Affiliate institute
Abstract
Determination of eligibility for special education is a long and an involving process which requires information gathering from all sources including school, peers, parents and specialists. Various assessment tests are undertaken and then special courses of education are designed for each student individually, on basis of his or her area of disability.
Determination of Eligibility (special education)
According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Public Law 101-476, there are 13 separate categories of disabilities due to which children may be eligible for special education and such other allied services. To understand whether or not each child lies in any of the 13 mentioned categories, an eligibility test, an evaluation must be conducted.
Valuable information about students’ skills, abilities, needs and requirements can be gathered and assessed through various sources including parents, teachers, specialists, using variety of tests and assessments, for example, interviews, testing, and dynamic and ecological assessment.
In conformity with the law, the process must involve testing the student on much more rather than only the standardised are of his suspected disability. The assessment process includes a five step program.
Screening and identification
Eligibility and diagnosis
Individualized Education Program
Instructional Planning
Evaluation
Through the entire procedure the various skill-sets of a child which come under scrutiny include intelligence, language, perceptual abilities, academic achievement and emotional, social and behavioural development.
These tests and assessments are expected to help specialists understand the special type of instructional platforms that are required by these children.
The identification of these children takes place either through instances picked in behavioural assessments by the school which they study in or else by the class teachers. School records may also be reviewed and compared with the current classroom performance, looking at students work samples and gathering information thereon
Apart from this the IDEA, a specific number of requirements must be fulfilled for children to be assessed and granted permission for special education, which include informing the parents in writing, tests being conducted by a multi-disciplinary team, all areas of suspected disability being tested, using a variety of assessment tests, so on and so forth.
Many school systems make the task of the teachers important by making her interact with the assisting team to find out what the exact problem is, technically called ‘Prereferral Procedure’.
Other forms of test include observation where the team has to decide who will observe the student and what will be observed, interviewing the student, his parents, peers and teachers and gathering additional information about the student and testing, however controversial.
In the entire task of assessment and finding out the chances of eligibility of the student for special education, the role of parents cannot be under-estimated. Before the evaluation begins, parents will have to co-ordinate the entire process, notify to the school and all concerned authorities and prepare the child for undergoing the tests. While the assessment is ongoing, parents need to share their into sights about the child’s background, prior records, cultural and social differences and attend interviews along with and other than the child, whenever asked to. After the evaluation, parents should be able to clearly understand the results, share their concerns and insights and participate and help the child undergo special education.
Many believe that early signs of reading difficulties can be done through regular education, which could be undertaken as a preventive measure, which would allow limited funds to be targeted at intervention at early stages rather than expensive eligibility determination tests to be taken at later stages. Studies reveal that remedial measures administered at early ages are more effective than undertaken for older children since it is too late given and children by then are too behind and too less motivated to undertake any such training.
References
Lyon, D Reid et.al, (n.d), Rethinking Learning Disabilities, (chapter-12), retrieved from web. Thomas b. Fordham Foundation database.
Waterman, B Betsy, (1994), Assessing Children for the Presence of a Disability, National Information Centre for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY).
