Source: https://www.illinoislegalaid.org/legal-information/helping-clients-special-education-cases
Timestamp: 2018-07-18 16:25:28
Document Index: 276681382

Matched Legal Cases: ['§226', '§ 300', '§300', '§300', '§ 226', '§226', '§5', '§300', '§300', '§300', '§300', '§226', '§300', '§226', '§300', '§300', '§300', '§1365', '§300', '§300', '§300', '§300', '§226', '§300', '§300']

Helping clients with special education cases | Illinois Legal Aid Online
Children eligible for special education are protected by both federal and state law. These laws apply to children attending public schools; however, the public school district may also be responsible for providing specific services, often “related services” such as speech or occupational therapy, for qualified children attending private schools. For special education, charter schools should be treated as public schools, and all of the federal and state provisions apply. However, depending on each school’s charter, the school may function as a public school under the authority of the local district or as its public school district. The identity of the charter school’s district or local educational agency (“LEA”) as it is referred to under the law, matters when filing for due process as this is the entity that gets named as the respondent in the complaint. 23 Illinois Administrative Code §226.60.
Annual screening for children under 5 to identify special education needs or early intervention services;
Coordination with early intervention programs to ensure that the transition happens according to the federal timeline.
Each state is required, to the maximum extent appropriate, to educate students with disabilities along with other students who are not disabled. Removal of disabled children should only occur when education in a general education class with the use of supplementary special education services is not appropriate. 34 C.F.R. § 300.114. States are also required to ensure that a continuum of alternative placements is available to meet the needs of children with disabilities for special education and related services. 34 C.F.R. §300.115.
Under IDEA the person who holds a student’s education decision-making rights in special education matters is the person who meets the definition of “parent” under 34 CFR §300.30. This includes biological and adoptive parents, as well as foster parents, an individual acting in the place of a biological parent with whom the child lives, or an individual who is legally responsible for the child’s welfare. In cases where the child is living in a youth shelter or group home, the Illinois State Board of Education (“ISBE”) will appoint a surrogate parent to make educational decisions on behalf of the minor. 23 Ill. Admin. Code § 226.550. Of course, once the student turns 18 years old, she acquires her educational decision-making authority, unless she decides to assign this authority to her parent or another adult. 23 Ill. Admin. Code §226.690, 105 ILCS §5/14-6.10.
A Case Study Evaluation (“CSE”) request is a request made to the school, asking that a student is evaluated for special education services. Note that the term “CSE” and “FIE” (Full Individual Evaluation) are used interchangeably.
What happens if the school denies the CSE request? Then the school must provide the parents with notice that: describes the refused action, explains why the district will not conduct the evaluation, describes any records or reports that they used in making their determination, states the parents right to legal protections and how to obtain them, gives sources for the parent to contact to obtain assistance in understanding notice, gives a description of other options the team considered and why they were rejected, and describes other relevant factors to refusing the evaluation. 34 CFR §300.503(b). Note that schools may not use a student’s participation in RtI (“Response to Intervention) or School-Based Problem Solving (“SBPS”) to deny a CSE request. See 23 Ill. Admin. Code 226.130(b).
See 34 CFR §300.8. All of these categories experience are defined in IDEA.
OHI can cover multiple impairments, but by far the impairment most commonly at issue in showing OHI eligibility is AD/HD. IDEA states that other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness concerning the educational environment. The OHI must:
To be eligible for special education services in the ED category, a student does not need a specific diagnosis. Instead, the standard under IDEA is that a student must exhibit one or more of the following characteristics over a long period and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:
Understanding the theories and pitfalls of qualifying a student with LD
§300.307. Also, the IEP team must determine that the child’s learning difficulties are not primarily the result of a visual, hearing or motor disability; mental retardation; emotional disturbance; cultural factors; environmental or economic disadvantage; limited English proficiency; or due to lack of appropriate instruction in reading or math. 34 C.F.R. §300.309.
RtI is a general education approach to early identification and support of students with learning and behavioral needs. RtI utilizes differentiated instructional strategies for all learners and provides scientific, research-based interventions, while continuously measuring student performance and making educational decisions based on a student’s response to the interventions. Under RtI, struggling learners get interventions at increasing levels of intensity (or “tiers”) to accelerate the rate of learning and performance. In 2008, Illinois created a State Response to Intervention Plan, requiring districts to develop RtI plans. Under RtI, students not making expected progress should be moved up to the next “tier” where additional supports would be implemented. Ultimately, all students not making adequate progress under the RtI tiers should eventually be referred for a special education evaluation, under the district’s “Child Find” obligations.
One problem that has emerged in the implementation of RtI is that there are no hard and fast timelines as to when any of this will occur and the reality is that students could get stalled in the RtI process for months or even years without an evaluation occurring. The Illinois Administrative Code makes it clear that a student’s participation in RtI should not serve as a basis to deny a CSE request, although schools routinely use this as a basis for denial anyway. See 23 Ill. Admin. Code §226.130(b). Hence, if a parent suspects that her child has a learning disability, she can request a CSE at any time, regardless of where her child is in the RtI process, and the school should not use the need to “finish RtI” as a basis for denying the request.
