Nothing in this section
shall be construed to either limit or create a right to FAPE under Part B of
the IDEA or to delay appropriate evaluation of a child suspected of having a
disability.
(d) Reporting. Each LEA
that develops and maintains coordinated, early intervening services under this
section must annually report to the SEA on:
1. The number of children served under this
section who received early intervening services; and
2. The number of children served under this
section who received early intervening services and subsequently receive
special education and related services under Part B of the IDEA during the
preceding two-year period.
(e) Coordination with the Elementary
and Secondary Act of 1965 (ESEA). Funds made available to carry out
this section may be used to carry out coordinated, early intervening services
aligned with activities funded by, and carried out under the ESEA if those
funds are used to supplement, and not supplant, funds made available under the
ESEA for the activities and services assisted under this section.
(4)
Intervention
Strategies in the General Education Class. Before a child
is referred for special education evaluation or concurrently during the
evaluation process, intervention strategies must be implemented in the general
education program and monitored by the Building Based Student Support Team
(BBSST) for an appropriate period of time (a minimum of eight weeks), and be
determined unsuccessful. Any child referred December 1, 2000, and after must
have documentation of intervention strategies and a functional assessment of
the classroom environment completed for every referral. This rule may be waived
for a child who has severe problems that require immediate attention, for
three- and four-year olds, for five-year olds who have not been in
kindergarten, for children with articulation, voice, or fluency problems only,
for children with a medical diagnosis of traumatic brain injury, and for a
child who has been referred by his or her parents.
(5)
Screening for
Instructional Purposes. The screening of a child by a
teacher or specialist to determine appropriate instructional strategies for
curriculum implementation shall not be considered to be an evaluation for
eligibility for special education and related services.
(6)
Referral for Initial
Evaluation. Public agencies must develop and implement
procedures regarding the processing of referrals for special education
evaluations.
(a) A parent of a child or a
public agency may initiate a request for an initial evaluation to determine if
the child is a child with a disability.
(b) For a parent who makes a verbal referral
because he or she is unable to complete a written referral, the public agency
must obtain information from that parent and complete the written
referral.
(c) Public agencies may
not limit referrals by the number per year or the time of year that referrals
are accepted.
(d) Information must
be gathered to determine if there are any environmental, cultural, language, or
economic differences that might mask a student's true abilities and thereby
affect the student's performance in the areas evaluated.
(e) The IEP Team must review the referral,
including documentation of intervention strategies and processes, and determine
in a timely manner if the child will be evaluated for special education
services. If the IEP Team determines that the child should not be evaluated for
special education services, written notice, that meets the notice requirements
in these rules, must be given to the parents and the child must be referred to
the BBSST. If the IEP Team determines that the child should be evaluated for
special education services, the public agency must obtain the parent's written
consent for the evaluation.
Author: Joseph B. Morton
Statutory Authority:
Code of Ala.
1975, Title 16, Chapter 39;
20 U.S.C.
1400 et seq.; 34 CFR §300.
