Code:  IGBAH

Readopted:  0/22/18

Adopted:  11/23/09

Orig. Code(s):  IGBAH

Consistent with its child find and parent/guardian or adult student consent obligations, the district responds promptly to requests initiated by a parent/guardian, adult student or public agency for an initial evaluation to determine if a child is a child with a disability.

A full and individual evaluation of a student’s educational needs that meets the criteria established in the Oregon Administrative Rules will be conducted before determining eligibility and before the initial provision of special education and related services to a student with a disability.  The district implements an ongoing system to locate, identify and evaluate all children birth to 21 residing within its jurisdiction who have disabilities and need early intervention, early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) or special education services.

The district identifies all children with disabilities, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, including children who are:

1.   Highly mobile, such as migrant and homeless children;
2.   Wards of the state;
3.   Indian preschool children living on reservations;
4.   Suspected of having a disability even though they advance from grade to grade;
5.   Home schooled;
6.   Resident and nonresident student, including residents of other states, attending
      a private school (religious or secular) located within the boundaries of the district;
7.   Attending a public charter school located in the district;
8.   Below the age of compulsory school attendance; and
9.   Above the age of compulsory school attendance who have not graduated from
      high school with a regular high school diploma and have not completed the
      school year in which they reach their 21st birthday.

The district is responsible for evaluating and determining eligibility for special education services for school-age children.  The district is responsible for evaluating children who may be eligible for EI/ECSE services.  The district’s designated referral and evaluation agency, Northwest Regional ESD, is responsible for determining eligibility.

Before conducting any evaluation or re-evaluation, the district:

1.   Plans the evaluation with a group that includes the parent(s)/guardian(s) or adult
      student;
2.   Provides prior written notice to the parent(s)/guardian(s) or adult student that
      describes any proposed evaluation procedures the agency proposes to conduct
      as a result of the evaluation planning process; and
3.   Obtains informed written consent for evaluation.

The district conducts a comprehensive evaluation or re-evaluation before:

1.   Determining that a child has a disability;
2.   Determining that a child continues to have a disability;
3.   Changing the child’s eligibility;
4.   Providing special education and related services;
5.   Terminating the child’s eligibility for special education, unless the termination is due
       to graduation from high school with a regular high school diploma, exceeding the
       age of eligibility for a free appropriate public education or parent/guardian or adult
       student request to terminate services.

Upon completion of the evaluation, the district provides the parent/guardian or adult student a copy of the evaluation report at no cost.  The evaluation report describes and explains the results of the evaluation. Upon completion of the eligibility determination, the district provides the parent/guardian or adult student documentation of eligibility determination at no cost.

The district ensures that assessments and other evaluation materials, including those tailored to assess specific areas of education need, used to assess a child:

1.  Are selected and administered so as not to be racially or culturally discriminatory;
2.   Are provided and administered in the child’s native language or other mode of
      communication and form most likely to yield accurate information on what the
      child knows and can do academically, developmentally and functionally unless
      it is clearly not feasible to do so;
3.   Are used for purposes for which assessments or measures are valid and reliable;
4.   Are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel; and
5.   Are administered in accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of
      each assessment.

Materials and procedures used to assess a child with limited English proficiency are selected and administered to ensure that they measure the extent to which the child has a disability and needs special education, rather than measuring the child’s English language skills.

A student must meet the eligibility criteria established in the Oregon Administrative Rules.

The district conducts re-evaluations:

1.   When the educational or related service needs, including improved academic
      achievement and functional performance of the children warrant a re-evaluation;
2.       When the child’s parents/guardians, the adult student or teacher requests a
          re-evaluation; and
3.       At least every three years, unless that parent/guardian or the adult student
          and the district agree that a re-evaluation is unnecessary.

The district does not conduct re-evaluation more than once each year, unless the parent/guardian or adult student and district agree otherwise

If a parent/guardian or adult student has previously revoked consent for special education and related services and subsequently requests special education and related services, the district will conduct an initial evaluation of the student to determine eligibility for special education.

