Activity 1: Multilingual Students and Students with Learning Differences by Amanda Bolick

Teacher Recognizes Problem

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Student shows signs of struggling; failure to progress, difficulty completing independent work, uninterested or unengaged, frequent absences, anxiety about school, disruptive, sensory issues or easily frustrated.

Teacher can initiate early interventions like being pulled for small groups or sitting in the front of the class. Teacher continues to monitor progress of student with intervention.

Teacher Referral

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Student Support Team meets to monitor student progress. This team can include a school counselor, school psychologist, reading specialist, special educator, teacher and administrator. In some cases, the parents may also be involved in these beginning stages of monitoring.

Determine if language could be a factor in learning delays.

Students from a bilingual home or who do not speak english as their primary language are assessed for language needs in the classroom.

In some cases there may be a learning disability and language needs both affecting academic progress.

Success!

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Students remain in SST if teacher interventions have improved student performance and an IEP or other accommodations are deemed unnecessary.

Screening

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If a disability is suspected then the team needs to obtain permission for the student to be formally evaluated.

If the student is diagnosed with one or more of the 14 disabilities listed under IDEA then they would qualify for an IEP.

If the student is diagnosed with any disability, which can include learning or attention issues, they would qualify for a 504 Plan.

Review Testing

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Eligibility must be determined within 60 days of initial screening.

Initial IEP Meeting

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Initial IEP meeting must be held within 30 days of eligibility determination.

During the IEP meeting, the different members of the IEP team share their thoughts and suggestions. If this is the first IEP meeting after the child’s evaluation, the team may go over the evaluation results, so the child’s strengths and needs will be clear. These results will help the team decide what special help the child needs in school.

Annual IEP

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Within 1 year there is an annual IEP reassesment.

No Disability Identified

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If no disability is identified then a student would not qualify for an IEP or a 504 Plan.

The student may then return to SST and continue with those accommodations or a re-evaluation may be requested.

Permission to Test

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Re-evaluations must be completed within 3 years of last evaluation.

Review Testing Eligibility

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Testing eligibility must be completed within 90 days of receiving permission to test.

Documentation

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Any documents reviewed at a meeting will be sent home 5 business days in advance for review.

Other Meetings

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Review/Revise as needed to make changes.

Dismissal when a student no longer requires IEP services.

Extended School Year to discuss eligibility if not done at annual meeting or if changes need to be made.

Parent Request

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Parents notice student struggling academically or have concerns about grades and learning.

Language Needs

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Students will participate in ESOL small groups if language needs are determined to be a factor.

Students can also be re-evaluated for a disability if one was not identified or a student may also be qualified for an IEP which includes ESOL as a part of interventions.