Hoping you had a lovely holiday!

We noted your interest in the way the IDEA funds in the Recovery Act are impacting local school districts. Things aren’t quite as bad as you describe — local district get to reduce their local expenditures on special education (the excess costs) by up to 50% of the amount of the increase in federal funds from one year to the next. So, while the reduction allowable is substantial due to the whopping increase in FY09 funds caused by the Recovery Act, it isn’t half of the money the district spends on special education.

However, special ed funding in CA is impacted by recent actions of the CA state legislature. See our CA blog for details. We hope you will take a look at the information on http://www.IDEAmoneywatch.com and maybe consider joining our pack of watchdogs!

Your ASD child could unwittingly be swept into the RtI wave, which could become a roadblock between him or her and critical special education services. This post will give you a brief blueprint of your child’s educational rights. For more information, sign-up for my newsletter at http://www.makingschoolwork.com or visit my blog at http://makingschoolwork.wordpress.com.

What is RtI?

RtI is a multi-step process of increasingly intensive and individualized instruction above and beyond what usually happens in the classroom. It will hopefully be more effective for struggling learners than special ed instruction, but the fear is that RtI (which is very complicated and labor-intensive) will be nothing more than an ineffective roadblock to an IEP. Now that RtI will be in effect in many regions, there are a new series of steps between your child and special ed services, and those steps make up the RtI process.

All children, disabled or not, begin the RtI process. However, if you suspect or you know that your child has a disability, such as an Autism Spectrum Disorder, speech, physical or severe cognitive disorder, RtI cannot become a roadblock to an IEP. If your disabled child does not have a learning disability, it is business as usual. He or she can be considered for an IEP without going through the RtI process.

Your ASD Child’s Legal Rights

Implementing an RtI system does not change a school district’s legal obligation to identify students with disabilities. By law, you have the right to request an evaluation at any time in the process, whether or not your child has demonstrated a lack of responsiveness to RtI instruction. Your written consent to an evaluation automatically starts the special education process and puts a time frame on the RtI process so that it can’t go on for months or even years.

Bottom Line: If Your Child is Not Progressing Well in School and you think or you know he or she may have a disability:

1. Immediately Request and Sign Your Written Consent to a comprehensive psycho-educational evaluation performed by a school psychologist. Note: If the school
does not allow you to sign your consent, you have the right to file a due process complaint to an administrative law judge;

2. Your Written Consent will trigger the special education (“IEP”) process. The school district will have 60 school days (not calendar days) to complete the evaluation and complete the RtI process.
Note that If the RtI process were allowed to extend the time frame for determining eligibility for an IEP past 60 school days, but the 60 day time frame applied to everyone else, the school district would be discriminating against children with learning disabilities.

3. At the end of the 60 school day period, the school must invite you to a meeting when the team will review both the RtI progress monitoring data and the psycho-ed. evaluation to determine if your child is eligible for special education services. If you believe your child has been unfairly denied an IEP, you have the right to file a due process complaint to an administrative law judge.

Allison Hertog, Esq., M.A.
http://www.MakingSchoolWork.wordpress. com

THe universal screening test needs to stand up to that same type of rigor. DIBELS, AIMSWEB, TRPI and PALS are the only ones for younger students in reading that do (unless a district puts together a package of high quality component assessments). DRAs, IRI, LEveled tests wouldn’t stand up in a due process because the research support isn’t there.

RTI is a paradigm change if done right and one that changes everyone’s roles ensuring that students get curriculum that research shows will be successful with the highest % of students whether they be from poverty or have special education eligibility.

Finally, if universal screening shows that 60% of students in a high poverty district are so far behind that they are highly at risk for reading failure, then that 60% of students should be getting alternative intensive intervention. That’s where the paradigm shift comes, because it means retraining gen ed teachers and using curricula that will benefit those students. You can only serve 60% failing readers in third grade by having some of the gen ed teachers put on different hats and learn to teach an intensive reading curriculum. (there aren’t many with support for failing readers). If a district has data that shows those 60% of students are at high risk and ignores the data because the RTI pyramid has only 5 – 15 % getting intensive intervention, thusthey are knowingly ensuring that those students won’t read at grade level. I can’t help but wonder if there is a class action lawsuit waiting in the wings.