Where Should You Begin If You Suspect Your Child Needs Special Services?
Identify Your Concerns
If you have concerns about your child’s progress, the first thing to do is to specifically identify those concerns. For example, are you concerned about your child’s general learning ability? Do you have concerns about academic performance in one or more specific subject areas? Do you suspect your child has difficulty with attention, focus, or organizational skills? Is your child having behavior problems? Does your child have difficulty with emotional regulation? Once you have identified your concerns, determine if your child’s functioning is similar to same age peers.
Investigate Your Concerns with School Staff
Take a close look at your child’s functioning. This should include a review of classroom test scores, grades, standardized tests, behavior data, and reports from the teacher. Have a conference with your child’s teacher to discuss your concerns. Determine if your child is performing the same across settings and with all individuals. Determine the size of the discrepancy between your child’s performance and age level or grade level expectation.
Consider Consulting with Outside Professionals
Depending on what types of concerns you have, you may wish to speak to a private professional in the community. If you suspect that your child may have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), you may start by speaking with your child’s pediatrician about your concerns. If you have concerns about your child’s academic performance, you may want to begin a tutoring program or have a thorough psychoeducational evaluation by a private psychologist. If the concerns are related to your child’s behavior or social emotional functioning, you may wish to speak to a therapist. You may wish to consult with an Occupational Therapist (OT), Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), or other professional if you think your child is in need of those services.
Request a School Meeting
Depending on what you find from your information gathering, you may wish to schedule a meeting with school staff to formally discuss and document your concerns. This meeting may be referred to as a Student Support Team (SST), a Response to Intervention (RtI) meeting, or some similar name. There are several differences between this meeting and a parent teacher conference. First, the meeting will include multiple staff who provide support services to children. For example, the school psychologist, instructional coach, school counselor, reading specialists, math specialists, or other staff members may be in attendance. Second, this meeting will be more heavily documented than a parent teacher conference. The team should document specific interventions that are to be put in place to help your child. Third, there should be some action following this meeting. Your child’s teacher may be given some strategies to work with your child differently. Your child may begin participation in an intervention program. The team should set a date to follow up and discuss the effects of the new actions. It may be possible to put in to place some interventions or supports which will improve your child’s situation without the need for special education.
Request a Special Education Evaluation or 504 Accommodation Plan
If you have determined that your child has significant concerns which cannot be helped through this process, may wish to request a special education evaluation or a 504 accommodation plan. You as a parent have the right to make a direct request for a special education evaluation to determine if your child is eligible for an IEP. If your child has a medical condition (including ADHD) affecting his or her school performance you may also wish to seek accommodations through a 504 accommodation plan. In the best case scenario, some classroom strategies or basic interventions may be enough to get your child to the expected level. If it is not, you have the right to request an evaluation without delay.
Dr. Brandi Tanner is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and former special educator with over 15 years of experience in her fields. She founded Your IEP Source to guide parents through the IEP journey and to empower them to become better advocates for their children.