Special Education

What is an IEP?

The IEP, Individual Education Program, is a written document developed for each public school child who is eligible for special education. The IEP is created through a team effort and reviewed at least once per year. Before an IEP can be written, a child must be determined eligible for special education. By Federal law, a multidisciplinary team must determine that your child both: 1) has a disability, and 2) requires special education services to benefit from the general education program. For more information regarding special education services in our district, please contact your site administrator or Student Support Services at 805.549.1220.

IEP Team Members

The members of the multidisciplinary team who develop your child's IEP include the following.

Required Participants:

• The parents/guardians 
• A general education teacher
• A special education teacher who has training and experience in educating children with disabilities (required)
• A representative of the school district who know about special education services and has the authority to commit resources

As needed Participants:

• An individual who can interpret the instructional implications of the assessment results
• Individuals who have knowledge or special expertise about your child who are invited by you and/or the school district
• Representatives from transition services agencies, when such services are being discussed
• Your child, when appropriate, and whenever transition is discussed

Contents of the IEP

The IEP guarantees the necessary supports and services that are agreed upon for your child. At minimum, the IEP must contain the following information:

• Student Strengths and Parent Concerns
• Present Levels of Educational Performance
• Goals
• Special Education and Related Services
• When services begin, where and how often they'll be provided
• Necessary accommodations and modifications in the general education classroom
• The extent, if any, to which your child will not participate with non-disabled peers in the regular class and other school activities
• Whether your child will take state and district-wide tests, with or without accommodations, or have an alternative assessment
• Necessary transition services (age 16)
• Special Factors depending on your child's needs
• Behavior management supports and strategies
• Language needs as related to the IEP if an English Learner
• Communication needs
• Assistive technology devices or services required in order to receive FAPE

Parent involvement in the IEP Process

As equal members of the IEP team, parents of a student being assessed are encouraged to participate in developing, reviewing and revising the student's IEP.  Here are some ideas that may help you reduce your anxiety, increase your participation, and facilitate the process:

• Communicate regularly with school staff so you both have a mutual understanding of your child's needs
• Prepare your thoughts before the meeting by writing down the important points you want to make about your child.
• Take someone with you to serve as your support system. If you decide to bring a friend or advocate, inform the school so they are aware of whom you're bringing
• Ask questions if you don't understand the terms being used. If necessary, arrange to meet with individuals after the meeting to review their reports
• Try to stay focused and positive
• Remember you can sign in attendance, but you don't have to agree to the goals or services at the meeting. You can take the IEP documents home to review, get input, and return later.
• Parents must give consent before any special education service may be provided.
• Interpreters for the deaf or for parents whose primary language is not English will be provided when necessary.
• IEP meetings may be held in person, virtually, by teleconference, or in a blended model, upon mutual agreement of all parties.

PARENT RIGHTSCOMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Specific descriptions of each eligibility criteria can be found in Section 303(a through j) of the California Education Code. Before any action is taken with respect to a student's placement in special education, an assessment must be completed. An assessment is required in the following instances:

• Prior to initial placement in special education program.
• Whenever any significant change in the student's special education placement occurs, including addition of new services, and discontinuation of existing services.
• If the team of qualified assessors, which includes the parent(s), determine that additional data are needed in reviewing whether the student continues to need special education and related services.
• Every three (3) years or more frequently, if conditions warrant or if the student's parent(s) or teacher requests a new assessment when a new Individualized Education Program (IEP) is to be developed.

Autism : "means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Characteristics often associated with autism are engaging in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term autism does not apply if the child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has emotional disturbance as defined below. A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if criteria is met.

Deaf-Blindness: " means [simultaneous] hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness."

Deafness (DEAF): " means a hearing impairment so severe that a child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child's educational performance."

Emotional Disturbance (ED): " 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:

• An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
• An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
• Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
• A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
• The term includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance."

Established Medical Disability (EMD): A disabling medical condition or congenital syndrome that the individualized education program (IEP) team determines has a high predictability of requiring special education and services.  This eligibility category is only applicable for children 3 through 4.
Hard of Hearing (HH):  Hard of Hearing means hearing, impairment, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance, but that is not included under the definition of "deaf" in this section.

Intellectual Disability (ID): "means significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently [at the same time] with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

Multiple Disabilities (MD): " means concomitant impairments (such as intellectual disabilities-blindness and intellectual disabilities-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that needs cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness."

Orthopedic Impairment (OI): " means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g. clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.), impairments caused by disease (e.g. poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.), and impairments from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures)."

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

Specific Learning Disability (SLD): "means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of mental retardation; of emotional disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage."

Speech or Language Impairment (SLI): " means a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance."

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): " means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech.  TBI does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries induced by birth trauma."

Visual Impairment (Including Blindness) (VI): " means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness."