The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Special Ed & The Law

Posted by Susan Epstein on April 14th, 2009 at 07:17am

Mindy Mazur, Special Ed Parent Coach

Since writing my last blog, “What’s ADD got to do with it?” I’ve been fortunate to hear from many parents around the country. They shared their trials and tribulations of parenting a child with ADD/ADHD and working with their child’s school to get the services that they are entitled to.  In fact since there was such a dramatic response to this blog, we at Parenting Powers held a teleseminar last Tuesday night.

Some of the parents who wrote told me that the school had never evaluated their child but they were receiving accommodations through a 504 plan.  When I asked if they knew why the school had not evaluated their child several parents told me that the school didn’t want to have their child “labeled” with a learning disability, emotional impairment, etc.. .

Not only is this one of the most unfounded (and ludicrous) reason I’ve heard more importantly it’s against the federal IDEA law.  Don’t fall for it!

Simply stated; “an evaluation is an essential beginning step in the special education process for a child with a disability. Before a child can receive special education and related services for the first time, a full and individual initial evaluation of the child must be conducted to see if the child has a disability and is eligible for special education. Informed parent consent must be obtained before this evaluation may be conducted.”

This rationale shows the school’s limited understanding (or are they just playing dumb?) of how children with learning disabilities or other impairments are able to succeed when given appropriate instruction and services.  

Just think how this rationale would fly  if an ophthalmologist  was told that your child was having difficulty reading the board, even when they were placed in the first row. Would the eye doctor give your child a pair of eyeglasses prior to an examination?  Would a dentist start drilling a tooth without an X-ray?

Like an X-ray an evaluation provides scientific based information. Crucial information needed for the following reasons:

• Is this child a “child with a disability,” as defined by IDEA
• To gather information that will help determine the child’s educational needs
• To guide decision making about appropriate educational programming for the child.

An evaluation provides information. Information is good. Labeling is bad and its impact on a child is ugly.

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Tags: ADD, ADHD, Federal Special Ed Law, IDEA, Special Ed Parent Coach

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