Do you know how to help a parent get special education services for their child? Are you confident in explaining the steps in IEP process to a parent? You might not think this conversation is relative to you and your caseload, but if you’re working in early intervention speech and language… it actually is.
We are often on the front lines of intervention when it comes to speech therapy for toddlers. In SLP early intervention, we identify communication delays and language disorders. We may help parents navigate the world of “this is something more than speech or language delay”.
Sometimes we also have the opportunity to help them set up early childhood special education services for school.
The theory behind an IEP is that is will be put into place so that a child can have an equal opportunity as their peers to attend school. Parents can have their children evaluated to get these services started when they turn 3 years old.
How do you start the IEP referral process?
If a child is receiving services through ECI, those services will provide the information to help transition the child into school.
The other way to request special education services is by parent request.
Parents can contact their local school district special education department and request a full and individual evaluation for their child.
The school district has 15 school days to respond (contact the parents and get scheduled). Once things have been scheduled, the school has 45 school days to complete the evaluation. From the date of a completed report, the school then has an additional 30 school days to hold and complete the IEP meeting to get services started.
When the IEP meeting is held, parents and other professionals that will be on the child’s team will discuss evaluation results and talk about different goals and accommodations they are putting into place. Once the meeting is complete a start date for the child is set and services begin!
If you'd like to find out more about the IEP process, check out this blog post!