INDIVIDUALIZED By Trisha Jorstad

EDUCATION PLAN (IEP)

SPECIAL EDUCATION REFERRAL
PROCESS (SPED)

1. Recognition
2. Prereferral
3. Referral
4. Evaluation
5. Eligibility
6. IEP meeting
7. IEP implementation
8. IEP re-evaluation
 1. RECOGNITION
Recognizing that a student has a problem whether
it be academic, social, emotional, behavioral,
and/or physical ability, a teacher, parent,
administrator, counselor or other caregiver can ask
for an evaluation of the child determine if there is a
problem.

Brief description -
Factors to consider:
Is the issue recurrent or new?
Is the issue constant or only present at certain times
in certain settings?
Is the issue appropriate for the child's age?
Family members and educational professionals meet
to discuss support for student. The plan of action for
support may meet your child's needs. If not than
the pre-referral process begins.
2. PRE-REFERRAL

Main objectives of the pre-referral are:

Document and elaborate the challenges and difficulties exhibited by the

child.

Evaluate the usefulness of classroom accommodations and changes.

Review the power of different instructional interventions.

Supervise the development of the student.

Brief description - This process helps to determine whether behavioral

and educational challenges exhibited by the child can be resolved in a
general education classroom. During this stage teachers will try various
certified teaching approaches in hopes of establishing
whether flawed instruction could be the cause of the problems.
 3. REFERRAL

If the pre-referral interventions prove unsuccessful, the student is referred for special
education services through the use of a referral. Referrals can come from parents,
daycare professionals, public health nurses, doctors or social service agencies.

Brief description - Referral for special education services can happen at different
stages during a child's life and vary a great deal based on their individual needs.
Often, poor academic performance, continued misbehavior or disruption of
their learning environment are prereguisties to this stage.
 4. EVALUATION
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) set guidelines for the formal evaluation which is
non-discriminatory and can include documentation of intelligence, achievement, behavior, disability-
specific evaluation and medical evaluations.

Brief description - The evaluation is conducted by a team consisting

of educational diagnoticians, special educators, general educators, parents, related service
providers and medical professionals who can bring different view and experience to the process.
 5. ELIGIBILITY

The information gathered during the assessment stage is used to categorize those
who have a disability and are eligible for special education services.

Brief description - The IEP committee creates different elements of the services
required to plan and deliver an appropriate education framework. Students who do
not meet the qualifications for special education services remain in the traditional
classroom setting.
 6. IEP MEETING

The school system schedules and conducts the IEP meeting. School staff must:

Contact the participants, including the parents

Notify parents early enough to make sure they have an opportunity to attend

Tell the parents the purpose, time, and location of the meeting

Tell the parents who will be attending

Tell the parents that they may invite people to the meeting who have knowledge or
special expertise about the child

Brief description - The IEP team gathers to talk about the child's needs and write the
student's IEP plan. Parents and the student are full participating members of the team.
Before the school system may provide special education and related services to the
child for the first time, the parents must give consent. The child begins to
receive services as soon as possible after the IEP is written and this consent is given.
 7. IEP IMPLEMENTATION

At this stage the student's IEP and associated services commence. Accommodations
are provided for both instructions and testing along with a range of
multidisciplinary services required from different providers to support the
child's educational program.

Brief description - The providers your child with special needs will interact with
moving forward could include occupational or physical therapists,
speech pathologists and other special education professionals.
8. IEP RE-EVALUATION

Each IEP developed requires accountability and

consistent follow up by the child's parents. A
review is conducted annually or after every
three years depending on the state.
Brief description - The purpose for these
reviews is to determine whether the child is
meeting their educational goals. If the goals are
not being met, revisions are made in the
IEP. If the child is meeting and exceeding their
IEP goals, new milestones are determined.
 PERSONAL REFLECTION

Personal reflection - I feel that it is a lengthy but important step by step process. You
have to recognize the child's difficulties before a plan can be written and set in stone.
If don't know the problem then they could be given the help where they don't need it.
Once you figure out where their diffulties are then a plan can be written and then
they can succeed. They need to be evaluated after a while after the plan is in motion.
Can see how the child is doing with the help and assess if they need more or less help.
I liked how the step by step process was explained in detail. From personal
expierences I can now go to IEP meetings and understand it so much better.