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ORS 343.155
ORS 343.157
ORS 343.164

OAR 581-015-2000
OAR 581-015-2095
OAR 581-015-2105 – 2190

Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. §§ 300.300, 300.530-300.534, 300.540-300.543, 300.7 (2017).

 

Code:   IGBAH-AR

Adopted: 3/4/08

Readopted:  6/18/24

1.   Request for Initial Evaluation

a.   Consistent with its child find and parent consent obligations, the district responds promptly to requests initiated by a parent or public agency for an initial evaluation to determine if a child is a child with a disability.
b.  Upon receiving a request from a parent or public agency for an initial evaluation, the district designates a team to determine whether an initial evaluation will be conducted.

(1) The district team includes the parent and at least two professionals, at least one of whom is a specialist knowledgeable and experienced in the evaluation and education of children with disabilities.

(a)  The team may make the decision to evaluate with or without a meeting.(b)  The district documents team members’ input, including parents whether or not the district convenes a meeting.

c.   If a meeting is held, the district invites parents to participate.
d.   If the district agency refuses an evaluation requested by the parent, the district provides the parent with prior written notice of its refusal to conduct an evaluation.
e.   The district acknowledges the parent’s rights to challenge its refusal to conduct an evaluation.

2.  The initial evaluation consists of procedures:

a.   To determine if the child has a disability; and
b.    To identify the child’s educational needs.

3.  The district conducts the initial evaluation within 60 school days of receiving consent for evaluation unless:

a.   The district and the parents agree in writing to extend the timeline for an evaluation to determine eligibility for specific learning disabilities;
b.   The child moves from another district during the evaluation, the district is making sufficient progress to ensure a prompt completion of the evaluation, and the parent and the district agree in writing to a specific time when the evaluation will be completed; or
c.    The parent repeatedly fails or refuses to produce the child for evaluation.

4.    Re-evaluation

a.   The district conducts re-evaluations:

(1)  When the educational or related service needs, including improved academic achievement and functional performance of the child, warrant an evaluation;
(2)  When the child’s parents or teacher request a re-evaluation; and
(3)  At least every three years, unless that parent and the district agree that a re-evaluation is unnecessary.

b.  The district does not conduct reevaluation more than once a year, unless the parent and district agree otherwise.

5.   Evaluation Planning

a.   The district, or designated referral and evaluation agency for preschool children, ensures that, as part of an initial evaluation (if appropriate), the child’s individualized education program (IEP) or individualized family service plan (IFSP) team, including the parents and other qualified professionals, as appropriate, review and document their review of existing evaluation data on the child including:

(1)  Evaluations and information provided by the child’s parents;
(2)  Current classroom-based, local or state assessments and classroom-based observations; and
(3)  Observations by teachers and related service providers.
(4) Medical, sensory and health information.

b.   On the basis of that review and input from the child’s parents, identify what additional data if any is needed to determine:

(1)  Whether the child has a disability;
(2)  The child’s present levels of academic achievement and related development needs;
(3)  Whether the child needs or continues to need early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) or special education and related services; and
(4)  For re-evaluation, whether the child needs any additions or modifications to the special education and related services or, for a preschool child, any additions or modification to ECSE services:

(a)  To enable the child to meet the measurable annual goals in the child’s IEP or IFSP; and
(b)  To participate, as appropriate, in the general education curriculum or, for preschool children, appropriate activities.

6.  Evaluation Procedures

a.   The district assesses the child in all areas related to the suspected disability, including, if appropriate, health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence, academic performance, behavior, communicative status and motor abilities.
b.   The evaluation is sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the child’s special education and related needs, whether or not commonly linked to the disability category in which the child has been classified.
c.  The evaluation includes information provided by the parent and a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental and academic information about the child that assist in determining:

(1)  Whether the child has a disability; and
(2)  The content of the child’s IEP, including information related to enabling the child to be involved in and progress in the general education curriculum (or for a preschool child, to participate in appropriate activities).

d.   The district ensures that assessments and other evaluation materials, including those tailored to assess specific areas of educational need, used to assess a child:

(1)  Are selected and administered so as not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis;
(2)  Are provided and administered in the child’s native language or other mode of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so;
(3)  Are used for the purposes for which the assessments or measures are valid and reliable;
(4)  Are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel; and
(5)  Are administered in accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of the assessments.

e.  The district selects and administers assessments to ensure that if an assessment is administered to a child with impaired sensory, physical, motor or speaking skills, the assessment results accurately reflect the child’s aptitude or achievement level or whatever other factors the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the child’s impaired sensory, physical, motor or speaking skills (unless those skills are the factors that the test purports to measure).
f.   The district uses technically sound instruments that may assess the relative contribution of cognitive factors and behavioral factors in addition to physical or developmental factors.
g.  The district does not use any single measure of assessment as the sole criterion for determining whether a child is a child with a disability and for determining an appropriate educational program for the child.

7.   Requirements if Additional Evaluation Data is not Needed to Determine Eligibility

a.   If the child’s IEP or IFSP team determines that no additional data is needed to determine whether or not the child is or continues to be a child with a disability, and to determine the child’s educational and developmental needs, the district provides prior written notice of that decision, the reasons for it, and the right of parents to request an assessment.
b.   When the IEP or IFSP team determines that no additional data is needed to determine eligibility, the district does not conduct an assessment of the child unless requested to do so by the parents.

8.   Evaluation Procedures for Transfer Students

When a child with disabilities transfers from one district to another district in the same school year, the district coordinates with the previous district to complete any pending assessment as quickly as possible.

9.  Eligibility Determination

a.   Once evaluation is completed, the district designates an eligibility team to determine whether the child is eligible for special education services.
b.   This team includes:

(1) Two or more professionals, one of whom will be knowledgeable and experienced in evaluating and teaching students with the suspected disability; and
(2)  The student’s parent(s).

c.   For consideration of eligibility in the area of specific learning disabilities, the district eligibility team includes:

(1)  A group of qualified professionals and the parent;
(2)  The child’s regular classroom teacher or, if the child does not have a regular classroom teacher, a regular classroom teacher qualified to teach a child of his or her age, or for a child of less than school age, a preschool teacher; and
(3)  A person qualified to conduct individual diagnostic examinations of children, such as a school psychologist, speech-language pathologist or other qualified professional.

d.  In interpreting evaluation data, each district team carefully considers and documents information from a variety of sources, including but not limited to, aptitude and achievement tests, teacher recommendations, parent input, physical condition, social, emotional or cultural background and adaptive behavior and all required elements of the evaluation.

e.   Each eligibility team prepares a written eligibility statement that includes:

(1)  Identification of the evaluation data considered in determining the child’s eligibility, including the required evaluation components for the disability under consideration;
(2)   A determination of whether the child meets the minimum evaluation criteria for one or more of the disability categories in Oregon Administrative Rule;
(3)   A determination of whether the primary basis for the suspected disability is:

(a)   A lack of appropriate instruction in reading (including the essential components of reading) or math; or
(b)   Limited English proficiency.

(4)   A determination of whether the child’s disability has an adverse impact on the child’s educational performance;
(5)   A determination of whether, as a result of the disability, the child needs special education services;
(6)  Documentation of every team member and an indication of whether each agrees with the eligibility determination;
(7)   For a child suspected of having a specific learning disability, the team’s written report includes additional specific documentation as required by Oregon Administrative Rule.

f.    The team does not find a child eligible as a child with a disability if the determinant factor for that eligibility decision is:

(1)   Lack of appropriate instruction in reading, including the essential components of reading instruction or lack of appropriate instruction in math; or
(2)   Limited English proficiency; and
(3)   The child does not otherwise meet the eligibility criteria found in Oregon Administrative Rule for the category(ies) of disability under consideration.

g.   The team finds a child eligible if the child has a disability and needs special education and related services, even though the child is advancing from grade to grade.
h.   A child may have disabilities in more than one eligibility category, but the team needs to find the child eligible in only one category. However, the district evaluates the child in all areas related to the suspected disability or disabilities, and the child’s IEP addresses all of the child’s special education needs.