Legal Issues in Education

Summer Byron

ECD 414

Legal Issues Paper

09-21-2005

Over the past three semesters all I have been hearing about is IDEA, 504, CHILD FIND, NCLB, and all of the other programs that are in place to make sure that children are not left on their own if they are in need of extra help inside or outside of the classroom. Each time any of these programs were mentioned I would always wonder about the process that a school would follow to qualify a student under these special services. I have never been exposed to the process, just told when a child was "special Ed" or "mainstreamed" in my internship classroom. I know that there has to be several steps involved in this process, otherwise there would be some major issues with parents and other professionals, when you tell them "I think your child needs special services." I also know that there has to be more than one persons opinion involved and, as in every aspect of school, parents must be completely involved and in control.

My main questions regarding this "labeling" process are: (1) Who is in charge of identifying and labeling a student, (2) What are the steps involved in the process of labeling a student, and (3) What happens to those students whose parents are refusing the extra help or testing for their child? My main reason for wanting to know this information is so that I can have the knowledge I need in case I have a student I am concerned about in my classroom. I am also interested in the process because my cousin has learning disabilities and I would like to know the process she went through to be identified and labeled as "special Ed." I also have personal concern for my daughter and my niece. My daughter was born prematurely and has a high potential to develop learning disabilities and my niece was prenatally exposed to drugs, which is also a "high-risk" situation for learning disabilities.

While trying to locate as much information as possible on the subject of special Ed and the process in which children are identified as needing services I found two articles through the Arizona Department of Education, one workshop handout, and an interview with Mark Jiles, principle of Desert Heights Elementary, all helpful. I began very broad in my search, just wanting to know the steps involved in the process, but soon came to be much more involved and interested in the whole idea of finding children who are in need of special education services. The first thing that I did to find information was an interview with a principle of an elementary school. Once the interview was complete I found more information through the Department Of Education. Even after investigation through these sources, I was extremely interested in the subject so I attended a Saturday school district training on the subject of special Ed and identifying the students who are in need.

My interview with Mark Jiles of Desert Height Elementary was very informative and helpful in my initial examination of the special education identification process. Mr. Jiles was very nice and allowed me a big chunk of his time to complete this interview. I asked questions of him that were directly