Special Education Rights for Parents and Children 06

GENERAL INFORMATION

 

PRIOR WRITTEN NOTICE

Notice

Your school district must give you written notice (provide you certain information in writing), whenever it:

1. Proposes to initiate or to change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of your child, or the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to your child; or
2. Refuses to initiate or to change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of your child, or the provision of FAPE to your child.

Content of notice

The written notice must:

1. Describe the action that your school district proposes or refuses to take;
2. Explain why your school district is proposing or refusing to take the action;
3. Describe each evaluation procedure, assessment, record, or report your school district used in deciding to propose or refuse the action;
4. Include a statement that you have protections under the procedural safeguards provisions in Part B of the IDEA;
5. Tell you how you can obtain a description of the procedural safeguards if the action that your school district is proposing or refusing is not an initial referral for evaluation;
6. Include resources for you to contact for help in understanding Part B of the IDEA;
7. Describe any other choices that your child's individualized education program (IEP) Team considered and the reasons why those choices were rejected; and
8. Provide a description of other reasons why your school district proposed or refused the action.

Notice in Understandable Language

The notice must be:

1. Written in language understandable to the general public; and
2. Provided in your native language or other mode of communication you use, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so.

If your native language or other mode of communication is not a written language, your school district must ensure that:

1. The notice is translated for you orally by other means in your native language or other mode of communication;
2. You understand the content of the notice; and
3. There is written evidence that 1 and 2 have been met.

 

NATIVE LANGUAGE

Native language, when used with an individual who has limited English proficiency, means the following:

1. The language normally used by that person, or, in the case of a child, the language normally used by the child's parents;

2. In all direct contact with a child (including evaluation of the child), the language normally used by the child in the home or learning environment.

For a person with deafness or blindness, or for a person with no written language, the mode of communication is what the person normally uses (such as sign language, Braille, or oral communication).

 

ELECTRONIC MAIL

If your school district offers parents the choice of receiving documents by e-mail, you may choose to receive the following by e-mail:

1. Prior written notice;
2. Procedural safeguards notice; and
3. Notices related to a due process complaint.

 

PARENTAL CONSENT - DEFINITION

Consent

Consent means:

1. You have been fully informed in your native language or other mode of communication (such as sign language, Braille, or oral communication) of all information about the action for which you are giving consent.
2. You understand and agree in writing to that action, and the consent describes that action and lists the records (if any) that will be released and to whom; and
3. You understand that the consent is voluntary on your part and you may withdraw your consent at anytime.

Your withdrawal of consent does not negate (undo) an action that has occurred after you gave your consent and before you withdrew it.

 

PARENTAL CONSENT

Consent for Initial Evaluation

Your school district cannot conduct an initial evaluation of your child to determine whether your child is eligible under Part B of the IDEA to receive special education and related services without first providing you with prior written notice of the proposed action and without obtaining your consent as described under the heading Parental Consent. 

Your school district must make reasonable efforts to obtain your informed consent for an initial evaluation to decide whether your child is a child with a disability.

Your consent for initial evaluation does not mean that you have also given your consent for the school district to start providing special education and related services to your child.
If your child is enrolled in public school or you are seeking to enroll your child in a public school and you have refused to provide consent or failed to respond to a request to provide consent for an initial evaluation, your school district may, but is not required to, seek to conduct an initial evaluation of your child by utilizing the Act's mediation or due process complaint, resolution meeting, and impartial due process hearing procedures (unless required to do so or prohibited from doing so under State law).  Your school district will not violate its obligations to locate, identify and evaluate your child if it does not pursue an evaluation of your child in these circumstances, unless State law requires it to pursue the evaluation.

Special Rules for Initial Evaluation of Wards of the State

If a child is a ward of the State and is not living with his/her parent—

The school district does not need consent from the parent for an initial evaluation to determine if the child is a child with a disability if:

1. Despite reasonable efforts to do so, the school district cannot find the child’s parent;
2. The rights of the parents have been terminated in accordance with State law; or
3. A judge has assigned the right to make educational decisions and to consent for an initial evaluation to an individual other than the parent.

Ward of the State, as used in the IDEA,means a child who, as determined by the State where the child lives, is:

1. A foster child;
2. Considered a ward of the State under State law; or
3. In the custody of a public child welfare agency.

Ward of the State does not include a foster child who has a foster parent.

Parental Consent for Services

Your school district must obtain your informed consent before providing special education and related services to your child for the first time.

The school district must make reasonable efforts to obtain your informed consent before providing special education and related services to your child for the first time.

If you do not respond to a request to provide your consent for your child to receive special education and related services for the first time, or if you refuse to give such consent, your school district may not use the procedural safeguards (i.e., mediation, due process complaint, resolution meeting, or an impartial due process hearing) in order to obtain agreement or a ruling that the special education and related services (recommended by your child's IEP Team) may be provided to your child without your consent.

