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CHILD FIND DUTY

 

 

CHILD FIND DUTY

Authorities:  42 USC. §11434a; 34 CFR Part 300; Texas Education Code; Texas Government Code; 19 TAC Chapter 89 
 
 
 
  FEDERAL AND STATE REQUIREMENTS
All children with disabilities residing in the state, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, and who are in need of special education and related services, must be identified, located, and evaluated.
Special education means specially-designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of the child with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education.
Specially-designed instruction means adapting, as appropriate to the needs of an eligible child under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction:
  • To address the unique needs of the child that result from the child's disability; and
  • To ensure access of the child to the general curriculum, so that the child can meet the educational standards within the jurisdiction of the local educational agency (LEA) that apply to all students.
Related services means transportation, and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as may be required to assist the child with a disability to benefit from special education.
Child with a disability means a child who was evaluated according to the EVALUATION frameworks and determined by an ADMISSION, REVIEW, AND DISMISSAL COMMITTEE to have an intellectual disability, a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment, a serious emotional disturbance, an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, multiple disabilities, or who is deaf or hard of hearing, and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.
In addition to students enrolled in the public schools, the child find duty extends to:
  • Children with disabilities who are homeless or are wards of the state; and
  • Children with disabilities who are attending private schools.

The LEA in which the private school is located must comply with the  CHILD FIND FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES PARENTALLY-PLACED IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS requirements.

The LEA must comply with the state's policies and procedures designed to prevent the inappropriate overidentification or disproportionate representation by race and ethnicity of children as children with disabilities, including children with disabilities with a particular impairment.
Prior to REFERRAL FOR POSSIBLE SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES, the student should be considered for all support services available to all students such as:
  • Tutorial;
  • Remedial;
  • Compensatory;
  • Response to evidence-based intervention; and
  • Other academic or behavior support services.
Intervention strategy means a strategy in a multi-tiered system of supports that is above the level of intervention generally used in that system with all children.  The term includes response to intervention and other early intervening strategies.
 
RIGHT TO INFORMATION
Each school year, the LEA must notify the parent of every non-special education child who receives assistance from the district for learning difficulties, including the use of intervention strategies about such assistance. The notice must:
  • Be provided when the child begins to receive the assistance for that school year;
  • Be written in English or, to the extent practicable, the parent's native language; and include:
    • A reasonable description of the assistance that may be provided to the child, including any intervention strategies that may be used;
    • Information collected regarding any intervention in the base tier of a multi-tiered system of supports that has previously been used with the child;
    • An estimate of the duration for which the assistance, including through the use of intervention strategies, will be provided;
    • The estimated time frames within which a report on the child's progress with the assistance, including any intervention strategies used, will be provided to the parent; and
    • A copy of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) explanation of the options and requirements for providing assistance to students who have learning difficulties or who need or may need special education.
The notice described in this framework may be provided to the child's parent at a meeting of the team established for the child under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, if applicable.
 
 NOTICE OF RIGHTS
The TEA will develop a notice for distribution and posting on the agency’s website that indicates:
  • The change made from 2016 to 2017 in reporting requirements for school districts and open-enrollment charter schools regarding the special education representation indicator adopted in the Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System Manual; and

  • In plain language, the rights of a child under both federal and state law and the general process available to initiate a referral of a child for a full individual and initial evaluation to determine the child's eligibility for special education services. 
The LEA must include in the notice developed by the TEA information indicating where the local processes and procedures for initiating a referral for special education services eligibility evaluation may be found.
The LEA must provide the notice to the parent of each child who attends school in the LEA or at the LEA at any time during the 2019-20 school year.
The LEA must also make the notice available on request to any person.
The notice must be available in English and Spanish, and the LEA must make a good faith effort to provide the notice in the parent’s native language if the parent’s native language is a language other than English or Spanish.
  Last Updated : Thu, Jan 16, 2020