Welcome to Unlimited Parenting. This is a show
where we discuss what it's like having children
with disabilities and or special health care
needs. Today, I am honored to be sitting down
with IPUL's Education Director, also known as
a PTI Director, to discuss the first two steps
of the special education process under the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, henceforth referred
to as IDEA. Would you like to introduce yourself,
Education Director? Hello, Unlimited Parenting
listeners. It's just me. It's just Melissa. It's
just me. We got ya. We had him. We had him, dude.
We totally had him. Oh, my gosh. Okay, well,
whether you're in the capital of Boise or a rural
community like Arco or Bonners Ferry, so, again,
today we're talking about the first two steps
of special education, which are... referral,
and evaluation. And this is a series that, so
obviously there are 10, there are 10 steps and
we're going to take two steps per episode. So
hopefully this gets you feeling prepared and
ready to go and knowing what to expect if you
are going into kindergarten this year or if you
feel like your child may be was supported by
a 504 and isn't supported anymore i don't know
any other yeah just kind of where to start right
thank you where to start no matter where you're
at in the process or how the process starts for
you because there's a couple different ways it
could start too right what a great segue so a
referral happens talking about oh my god here
we go i'll do it by myself i'm just kidding so
step one the referral this happens when someone
a teacher a counselor the parent believes a child
may have a disability that's affecting their
ability to learn at school. And I think that
that part is key. Yeah. Because you could have
a kid like mine who definitely has a documented
disability, but it doesn't impact them as much
at school. Exactly. So they don't get IEP supports,
which we'll get more into that in a minute. But
remember that a disability that affects their
ability to learn at school. So every school district
has a Child Find responsibility under IDEA. The
Child Find system includes all students who reside
or are enrolled within a school district's geographic
boundaries. So I'm going to quote the following
from the Special Education Manual, but I will
also add this caveat. This episode was recorded
July of 2025. Please keep that in mind because
the special education manual is going through
some revisions and changes. So as it stands right
now, July of 2025, this is factual information.
So child find. We're looking at those students
who are enrolled or may be enrolled in the district,
enrolled in a charter or an alternative school,
enrolled in homeschool. Enrolled in parentally
placed private elementary and secondary education
schools, including religious schools, which is
going to become important again later. Yep. Located.
Okay, so let's repeat that again. Including religious
schools that are located in the district's geographic
boundaries, including out -of -state parentally
placed private school children, students with
disabilities. Those that are not enrolled in
elementary or secondary school, but they're between
the ages of three and five. Advancing from grade
to grade. Those students who may be migrant or
homeless as defined by the McKinney -Vento and
words of the state. So House Bill 93. Correct.
Essentially what we're saying here is that even
if you're going to go to a private school. The
school district in your neighboring community
in which you reside is your geographical boundary
is the one who has the responsibility to assess.
Correct. Yes. So your neighborhood school, the
onus is on that public school district to do
the assessment portion or even that identification
portion. They are. And this is going to come
into question with our religious or our non -traditional,
non -public schools. Let's just say that. Because
they will not be obligated to perform evaluations
that they may. The onus is on the public school
district to provide to do that. So if you're
a private school and I'm a public school. and
a family is choosing to see you, you can say,
hey, I don't have any reason to test you, but
let me tell you what, Allison over there, she
has to no matter what. So then you could come
and see me. I could spend my resources assessing
and then I could say, here's a beautiful laid
out plan for you. And then the parent could either.
Stay with me and accept my plan in the school
setting. Yeah. Or take the plan that I got. We
made and then bring it to you and say, is there
any way to adapt this plan in your setting? Theoretically,
absolutely. And that's probably what we see happening.
But parents need to be mindful that those non
-public schools, those those private schools
have no obligation. to uphold IDEA. Now, they
could take that plan and they could say to the
family, yeah, we could try to make this work,
but they have no implications. They do not have
to follow IDEA. And you may be wondering why
even bring this up. Yeah. Why are we bringing
this up? If it doesn't matter, because as a PTI,
it's our job to explain all the different choices
that you have available to you at any time. And
now House Bill 93. has kind of thrown in a little
bit of extra sugar and spice and jazz into all
of that so we're reminding you of all your choices
of all of your options and also just so you know
what some of the outcomes could be of those things
yeah and i guess so that parents like what happens
if i see another family getting evaluated at
our school and then the child we don't ever see
that child again yeah so some families might
wonder like what's what's this have what happening
and so potentially that's maybe what you do see
in the coming years in our state and again I
want to remind everybody listening that when
you're listening to this recording this was recorded
the beginning of July of 2025 as it stands right
now The state of Idaho does not have a disability
specific school except for the state funded school
for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing
and blind or low vision. We do have that school
that's disability specific, but we do not have
an autism school. We don't have a Down syndrome
school. Many other states that neighbor us do.
