We hope your school year is off to a great start! Below you will find a list of the questions that were posed by you and your colleagues at the Unique Learners’ Conference and the corresponding answers/guidance. Please follow up with your Unique Learners’ Manager if you have additional questions or need further clarification.
CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN (CAP) AREAS
Extended School Year (ESY)
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Do we address regression/recoupment in the ESY section if deciding not to provide ESY?
If a student is not eligible for ESY (he/she doesn’t meet one or more of the three ESY criteria), the “No” box on the IEP is checked. No additional documentation is needed regarding the eligibility determination.
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If not providing ESY, do all three criteria areas need to be stated as not being a need (e.g., no regression/recoupment, no self-sufficiency, no unique need)? Or do we only document to justify the need for ESY?
If a student is not eligible for ESY (he/she doesn’t meet one or more of the three ESY criteria), the “No” box on the IEP is checked. No additional documentation is needed regarding the eligibility determination.
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Can we address ESY at the next IEP or is a significant change needed?
Depending on when the annual IEP meeting is due, a significant change may be needed. If the IEP meeting isn’t due until the end of May and the student is eligible, the district will need to know that sooner for staffing, transportation, and curriculum ordering. Many of the SCRED districts have their own internal deadlines established for making final ESY eligibility determinations for this reason.
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Can we fill out all the ESY requirement info on the service page at the time in the year when we update/review the annual IEP no matter what time of year it was?
As long as the IEP team has data to support the eligibility determination, this decision can be made and documented regardless of the time of year.
IEP Team Membership
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What are the IEP Procedures with divorced parents/nontraditional families? Do you need to follow same rules for both meetings? (i.e., excusal forms)
The district is only obligated to hold one annual IEP meeting and only one parent is
required to attend. An excusal form is not needed to excuse the other parent from the meeting. If parents are demanding two separate meetings, you may consider the use of technology to have one parent participate via phone to try to accommodate this request, yet still only hold one meeting.
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Do we need to excuse a student who is elementary age or just of transition age?
Students only become a required member of the team once transition age (or at the time a transition IEP is being developed if sooner than grade 9).
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Where are the forms that guide regular education teacher to have written input if they can’t be at the full IEP meeting?
Your school psychologist can provide you with a checklist that can be used for regular education teachers to give meaningful input into IEP meetings that would fulfill the written input requirement.
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If a student is making good progress on their functional goal yet is significantly behind peers in that goal area, can we use criteria B on the ESY form?
Criteria B is an appropriate eligibility criteria for the team to consider in this type of situation where the student is making good progress, but remains significantly behind peers in the goal area. Under criteria B, the team is to consider the pupil’s age, level of development, the nature and degree of the disability, and the timeliness for teaching the skill and the critical nature of the functional skill. The IEP team could make the argument that the student is at a critical place in the skill development or despite making progress toward the goal is still requiring significant assistance with the goal area.
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It seems that school nurses are not a required IEP team member. If the nurse isn’t able to attend an IEP/ESR meeting in full or in part, is an excusal form necessary?
School nurses are only a required team member if he/she completed a portion of the evaluation and are therefore the person qualified to interpret the assessment results. Thus, an evaluation results meeting for which the school nurse completed a portion of the evaluation is the only time in which an excusal form needs to be completed. It is important to remember, however, that a school nurse is a very important IEP team member to include at meetings when discussing students with significant medical needs.
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When the building administrator cannot attend an IEP meeting, is it the case manager’s responsibility to find an admin designee?
The administrator needs to decide who he/she is comfortable designating as the administrative designee for the meeting and should communicate the assignment to the designee.
Occupational Therapy/Physical Therapy Service Delivery Models
No specific questions were poseed regarding this specific topic, but the SCRED OTs and PT have revised their sections on the SCRED website to provide clearer guidance in this area (see below) and we would like to share it with you.
Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists are members of the special education team as related service providers. They provide support to students so that they may increase their access to the educational environment through strategies, techniques, adaptations, and accommodations in order to make progress on goals and objectives on the IEP/IFSP.
Related services are only provided when a student qualifies for special education services under a specific disability category and the educational team determines that this support is necessary in order for the child to accomplish their identified educational goals and objectives. Related services are defined as “...developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education.” [34 C.F.R. § 300.34(a)]. Each student’s need for related services, like his or her need for special education, must be determined on an individual basis, as part of the IEP process and must be based on an assessment of the student’s individual needs. [34 C.F.R. §§ 300.301 and 300.304 through 300.311]
The IEP team will determine the service delivery model based on the student’s individual needs and may include:
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Direct - regular, planned time working face to face with the child. Direct service should be chosen when the therapist is the only one qualified to provide the intervention. Indirect service should also be provided to ensure exchange of information to teachers, parents, paraprofessionals and collaboration with community therapists.
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Indirect - regular, planned time working face to face with the child, collaborating with school staff/parents/outside agency staff, providing demonstration teaching, cooperative planning, on-going progress reviews, modification of environment, curriculum, materials, or equipment. When working indirectly with the child, the therapist should relate to a specific goal/objective(s) on the IEP.
Additional Questions Unrelated to CAPs
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If a child has an ASD label, do we need someone with that license on the team? When does it become a requirement to have a licensed ASD teacher at meetings?
No, not currently. Beginning July 1, 2015, the new ASD license requirement will go into effect and at the time an ASD licensed person must be on all IEP teams for students who qualify under the ASD category.
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Last year we were told 14 days from the IEP meeting was when services start. So how many days from the meeting do we have to send the IEP?
For annual IEPs (not initial IEPs), the service start date should be 14 calendar days from the date of the PWN for the IEP (which is the date the the IEP is mailed home to the parents).
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What forms in SpEd Forms need to be finalized?
All forms that can be finalized need to be finalized.