Your Child with Special Needs is Entitled to a Free and Appropriate Education
September 9, 2011
But where do you start?
In the famous story, Rashoman, four blind men feel an elephant. “Why, an elephant is like a tree,” says the one man feeling the animal’s leg. “No, my friend, it’s like a snake,” claims the one feeling the beast’s trunk. “You are both wrong,” says the third who is holding its tail. ”It is like a whip!” “How can you be so ignorant?” says the one feeling the animal’s side, “It is like a rough wall.”
Parents of children with autism and other special needs may feel much like the blind men in the story when confronted with the prospect of educating their child with special needs. In addition to coming to terms with the fact that their child is different, parents are faced with the prospect of learning a language that is completely foreign to you and the different theories of what is the best way to handle their child. There are so many terms to learn, that after while it looks like alphabet soup — LRE, OT, TSA, APE, IEP, IDEA, LAS and more. What does it all mean and where to start?
When they meet with school district representatives for the first time to consider an individual education program (IEP) for their child, they are faced with many confusing choices. Do they choose the least restrictive environment (LRE) over a costly private therapeutic school? Do they want their child fully included in regular classes, or enrolled in a special day class with only children with special needs? Or, should they go with the collaborative model? Classroom modifications or adaptations? Should he have a temporary support assistant (TSA) or not? Adaptive physical education (APE) and/or regular P.E. classes?
Even though the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) provides that children with disabilities are entitled to a “free appropriate public education,” deciding what is the best placement for a child with autism is almost impossible for parents to do – alone.
The choice of a child’s placement is a decision parents and school district specialists should arrive at together, in agreement, after a thorough series of evaluations performed by the school district, and if necessary, private consultants as well.
When a child is first diagnosed is key. There is fairly consistent agreement that intensive early intervention is the only proven method of increasing the chances that a child with autism will be mainstreamed in a general education class, which is currently the preferred model for most school districts. Many districts even provide special preschool classes for children diagnosed early.
However, the reality is that many children never receive early intervention services prior to entering school. Some do not receive a diagnosis until they are already school age and others – even if diagnosed as an infant or toddler – may not receive intensive therapies due to myriad reasons including lack of resources, lack of access or availability of services.
Whatever the case of when a child is diagnosed, once he is (and public schools have teams of experts who run batteries of assessments for the purpose of diagnosis), an IEP is held with the parents, school district representatives and others, such as teachers, speech therapists, etc., present to weigh in on where they believe a child would perform best in an academic setting. If the parents have hired private assessors, such as speech pathologists or therapists, these professionals are also welcome to present their findings at the IEP.
Next time I will go into more detail on IEPs and their importance in the placement of a special needs child.
When you think about it, that’s got to be the right anwser.
I agree with your tips. I would add two points:1) Evaluations need to be divren by diagnostic questions, but rarely are. Parents (and teachers) need to ask the right questions to get the right answers. Here are a few sample questions:# What are my son’s strengths?# What are his weaknesses?# What services does he need to support and extend his strengths?# What services does he need to overcome his weaknesses?# If the recommended services are organized by sessions, how frequently should he get the services and how long should each session last?# What does he have to learn (academically, socially, emotionally, recreationally, vocationally, behaviorally) to succeed in general education classes, with the general education curriculum?# What services does he need to master the general education curriculum?# What services does he need to do well in general education classes?# What services does he need to do benefit from special education?# Specifically and explicitly, how should his progress be measured?# How frequently should his progress be measured so any difficulties can quickly be eradicated and his progress accelerated?# What annual goals and quarterly objectives would produce important progress without overwhelming or frustrating him?# How much repetition and novelty does he need in order to master what’s taught?# What has diagnostic teaching revealed about his learning and the kinds of lessons he needs?2) Testing is rarely enough to produce needed answers. Diagnostic teaching, observations of the child doing well and poorly, and ongoing monitoring of progress are critical parts of a valid evaluation.