IDEA; it’s Constituent Elements and Related Legal Challenges Introduction

In order to provide an education program to the disabled, there is need to understand the policies, regulations and procedures for ensuring free appropriate public Education (FAPE) (Jones, 2011). This document presents a training guideline for staff in a private school.

Development of a Staff Training Document and Implementation of IDEA Elements

The law governing design and development of a school special education program require that consultation be undertaken with the appropriate representatives of the students with disabilities. The consultations need to be timely and meaningful and undertaken from the program’s initiation stage throughout to transition and termination stages. The consultations will entail, design, development and implementation of the special needs program (Jones, 2011)

The representatives to the children with disabilities will be engaged in the consultation on, procedure for students’ need identification, the beneficiary disabled students, the services to be offered, service delivery procedure, location for service delivery, and assessment of delivery and outcome procedures (Scanlon, 2004). These consultations are guided by the federal funding available, number of disabled private students, the needs of the students with disability and the location of the students with disabilities in the private school (Jones, 2011)

The following steps should be considered in designing, development, planning, implementation and delivery of the special needs learning program

Child Find

IDEA requires that child find in the case for students placed in private schools be similar as the case for the children in public schools. In the public institutions, child find obligation is an obligation delegated to the state educational agencies (SEA) and the local educational agencies (LEAs). To undertake child find in private schools, the LEAs are required to consult with the appropriate representatives of the students with disabilities placed in private schools (Jones, 2011).

In the child find an initial evaluation is undertaken that is followed by eligibility determination undertaken by a qualified group of professionals and the child’s parents/guardian. The evaluation and eligibility is determined and cross checked under the definition and guidelines in Part B. Upon determination of the child’s needs for special services and education, an individualized education program (IEP) for the child is developed. This is unless, the parent opts to enroll the child in a private school and they object to public placement of their...

In the event where, consultations as required in child find, identification, evaluation and eligibility are not followed in accordance to the Act’s provisions, a parent may file a written and signed complaint.
The consultations attend to the appropriate education that provides the least restrictive environment (LRE) for the disabled children’s development. In the consolations deliberation on service delivery will considered and the evaluation and reporting procedures. The school is in this case mandated to ensure that the IEP is carried out in accordance to plan and provide feedback to the child’s parent. The progress of the child’s development and performance is determined by the set goals and objectives in the written service plan. It is also required that the programs are reviewed on the minimum once a year for their appropriateness. Upon placement of the disabled child to ideal and procedurally determined

As the disabled child continue with the training and learning program need for transition continues to beckon. The team of professionals providing services in consolations with the representative parent, regular educator and the disabled child need to deliberate on the appropriate course specialization for post school goals. This deliberation need to start when the student approaches the age of 14 years. It is ideal that the disabled student’s input is considered in transition consultations since their voice is strong.

From the age 16, the service provider and the professional team need to start preparing the student to post-school life. These interactions should entail providing training on work environment through exposure, carrier development, public interaction skills and legal obligation upon attainment of certain age.

The disabled students are required to undertake an evaluation to determine their progress and the impact of the program. The relevance of the assessments will vary from child to child but they are required to have in consideration some special aspects factor. These include; a limited English proficiency, Communication needs, Need for assistive technology services or devices visual impairment or blindness, deaf or hard of hearing and The child’s behavior.

In service provision the need to ensure equitable participation of both public and private disabled children is emphasized. There are no special entitlements to private school disable children. The authorities charged with the obligation in provision and distributions of services are required to ensure…