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Part B of ARSD
24:05:22:01. District required to identify children in need of
special education or special education and related services applies
here. School district requirements that are related to child find and
evaluation are included in each local school district’s comprehensive
plan. While school districts are only required to provide services to
children in need of prolonged assistance, they are responsible for
identification, location and evaluation of any child that would qualify
under Part B of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),
regardless of the severity of his disability. A school district is
required to evaluate any child that it suspects may be eligible as a
"child with disabilities" under Part B of IDEA, not just those
children it suspects to be in need of prolonged assistance. If a school
district does not suspect a child would be eligible as a "child with
a disability," then the district is not required to evaluate the
child. However, the school district must notify the parents that they are
not going to evaluate their child following the prior notice requirements
found in ARSD
Chapter 24:05:30, Procedural Safeguards. If the child meets
eligibility criteria in Part B of ARSD
24:05:24.01:15. Prolonged assistance defined, the district must
provide and/or pay for all needed early intervention services in
conformity with Part C (Birth to 3 Connections).
Birth to 3 Connections in South Dakota is a year round program based on
federal requirement. Therefore all children birth to 36 months of age are
served twelve months of the year, as opposed to the typical nine-month
school year for children age 3 to 21. Children, who are eligible for Birth
to 3 Connections, whether they are Part C eligible or prolonged assistance
eligible, receive services year round. There is no parallel in Birth to 3
Connections to the Part B Extended School Year concept.
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Both Part B ARSD
24:05:27:01.01 (4)(a)(b)(c). IEP team. and Part C ARSD
24:14:13:06. Participation in individual family service plan
meetings and periodic reviews. applies here. As part of the district’s
responsibility for determining eligibility for special education, a
representative of the school district who is qualified to provide, or
supervise the provision of, specially designed instruction to meet the
unique needs of students with disabilities, is knowledgeable about the
general curriculum, and is knowledgeable about the availability of
resources of the school district, must attend. Typically the
Director of Special Education or that person’s designee, fills this
role. A district may designate another district member of the IFSP team to
serve as the district representative if the criteria stated above are met.
Usually the evaluators are school district employees. The persons who
did the evaluations need to either be present, or provide input via an
individual who is present who can also interpret the instructional
implications of evaluation results.
Once the eligibility status has been determined, the people required
to attend meetings can shift. If the child is determined to be eligible
as prolonged assistance, the district continues to be required to
attend the IFSP meetings as described in both Part B & C ARSD
listed above. If the child were determined to be eligible as Part C, the
school district would not be required to attend after the initial
IFSP meeting.
Most Birth to 3 Connections programs hold the eligibility
determination and the initial IFSP meeting at the same time, when all
required participants are already present. If a Birth to 3 Connections
program chooses to hold IFSP eligibility determination meetings
separately from the initial IFSP meeting, the school district would be
required to attend the IFSP eligibility meeting. If the team
determines the child is prolonged assistance eligible they would also be
required to attend the initial IFSP meeting and all subsequent
review meetings. However, if the child were determined to be Part C
eligible, they would not be required to attend the initial IFSP
meeting. But the school district evaluators still need to provide input
at the initial IFSP meeting in person or via a knowledgeable service
provider.
Between age two and three the IFSP team begins to plan the child’s
transition from Birth to 3 Connections. At transition time (at least 90
days or more before the child’s third birthday), the district will
be invited to attend an IFSP review meeting to facilitate a smooth
transition from Part C to Part B in the event the child is suspected to
be in need of special education after the age of three.
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The 45 days begin the date that the service coordinator receives a
referral on a child who is suspected of having a disability or
developmental delay.
ARSD
24:14:13:03 Development, review, and evaluation of individual family
service plan. Individual family service plans must be developed,
reviewed, and evaluated as follows:
- for a child who has been evaluated for the first time and determined
to be eligible, a meeting to develop the initial individual family
service plan must be conducted within 45 days after receipt of
referral;……..
During those 45 days, the evaluation and initial IFSP meeting
must be completed. It is not sufficient to just have the evaluations
complete within the 45-day timeframe. The initial IFSP meeting must be
held on or before the 45th day.
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Our state’s federal applications for IDEA, Parts B and C, and
administrative rules state for children under the age of 3 the provision
of early intervention services is under an IFSP and beginning at age 3
special education and related services will be provided under an IEP.
ARSD
24:14:08:01 General requirements for early intervention services.
(3) Are provided under public supervision by qualified personnel in
conformance with an individual family service plan at no cost to parents.
ARSD
24:05:25:22 IEP team to develop individual education program. If
the child is determined to be in need of special education or special
education and related services the placement committee shall develop an
appropriate individual education program for the child. At the beginning
of each school year thereafter, the district must have in effect an IEP
for each child with disabilities within its jurisdiction. For children
beginning at age three, an IEP shall be in effect by that date. If a
child’s third birthday occurs during the summer, the placement committee
shall determine the date when services under the IEP will begin. All IEPs
shall be developed in accordance with the provisions of the article.
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Development of the IFSP must be in accordance with ARSD 24:14:13:04
which states that the IFSP must include the number of days or sessions
that a service is provided, the length of time the service is provided
during each session, the projected dates for the initiation of the
service, and the anticipated duration of services.
A service provider’s responsibility is to ensure that the service(s)
is made available to the child in accordance with the IFSP.
In situations where a child misses a session because of the family’s
or physician’s decision, the provider’s responsibility is to make the
IFSP service available to the child at the normally scheduled time.
The provider is not obligated to make other arrangements to provide
services. However, if the child misses for a prolonged period of time it
may be appropriate for the IFSP team to conduct a meeting to review the
child’s current IFSP to determine if it is necessary to modify the child’s
current service plan.
In situations where the service provider(s) is not available at the
regularly scheduled time, the service provider(s) would be required to
make arrangements with another provider to provide the services at that
time or reschedule the required IFSP services.
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It is possible for school districts to use previous
evaluation information to help determine if a child is eligible for
special education. Before doing so, school districts are reminded of the
following:
*Part B ARSD 24:05:25:04 Evaluation Procedures, states that
tests are to be selected and administered so as best to ensure that a test
administered to a child accurately reflects the child’s aptitude or
achievement level or whatever other factors the test purports to measure.
*Reviewing the evaluation manual of whatever tool is
being used is an option to see if it addresses the appropriateness of
using previous evaluation information.
*Young children can change at a rapid rate
developmentally, therefore school districts should make these decisions
carefully and on an individual basis. Children, ages 0-3 who were
determined eligible under ‘in need of prolonged assistance’ cannot continue to be eligible under this category once they turn 3.
Instead, school districts need to look at eligibility for special
education under the category of ‘developmental delay’ or any of the
other 12 categories.
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