Arrive review or Dismissed into the Special Education Progress education progress.



Arrive review or Dismissed into the Special Education Progress

Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)

When an infant or toddler begins to demonstrate problems with meeting developmental milestones, the IDEA addresses early intervention with the family and the child who may have a disability. With a little assistance early on, a child who is late in meeting developmental goals may sometimes catch up with his or her peers (Rosenstein & Bruno, 1990). In Texas, there is an agency that helps children under three years of age who have developmental delays. The program is called ECI and provides services for qualifying infants and toddlers and their families. Services include screening and evaluation, programming, service coordination and transition services, as needed. About 120 days before a toddler receiving ECI turns three years old, a meeting will be set up to help the family make the transition from ECI services to special education services, if appropriate. Not all children served by the ECI program will qualify for special education services. If the child does qualify, special education services must be made available to the child on his or her third birthday (Rosenstein & Bruno, 1990).

Special Education

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates free appropriate public education for all children with disabilities regardless of the severity of the disability (O'Reilly & Caldwell, 1989). This law, which also is designed to protect children and parents in educational decision-making, requires the district to develop an individualized education program (IEP) for each child with a disability.

The law also requires the district to provide students with disabilities an education in the least restrictive environment. In 1997, the federal government re-authorized IDEA. The new law states that the IEP must be more clearly aligned with those of children in general classrooms and include regular education teachers in the decision-making progress. The new law also requires including students with disabilities in state and district assessment programs and in setting and reporting performance goals (Moesel & Fiet, 1996).

To serve the multiple needs of all students with disabilities and to comply with IDEA's requirements, an effective special education program should implement the following practices (derived from Public Law 101-15, the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Pre-referral intervention in regular education. When a student experiences academic problems in regular education, an intervention can and should occur to solve the problems (Mintzberg, 1983). If steps taken to solve the problem don't produce results, the problem should be referred to special education staff.

Referral to special education for evaluation. Referring a student to special education means writing an official request supported by documentation. The referral information must include an explanation of steps that have been taken in regular education to solve the student's problem before the referral. Comprehensive nondiscriminatory evaluation. Once a student has been referred, the district must provide a comprehensive, nondiscriminatory evaluation, commonly referred to as an assessment, within a prescribed amount of time (McAlmon, ...