If an autism school were to, let's say, pop up
somewhere within the Treasure Valley or northern
Idaho, anywhere, the neighboring school district
would be the one who is in charge of. Yes. Child.
Yep. Absolutely. But that doesn't apply to charters,
though, because charters are their own. Charters
are public. LEA. They're public schools. And
that's where people kind of get a little confused
is the wrong word. It's like there are so many.
And then you're going to start throwing in things
like micropods and. Co -ops. And so this obviously
this is a detail. That's why we broke apart all
the steps, because we knew there were lots of
different ways to get into the weeds with these
steps. And we wanted to let the conversations
kind of happen naturally. But that's why I think
parents are like, well, how the charter, the
charter does it. Well, that's because the charter
is a public school, but a private school. So
it makes more sense. But I have a lot of parents
that I help who say, well, then my school district,
but you already attend a charter. It is its own
school district. Good. As long as I've made that
absolutely convoluted and clear as mud, I'm glad.
And hey, I'm just throwing this out there. we're
here to answer all of these convoluted questions
we have some our self -guided modules that may
go through some of these questions but just call
us i would exactly please follow us these are
very one -off situations a lot of these are going
to be so call us and we can walk you through
and the best part of calling us is when you call
us you might hear my voice you might hear melissa's
voice you might get sarah but you're getting
all of us because we're all going to talk and
say well what about this would you've tried this
or Exactly. Say you're getting everybody. But
back to the referral process. It always starts
with a formal request for an evaluation. Yep.
Could that request be verbal? Sure. And theoretically,
anything can be verbal, right? It can. But iPoll.
Exactly. Yep. iPoll's never going to. encourage
you to make that request verbally we would always
suggest that you put everything in writing why
because it's easier to keep track for everyone
involved on the timeline on who submitted the
request on how we're following up iPoll actually
has a resource you made it I think you made it
didn't you the steps to evaluation i did we're
going to include it it'll tell you the steps
to evaluation i know we're talking about this
part during referral but it'll include the steps
to evaluation and how you can actually make that
referral and it includes a letter template letter
yep that you can customize for your own child
um and and whatever your district may be but
it gives you the basics and then you can hop
in the rest so you don't even have to think about
how to write the letter you just add in your
information we're just trying to make things
so much easier for everybody so you do the formal
request the school will provide you with your
procedural safeguards notice which is a fancy
way of saying your rights and responsibilities
yep you're going to get one of them every single
year at every single other iep meeting if you
want it exactly you should yeah and then you
should be having a meeting to discuss the concerns
what you want to assess for decide if a full
evaluation is appropriate if it is appropriate
sorry and then explain what assessments might
take place so for example if you're assessing
an autistic child a lot of times an slp will
be involved because there's deficits in communication
even if you say something to the effect of my
child has uh typically developing expressive
language they're gonna say let's just throw in
an slp we're gonna do auditory processing we're
gonna do the whole shebang if the team agrees
if everybody agrees these are the assessments
we're gonna do this we're all on the same page
then you're gonna sign a consent for an evaluation
yep if not then the school needs to give you
a what that's you what you're gonna answer that
If the school decides they're not going to. Oh,
you're going to get a prior written notice. Exactly.
Sorry, I threw her off. What? I was trying to
have fun, but then I was also, you can't see
it because this isn't a video podcast, but I
was holding my head too. And she was like, oh
God, she's having a medical event. Okay. Sorry,
you're going to get a prior written notice that
explains to you why the why they're choosing
not to move forward with evaluations. Maybe they
don't they don't at this point feel that it's
necessary for your child to be evaluated. And
they're going to sometimes this is where they
say, but we think that that your student could
be supported by a 504 or offer some accommodations
through a 504 plan. But well, Nostradamus over
here is ruining my mock scenario. Just kidding.
