1. Administrators Special Education Academy for General and Special Education Administrators
Session 2 November 7, 2016

2. Presentation Agenda Pre-Referral to Special Education Child Find
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)/
Response to Intervention (RtI)
Child Find
Referral for Special Education Assessment
Eligibility

3. Pre-Referral Activities including Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)/ Response to Intervention (RtI)

4. Purpose of Pre-Referral
Seeks to eliminate any unnecessary and inappropriate referrals to special education by implementing a pre-referral intervention process that supports teachers to design and implement educational interventions that are often effective in the least restrictive environment, the general education classroom.

5. Ways to Address Over Identification of Special Education
Strong core instruction in English/Language Arts and Mathematics!
Implement Response to Intervention (RtI)
Multi-Tiered System of Suports (MTSS)
Focus on BOTH academics and behavior 5

6. Pre-Referral Activities
Pre-referral is an intervention process that involves:
Identifying problems experienced by students in their general education classrooms
Identifying the source of the problems
student, teacher, curriculum, environment, etc.
Taking steps to resolve the problems in their general education classroom

7. Response to Intervention (RtI)
RtI is a structured tiered intervention program conducted within the regular education setting
Provides intensive intervention based on data regarding the student’s individual skill deficits, including behavior
May precede or be part of the SST process 7

8. RtI Components
High quality, research-based general education instruction implemented with fidelity
Universal screening of academics
Data collection and ongoing Progress Monitoring
Multi-tiered levels of intervention with movement between tiers

9. Requirement to Exhaust General Education Services
Federal law (2) “That special classes, separate schooling or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.”
Research has shown that students fall farther behind when they are removed from the general education environment to receive services. If a student can be part of the general education curriculum and instructions with the appropriate accommodations and services with in the general education classroom, the they achieve at a faster rate.

10. Improving Results through the General Curriculum (Continued)
Providing services and supports in the regular classroom when appropriate
Emphasizing pre-service preparation and professional development
Providing incentives for whole-school approaches to reduce need to label children as having a disability
Reducing paperwork
Supporting technology 10

11. Referral to Special Education
Questions for the Student Study Team to Consider:
Has student has received intensive interventions implemented with fidelity over time and demonstrated little or no progress?
Does the team have data to support that the difficulties (academic, social-emotional, or in speech & language) is most likely due to a disability versus a language difference?
If answers to questions above are “YES,” a referral to special education may be appropriate.

12. Referral to Special Education
Child Find and
Referral to Special Education

13. Child Find 20 U.S.C. §1412 (a) (3) (A).
All children with disabilities residing in the State, including children with disabilities who are homeless children or are wards of the State and children with disabilities attending private schools, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, and who are in need of special education and related services, are identified, located, and evaluated and a practical method is developed and implemented to determine which children with disabilities are currently receiving needed special education and related services. 13

14. Written Policies and Procedures
Each special education local plan area (SELPA) shall establish written policies and procedures for use by its constituent local agencies for a continuous child find system that addresses the relationships among identification, screening, referral, assessment, planning, implementation, review, and the triennial assessment. The policies and procedures shall include. but need not be limited to, written notification of all parents of their rights under this chapter, and the procedure for initiating a referral for assessment to identify individuals with exceptional needs.
Education Code (d) (1) 14

15. Referral to Special Education
A pupil shall be referred for special educational instruction and services only after the resources of the regular education program have been considered and, where appropriate, utilized.
California Ed Code 56303
Special education services is the last resort on the pyramid of interventions. This service is tried only after all appropriate interventions have been tried and determined unsuccessful to meet the students needs. 15

16. Referrals for Assessment
A referral for Special Education assessment can legally be made by anyone involved with the student’s education and development, including the parents, teacher, principal, pediatrician, or SST.
Teachers are often in the best position to identify children with special needs, since they are usually conscious of the typical rates of development, learning, and information processing of students in the age group they are teaching. 16

17. Appropriate Referrals
The referral of a student to special education should be an indication that all other avenues have been explored, and that a conclusion has been reached that the child's needs cannot be met by the regular education program. 17

18. Assessment Plan Purpose: When to Use:
To obtain parent consent to complete formal individualized assessment addressing all areas of suspected disability; used to determine eligibility for special education services
When to Use:
Within 15 days of written request or SST referral
Prior to conducting any screenings, triennial assessment, assessment for new services or other reassessment
Assessment Plan Timeline:
Once an assessment plan is signed by parent/guardian the IEP must take place within 60 calendar days
Vacation days in excess of 5 days do not count
Discuss Verbally Requested Referrals 18

19. Special Education Eligibility Criteria19

20. Eligibility Categories
Low Incidence Categories
Hearing Impairment (including deafness)
Orthopedic Impairment
Deafness
Visual Impairment, (including blindness)
Deaf/Blindness
Intellectual Disability
Emotional Disturbance
Multiple Disabilities
Autism
Other Health Impairment
Traumatic Brain Injury
Speech or Language Impairment
Specific Learning Disability 20

21. Eligibility: 3-Prong Test
Student has disability
That adversely affects educational performance
AND
3. Requires specialized instruction. 21

22. Autism
Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, and adversely affecting 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.
(A) Autism does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in subdivision (b)(4) of this section.
(B) A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria in subdivision (b)(1) of this section are satisfied.

23. Emotional Disturbance
Emotional disturbance means 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:
(A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
(B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
(C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
(D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
(E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
(F) Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance under subdivision (b)(4) of this section.

24. Intellectual Disability
Intellectual disability means 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.

25. Other Health Impairment
Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment that:
(A) Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and
(B) Adversely affects a child's educational performance.

26. Specific Learning Disaiblity
Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may have manifested itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The basic psychological processes include attention, visual processing, auditory processing, sensory-motor skills, cognitive abilities including association, conceptualization and expression.
(A) Specific learning disabilities do not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

27. SLD Eligibility Criteria
IEP teams may use any one or more of the following processes to determine eligibility for special education under the category of Specific Learning Disability (SLD):
Severe Discrepancy
Response to Intervention (RtI)
Pattern of Strength and Weaknesses (PSW) 27

28. Specific Learning Disability (SLD) Eligibility Guidelines

29. Questions Contact Us: www.sbcselpa.org (805) 683-1424