The Special Education Referral Process

Special Education in the United States has many benefits for parents and children--educator/school system interventions, which can occur at any stage in a child's development, combined with systemic support and a solid policy for developing solutions to a child's barriers to education, ensure that children in the US education system receive the best possible care and involvement throughout their school years. While not perfect--controversies attached to over-diagnoses of certain conditions in early childhood come to mind--at the core of these practices is an overarching directive of civic responsibility to publicly provide education for all children despite the presence of many barriers.

With such policy in place, it stands to reason that there is a thorough and transparent process through which a student is identified and referred for Special Education services. I had the benefit of speaking to a friend and colleague and current professional in the field who will be identified as AM.

So let's take a look at the process: how do students get referred for Special Education services? Many times, barriers to learning, particularly developmental, sensory, or motor impairments are identified quickly in the early childhood developmental stage. Older children who have already been in school for a few years are most likely to be referred by their parents for Special Education Services. Once the referral is made, a case management team usually consisting of a general and special educator, possible attendant evaluators, administrator, parent, and in some cases where age appropriate, the child/student themselves completes an evaluation stage, wherein a child's eligibility for Special Education Services is determined.

It is very important at this stage that the child's symptoms of a disability or learning barrier/condition be shown to tangibly and adversely affect the child's learning. If this determination is made, the team meets again to develop an IEP (Individualized Education Program). After an IEP is developed, it is the team's responsibility to implement the plan and put modifications and/or accommodations in place to help the student succeed in their education. IEP teams have regular meetings to tracks the progress, and are reviewed/updated at least once annually. IEP meetings can take place at any time, especially if the parent requests one.

Through my exploration of the topic of Personalized Education and its role in Special Education, to the Special Education Referral Process, the functional advantage for the Special Education student to be given a personalized approach to meeting their learning objectives is clear. Both Educators that spoke highly emphasized the importance of parental involvement in all stages of developing intervention strategies, being active in determining IEP goals, learning environment modifications/accommodations, and getting connected with extra services.

But how are Special Educators supported in their works with students? AM states administrative directives for Special Education have differed for her depending on the location in which she's been teaching:

"The rhetoric is always around “closing the gap.” ... In New York, there was a huge emphasis placed on test scores. Special educations students had to pass the same regents exams at the end of high school if they wanted a diploma. Otherwise they were given an “IEP diploma” which pretty much meant they couldn’t go on to any higher ed and limited job options. We definitely pushed our sped kids to test well.

In WI, I’m finding that the directives for special ed are more lax [sic] when it comes to academic performance. A student with an IEP will get a high school diploma if they attend school until graduation, regardless of grades or performance. When we look at standardized test scores here, special ed scores are looked at as a data point but my principal doesn’t pressure me to meet outrageous growth goals. However, [the School District] is in the process of redefining how they manage student behaviors. We talk a lot about how minority students, especially those with IEPs, are suspended more frequently than their peers. [School District] also pushes for full inclusion, meaning students with profound autism and/or an emotional/behavioral disturbance are placed in general education settings ... In summary, [School District] places more of an emphasis on inclusion and managing behaviors. "

Taking this into account, administrative directives for special education can play a huge part in how a Special Educator might approach her job. You might even argue that administrative directives are  the "objective zero" of a possible personalized learning approach, inasmuch as they have already "personalized," in a sense, their district or institution's Special Education priorities.

From there, the customization of education continues with a child's IEP and the implementation of what are known as SMART-- Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Relevant, and Time-Bound-- goals.
AM provides an example of a goal she has written for an IEP: "...with support from his teacher, G will learn and apply math problem solving strategies in order to solve whole number, mixed number and fractional math problems using the four operations with 80% accuracy." This goal (applied to this student's plan in the area of Math) asks for measurable progress in specific areas that are appropriate for the student, relevant to the student's specific troubles at school (math scores), and can be time-bound in terms of the greater IEP's time frame for achieving objective such as these--perhaps in a 3-month period, an academic quarter, or semester.

AM remarks that the implementation and achievement of IEP goals is easier to obtain when general and special educators work together to develop the student's learning and coping mechanisms.

"Co-teaching works really great when it is done well. Ideally the gen. ed teacher is the content specialist and will determine what needs to be taught and the sped [sic] teacher is the learning specialist and will work on different ways to convey the information. This works well for me in the Math class that I co-teach, for example. I’m not an expert on the subject but I am good at figuring out different projects or methods for students who learn differently to use to grasp the same concept."

We can see the specialty in the profession emerge at this point, as the educator will further personalize a child's education experience by pinpointing the most successful methods for the student to process, store, retain and produce information related to subject curriculum.

And personalization of learning still doesn't quite stop there, at least when taken on a case basis. When asked to recount an example of what she would consider a "success story" in her particular category of education specialty, AM says:

"Honestly I prefer to focus on small victories when working in special education. Things like a student finishing their classwork independently or being proud of an essay they completed really make my day. I helped a student write an essay about a passion of his and we showed it to his mom at an IEP meeting. He was so proud and that was awesome. I feel like a lot of special education is about consistent support and positive reinforcement. "

General outcomes and success can be achieved and celebrated and can still remain valuable milestones in a person's education or career--but the cases and situations specific to your success and learning, in any role or at any stage, is perhaps the more meaningful outcome we're searching for in striving to achieve a personalized approach to education.

Finally, how does the process look to a general education teacher? My next post will examine general education approaches to classroom interventions, and the special education process.