Parenting: Navigating the Special Education System

It is not easy navigating the special education system. What is incredibly important in getting your child’s needs met will be having open lines of communication with the school and the team in charge of your child’s education, especially if they meet criteria to receive special education. At the end of the day, you will be your child’s greatest advocate throughout this process, so while there may be times when managing this support and advocacy will be difficult, it is so very important in ensuring your child’s success.

All that being said, what even is special education?

The purpose of special education is to provide free and appropriate education to children with disabilities through services designed to meet their needs; in particular, special education provides services to children who need specially designed instruction. There are various eligibility categories that a child can fit into in order to receive services. In Texas, the categories are autism, deaf-blindness, auditory impairment, emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, learning disability, speech impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment and noncategorical (http://framework.esc18.net/Documents/Side_by_Side.pdf).

If you are a parent concerned about your child’s ability to access their education due to their disability, you can request a special education evaluation. This request must be a written one, and after 15 days, the school, legally, needs to either provide a written request for consent to evaluate your child or inform you they will be refusing to provide an evaluation. If they choose to evaluate your child, prior to signing the consent forms, you may request the name and type of testing that will be conducted and an explanation of how this testing will assist with the development of a plan for your child. After you sign the written request for consent to an evaluation of your child, the school team has 45 school days to complete this initial evaluation.

 If your child meets criteria for special education based on this evaluation and discussion by the team (which does include you, the parent), then an Individualized Education Program (IEP) will be created, which will provide accommodations and modifications to your child’s education to help them achieve academically and socially/emotionally/behaviorally. Essentially, this plan will set up the individualized, specific services your child needs in order to be successful in school. Every year, this plan will be reviewed and once every three years, your child will undergo another evaluation to ensure that the programming is still needed and/or to determine how the programming may need to be adjusted.

“But I don’t want my child to be separated from their peers and feel like they’re different! The special education kids were always in a completely different class when I was growing up and we never saw them.”

There is an emphasis in special education on the “least restrictive environment,” meaning that education and services will be provided in the least restrictive environment appropriate for your child. While there may be situations in which your child is placed in a separate classroom, for the most part, there is an emphasis on trying to keep students receiving special education services in the general education classroom. This is another area in which you can advocate for your child, as the least restrictive environment is what is legally required.

There are many challenges in navigating the special education system, and while this post does not necessarily provide a comprehensive explanation of special education, hopefully it will be a starting point which you can use to help support your child.

Photo by Kuanish Reymbaev on Unsplash

Written by Justina Yohannan, PhD