If you refuse to give your consent for your child to receive special education and related services for the first time, or if you do not respond to a request to provide such consent and the school district does not provide your child with the special education and related services for which it sought your consent, your school district:

1. Is not in violation of the requirement to make a free appropriate public education (FAPE) available to your child for its failure to provide those services to your child; and
2. Is not required to have an individualized education program (IEP) meeting or develop an IEP for your child for the special education and related services for which your consent was requested.

Parental Consent for Reevaluations

Your school district must obtain your informed consent before it reevaluates your child, unless your school district can demonstrate that:

1. It took reasonable steps to obtain your consent for your child's reevaluation; and
2. You did not respond.

If you refuse to consent to your child's reevaluation, the school district may, but is not required to, pursue your child's reevaluation by using the mediation, due process complaint, resolution meeting, and impartial due process hearing procedures to seek to override your refusal to consent to your child's reevaluation. As with initial evaluations, your school district does not violate its obligations under Part B of the IDEA if it declines to pursue the reevaluation in this manner.

Documentation of Reasonable Efforts to Obtain Parental Consent

Your school must maintain documentation of reasonable efforts to obtain parental consent for initial evaluations, to provide special education and related services for the first time, to reevaluation and to locate parents of wards of the State for initial evaluations.  The documentation must include a record of the school district’s attempts in these areas, such as:

1. Detailed records of telephone calls made or attempted and the results of those calls;
2. Copies of correspondence sent to the parents and any responses received; and
3. Detailed records of visits made to the parent’s home or place of employment and the results of those visits.

Other Consent Requirements

Your consent is not required before your school district may:

1. Review existing data as part of your child's evaluation or a reevaluation; or
2. Give your child a test or other evaluation that is given to all children unless, before that test or evaluation, consent is required from all parents of all children.

Your school district may not use your refusal to consent to one service or activity to deny you or your child any other service, benefit, or activity.

If you have enrolled your child in a private school at your own expense or if you are home schooling your child, and you do not provide your consent for your child's initial evaluation or your child's reevaluation, or you fail to respond to a request to provide your consent, the school district may not use its consent override procedures (i.e., mediation, due process complaint, resolution meeting, or an impartial due process hearing) and is not required to consider your child as eligible to receive equitable services (services made available to parentally-placed private school children with disabilities).

 

INDEPENDENT EDUCATIONAL EVALUATIONS

General

As described below, you have the right to obtain an independent educational evaluation (IEE) of your child if you disagree with the evaluation of your child that was obtained by your school district. 

If you request an independent educational evaluation, the school district must provide you with information about where you may obtain an independent educational evaluation and about the school district’s criteria that apply to independent educational evaluations.

Definitions

Independent educational evaluation means an evaluation conducted by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the school district responsible for the education of your child.

Public expense means that the school district either pays for the full cost of the evaluation or ensures that the evaluation is otherwise provided at no cost to you, consistent with the provisions of Part B of the IDEA, which allow each State to use whatever State, local, Federal and private sources of support are available in the State to meet the requirements of Part B of the Act. 

Parent Right to Evaluation at Public Expense

You have the right to an independent educational evaluation of your child at public expense if you disagree with an evaluation of your child obtained by your school district, subject to the following conditions:

1. If you request an independent educational evaluation of your child at public expense, your school district must, without unnecessary delay, either:  (a) File a due process complaint to request a hearing to show that its evaluation of your child is appropriate; or (b) Provide an independent educational evaluation at public expense, unless the school district demonstrates in a hearing that the evaluation of your child that you obtained did not meet the school district’s criteria.
2. If your school district requests a hearing and the final decision is that your school district’s evaluation of your child is appropriate, you still have the right to an independent educational evaluation, but not at public expense.
3. If you request an independent educational evaluation of your child, the school district may ask why you object to the evaluation of your child obtained by your school district.  However, your school district may not require an explanation and may not unreasonably delay either providing the independent educational evaluation of your child at public expense or filing a due process complaint to request a due process hearing to defend the school district’s evaluation of your child.

You are entitled to only one independent educational evaluation of your child at public expense each time your school district conducts an evaluation of your child with which you disagree.

Parent-Initiated Evaluations

If you obtain an independent educational evaluation of your child at public expense or you share with the school district an evaluation of your child that you obtained at private expense:

1. Your school district must consider the results of the evaluation of your child, if it meets the school district’s criteria for independent educational evaluations, in any decision made with respect to the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to your child; and
2. You or your school district may present the evaluation as evidence at a due process hearing regarding your child.

Requests for Evaluations by Hearing Officers

If a hearing officer requests an independent educational evaluation of your child as part of a due process hearing, the cost of the evaluation must be at public expense.

School District Criteria

If an independent educational evaluation is at public expense, the criteria under which the evaluation is obtained, including the location of the evaluation and the qualifications of the examiner, must be the same as the criteria that the school district uses when it initiates an evaluation (to the extent those criteria are consistent with your right to an independent educational evaluation).

Except for the criteria described above, a school district may not impose conditions or timelines related to obtaining an independent educational evaluation at public expense.