See, this is what I want. I also wanted to prove
this point is that even if Melissa has no idea
what I'm about to say, she already knows exactly
what I'm about to say. Okay. Okay. But I do want
to point out something really important. Did
I miss? No, you didn't miss it. But I do just
want to highlight this. The prior written notice
and the procedural safeguards must be in the
family's native language. Oh, yeah. that's huge
so in other words a lot of people question you
know like what is native language so if i am
a family that has immigrated from a french -speaking
country french is my native language but what
if i prefer receiving my information in english
so it's the language that you that your family
uses most most often or feels most comfortable
receiving that information and so that's not
trying to I've also had this question asked of
me where even if French is the language that
you grew up speaking, you could still access
your information in English and use it as a native
language. So you don't need your information
in French. So people have asked me really super
niche questions like that. So I'll give that
to you. It's native language means whatever language
you feel most comfortable receiving that information
in. The special education manual really means
business about this in particular. because they
have, it's like a page and a half of very specific
rules that you follow if a family doesn't communicate
in written language. Like how do you still get
their rights and responsibilities to them? So
this is a very important little caveat. Because
you're right. This is the family's rights. It
is. their responsibility it is what they are
required to do in the special education piece
because we're team members we are absolutely
iep team members so we have a little we have
some responsibility in it too so we want to ensure
that all families have access to reading that
yeah understanding where their piece of the puzzle
is yeah that's that's all i gotta say about that
and if you have questions ask yeah ask us ask
the team And if you don't feel comfortable asking
your team, we have lots of tips and tricks that
you can get back to, get back to comfortable
with the team. We have that too. Okay. I want
to talk about two scenarios before we move into
evaluation. Okay. So the first is Tasha. She
lives in Boise. Her son Malik is in second grade.
Okay. Tasha lives in Boise, Malik second grade.
he's he's bright like a gifted kid but he's off
task blurts out answers struggles completing
assignments this could be a fake name of a real
child we know okay uh uh my son's school i mean
tasha's son uh they've tried behavior charts
and preferred seating but you know what it's
just not working so tasha submits a written request
for an evaluation the school begins Quickly,
they respond and they agree to the evaluation
process. We're going to hear the rest of Tasha's
story at the end. Okay. Once she gets through
evaluation, but that's what you have right now.
That's where she is. She reached out to us. We
gave her that. She's got the process. Now we're
going to meet Mike. Mike's up in KMEI. He's got
his daughter, Rosie, a kindergartner. She speaks
only a few words and struggles to follow classroom
routines. But get this, the local school district,
because it's Kamei, doesn't have a speech therapist
on site right this very second. So they've contacted
a regional support provider because even in rural
Idaho, your child is protected under the law.
So the school works with Mike to begin a full
evaluation. And they're going to start by using
teletherapy for speech and language testing because
the rules still apply no matter what part of
Idaho you're in. but yeah in some parts of idaho
it may require you to get slightly more creative
absolutely and the professionals know how to
get creative so i'm just saying even if you're
not in the great state of ada you can trust the
process because even people who have never been
to kami i like myself know how to navigate if
there's a will there there should be a way amen
okay okay now let's move to evaluation so after
you've signed the consent the school has 60 calendar
days to complete the evaluation right and then
30 days from IEP to implementation yep so calendar
yes calendar calendar days this includes academic
assessments classroom observations crucially
input from the parent absolutely behavior and
speech -language screenings if needed So again,
I just want to throw this out there. The specific
composition of an evaluation team will vary depending
on the student's suspected disability. You mean
it's individually? Yes. The parent or the adult
student is always a member of that team and should.
always be given an opportunity to provide input
the evaluation team conducts its review on existing
data makes a decision however all required team
members must participate so that's the parent
a district okay you go for it a district representative
a general education teacher and then a special
education teacher And then potentially a qualified
professional who can interpret assessment results.
Because we're talking about that first meeting.
So there are always the four core that Melissa
said. But in that first meeting, even if you
don't, even if Tasha and Malik don't need an
SLP for an autism diagnosis, they're there in
the beginning. Right. And that is because they
are a licensed. clinical professional that can
explain and interpret those assessment results.