Measurable annual goals. Goals should reflect consideration of the State Goals for Learning and the Illinois Learning Standards and include benchmarks or short-term objectives developed by the child’s present levels of performance 23 Ill. Admin. Code 226.230(a)(1);
Transition planning services, for students who are 14 1/2, which includes postsecondary goals related to employment, education or training, and independent living and the transition services needed to assist the student in reaching those goals; and
Transfer of rights at age 18. The student should be informed of this one year before the actual transfer when she is 17.
All special education students should have an IEP, which should be implemented to prevent discipline problems. If discipline issues continue to arise, convene a meeting to amend the IEP to prevent problems in the future, including conducting a Functional Behavioral Analysis (FBA) and completing/updating a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). If despite the IEP, discipline issues continue to arise, there are guidelines and protections for special education students concerning discipline. 34 C.F.R. §300.530; 23 Ill. Admin. Code §226.400.
Disciplinary actions which remove a student with disabilities for more than 10 consecutive school days or 10 days in a school year for behavior that “constitutes a pattern” are considered a change in the student’s IEP placement. See 34 C.F.R. §300.530. Before a school can enact a change of placement, it must conduct a Manifestation Determination Review (“MDR”). Whether the school can proceed with the change of placement or disciplinary removal rests on the decision reached by the Team at the MDR.
Within 10 days of any decision to change the placement of a special education student, the district must hold an MDR. At the MDR, the school, parents, and IEP team review the relevant information and determine:
If either of those is correct, the behavior is deemed to be a manifestation of the student’s disability. In determining if the conduct was caused by the student’s disability, the Team is not limited to looking at what the student’s eligibility is based upon. The Team should consider all relevant information, including any other diagnoses the child may have, or previously unidentified disabilities. Letter to Yudien, 39 IDELR 270 (OSEP 2003).
If the behavior is determined to be a manifestation
If the behavior is determined to be a manifestation of the student’s disability or the school did not correctly implement his IEP, the school cannot proceed with the disciplinary action and must return the student to the placement from which they were removed. The school should instead conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment (“FBA”) if it has not done so already and create or amend an existing Behavior Intervention Plan (“BIP”). If the Team agrees that the student needs to be educated in a more restrictive environment such as a therapeutic day school, to receive FAPE, the team may make this placement.
Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBAs) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) can and should be done for any student with a disability whose behavior impedes learning. However, they are particularly important for students facing disciplinary actions for their behaviors. FBAs involve observing the student and discussing “target behaviors” to try to determine the possible antecedents, motivations, and other circumstances or reasons leading to the behavior in question. BIPs then take the data from the FBA to develop a clear outline of what the school will do to prevent the specific target behavior, and how the school will react if the behavior occurs. This can include incentives for the student, teaching the student more appropriate replacement behaviors, and addressing the antecedents to behaviors.
If the behavior is determined not to be a manifestation
Students not yet found available for special education may still be protected by IDEA under certain circumstances if the school knew that the student was a student with a disability before the incident that led to the discipline. Schools are deemed to know if:
A teacher or staff member expressed specific concerns about the child’s pattern of behavior directly to the director of special education or another supervisory person. 34 C.F.R. §300.534.
However, schools are not deemed to know that a student has a disability if the parent has not allowed an evaluation or has refused special education services, or if the child has been evaluated and determined not to be a child with a disability. 34 C.F.R. §300.534(c).
Emergency 45-day removals
Has inflicted serious bodily injury upon another person while at school, on school premises, or on the way to or at a school function. “Serious bodily injury” has the meaning given in 18 U.S.C. §1365(h)(3) and includes a substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, protracted and obvious disfigurement, and protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental function. 34 C.F.R. §300.530.
Compliance complaints can only be filed if the violation occurred within one year from the date the complaint is received, unlike requests for due process hearings, which contain a 2-year statute of limitations. Through a compliance complaint, ISBE has 60 days to investigate the complaint. The parent is still permitted to file for due process after a compliance complaint has been filed, but at that point, ISBE’s investigation will be halted.
Within 15 days of receiving the due process complaint, the school must convene a resolution meeting with the parent and the IEP team. 34 CFR §300.510(a). The school is not permitted to bring an attorney unless the parents have an attorney. 34 CFR §300.510(a). However, the meeting does not need to be held in both the parent and the school agree to waive the meeting or agree to use mediation. 34 CFR §300.510(a)(3).
After the 30 day resolution period has expired, the 45-day due process timeline begins. However, if the parties waive resolution or agree that resolution is not possible, this timeline could begin earlier. The first thing that will happen after the resolution period expires is the prehearing conference. Both sides should submit prehearing disclosure statements in advance of this, usually telephonic, phone conference. By the time the 45-day timeline is complete, the hearing must be held, and there must be a written decision by the hearing officer. The parties may delay this timeline by mutual consent. 23 Ill. Admin. Code §226.640(b)(1).
In the case of a 45-day emergency removal or if the parent disagrees with the decision in the MDR, an expedited hearing will take place. 34 CFR §300.532(c).
An appeal of a due process hearing decision
Under 34 CFR §300.516, an adverse decision to a due process hearing can be brought in either State or Federal Court within 90 days from the date of the decision by the hearing officer.
The student not making progress
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