A general education teacher cannot interpret,
help me out. A WISC. A WISC, yes, exactly. You
need a psychologist for that. Exactly, that is
a perfect example. That is not something that
just anyone can interpret and explain the assessment
results. So that's why we have to have those
people there. And then again, I know this gets
really into the weeds, but I really want to make
one more point. The words eligibility and assessment
get used interchangeably, but they're really
serving two different purposes. So an evaluation
determines the extent of support needed and includes
which assessments to use. But the assessments
are integral to the evaluation process, and they
refer to the formal and informal processes of
gathering. information to support the eligibility
be super confusing yeah it is but when some people
say my child is getting assessed it I have had
several scenarios where you have to get into
the weeds with that because you don't in special
education they don't necessarily always mean
the same thing and different districts will use
though Yeah. Again, call us. Just call us. A
lot of these are so one -offs. But either way,
at the end of the day, eligibility and assessment
have the same goal to determine if your child
qualifies for services under IDEA. And they always
do this using the three -prong test. So the first
prong is to qualify for services, a student must
meet the criteria for one. or more of 14 categories
do you want to go one for one again no i hate
doing that because i always miss one or and it's
like the most obvious one i always miss okay
there are 14 categories autism spectrum disorder
intellectual disability deaf blindness deaf or
hard of hearing developmental delay up to age
nine in the state of idaho um emotional behavioral
disorder Other health impairment, that's where
you might get something like ADHD, epilepsy,
chronic illness, Angelman. Specific learning
disability, that's your dyslexia, dysgraphia.
multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairments,
speech or language impairment, language, speech
or language impairment, speech, traumatic brain
injury and visual impairment, including blindness.
So the school team is going to collect evidence
through assessments and observation to determine
if your child meets one or more of these criteria.
I also want to add that you could be a student
supported by a 504 meeting this criteria, too.
Yes. So they're going to get more specific as
we go on. So prong two, an adverse effect on
education, whether that's academic or functional.
So this is where the team asks themselves, does
this child's disability affect their ability
to learn, behave, or participate in any kind
of school activities? So they could have a difficulty
with reading, attention, math, communication.
So even if a child has a diagnosis like autism,
ADHD, they must show that it's inversely impacting
their educational performance to qualify. And
why am I getting so specific with that? Because
your girl has two children with autism diagnoses
who do not qualify for an IEP. So you can still
meet prongs one and two. And not qualify. Correct.
Because of prong, numero, trace. Number three
right here. A need for specially designed instruction.
So that's finally the team asks themselves, does
this child need teaching different in content,
method, delivery than what is provided to their
typically developing peers? So if you answer
yes to all three of those questions. Cha -ching,
your child qualifies for an individualized education
plan or program, IEP. If not, the team may recommend
a 504, which is essentially a series of accommodations.
It changes to how. How your child is accessing.
Not what. Mm -hmm. Okay, so let's go back to
our scenarios. Okay. Tammy or? Malik. Oh. The
little Tasha's. Tasha. Tasha and Malik. Get it
together. Tamara, Tasha. His ADHD falls under
OHI, other health impairment. But through the
evaluation, the team finds that his academic
performance is at grade level. And he has been
responding really well to minor changes, minor
accommodations like breaks and flexible seating.
Since Malik was determined to not need specialized
instruction, he doesn't need different math,
different reading. The team recommends a 504
plan with accommodations. And accommodations
like brakes. And flexible seating, headphones,
those types of things. Those are also what happened
to make my children successful. But back to Rosie.
Rosie in Kamii, her evaluation showed that she
has expressive and receptive language delays.
She qualifies under speech or language impairment
language. So she's met prong one. Her difficulty
expressing needs and following classroom directions
is negatively impacting her access to learning.
She's met prong two. The team determines that
she's met prong three. She does need speech therapy
and small group instruction, which cannot be
provided through general education alone. So
she has qualified for an IEP and now she's starting
services. So. Again, there are some small differences
between urban and rural. If you're in a rural
setting, potentially specialists travel between
districts. Or are shared between districts. Exactly.
They might have smaller teams. They might be
way more flexible. They might have virtual options
for therapies. Yep. Whereas if you're in an urban
setting, like if you're in West Ada, so that's
Meridian, Idaho's largest school district. There's
probably in -house evaluators, potentially larger
special education teams. It really is hyper -specific,
but just an example. So those are the first two
steps, and that was a lot of information. It
was. But if I could give you two things to take
away from this, it would be the three prongs,
which are... have a disability outlined by the
14 categories, have that effect adversely affect
a student's education developmentally, functionally,
academically, and arguably most importantly.
This is the one that hangs people up. Is needs
specially designed instruction that is not the
same as your typically developing peers. And
also just know. That if for some reason you don't
qualify for an IEP, whatever the reason may be,
you potentially qualify for a 504. Nobody, if
you have requested an IEP evaluation or an educator
has, that's kind of a show of a need of support.
So this student is going to be supported. Yeah,
somehow, someway. So you may be asking yourself
at this point, what do you do today? What can
I do today? to get ready for the beginning of
this school year if i think my child might need
that yes here are some suggestions that i have
come up with keep a folder of school work notes
report cards anything that you think that you
could breed thank you again more data Write down
any concerns you have or observations that you
have noticed, because how many times have you
been at your child's well child check and gone
completely blank? Yep. I strongly suggest writing
them down as they come to you, even if it's on
your notes pad in your phone. And I would add
to that if generalized community input, too.
So if your child is seeing an outside provider
and, you know, maybe a speech provider or an
OT. I don't know about your kiddo, but every
time mine sees one, they kind of give me a download
of some things that we're working on. That's
really good information to share to a team too.
And that's generalized across environments. Agreed.
And the team is required to review outside information
that you bring. So you do not have to bring outside
information. If you choose not to, that's always
your choice. But if you do bring it, the team
is required to review it. Ask for a meeting with
your team. Today, there's nothing that says that
that request for an evaluation, that form that
we'll have linked that Miss Melissa made. There's
nothing to say that you can't send that right
now. Potentially educators are out of their contract.
Yep. But it's one of those your emails will be
responded to in the order in which they were
received type of a thing. So if you suspect I
would reach out now to get it on the radar. And
then again, yeah, submit a written request for
evaluation. And then finally, reach out to us.
If you want to just talk something through or
brainstorm, you don't have to call us with like
an ID. You don't have to wait until you have
an IDEA violation to call us. You can call us
and say, hey, I heard that you're all special
needs parents over there. Can you tell me what
you would do in this situation? Exactly. And
one thing you got to know about me is that if
you ask me that question, I'm going to tell you
exactly what I would do in that situation. I
guess the other thing is, is this is a really
good time to spend some time educating yourself
about the process, about what the steps are going
to look like so that you can go into the school
year being armed with a bunch of knowledge. Exactly.
This honestly. Honestly, honestly, though, this
is the time to tap into those articulates that
we have made. Yes. The deep dive into IEPs. This
is a good time to. Your school's not going to
know what happened next year. This is crazy for
me to say this in this podcast episode, but this
is a really good time to even make sure that
your demographic information is updated with
Medicaid. Yeah, I think this like summer break
time is a really good time, especially since
July is kind of when the laws that the legislature
has passed are all kind of going into coming
into effect, I would say now. So again, this
is it. That was steps one and two. You made it.
Listen to this episode as many times as you need.
In our next episode, we're going to talk about
steps three and four. So those are eligibility,
like actually having the eligibility meeting,
and then the actual IEP meeting itself. So again,
prepare for next episode to also be a little
bit longer and a lot of information. How do you
prepare? So these are some things that you could
have answered in your next episode if your girl,
me, stays on track. How to prepare, what questions
to ask, and crucially, what do you do if you
disagree? Yeah. Because you're going to. Yeah.
Because it's a group of people in a room, right?
And you're talking about your kid. Exactly. We're
going to talk about that a lot, too. So until
then, remember, you know your child best. Yep.
Trust your voice. Ask your questions. Always
feel like it's a place to ask questions. And
please reach out to us if you have any questions
at all. Can I say one thing? Oh, my God, please.
A cheesy one. But knowledge is power. Yes. The
more I learn, the better parent I am. Are you
saying, like, learn or perish? No, I didn't want
to steal that. Thank you so much, everyone out
there, for listening in. And know that if you
are in Idaho or planning on moving to Idaho and
have questions on systems or services for children
with disabilities, please consider reaching out
to us on our website at iPullIdaho, that's I
-P -U -L -Idaho .org, or by calling us at 208
-342 -5884. Be sure to tune in next time. Until
then... This has been unlimited parenting. Thanks
for listening.