Welcome to Parent’s Rights

1. Welcome to Parent’s Rights SEPAC Meeting September 26, 2016

2. At a glance rights… procedural safeguards records participation evaluation prior written notice consent ability to disagree resolve disputes

3. Let’s take a minute to review acronyms • ESE – Elementary and Secondary Education • BSEA – Bureau of Special Education Appeals • FAPE – Free Appropriate Public Education • FBA – Functional Behavioral Assessment • IDEA – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act • IEP –Individualized Education Program • BIP – Behavior Intervention Plan • LRE – Least Restrictive Environment

4.  What is the purpose of the procedural safeguards notice? The purpose of the procedural safeguards notice is simple: to inform parents completely about the procedural safeguards available under IDEA. These represent their rights as parents and the protections they have—and their child as well—under the law and its implementing regulations.

5. Right to Participate in Meetings • Parents have the right to participate in meetings with respect to the: • their child’s identification, • their child’s evaluation, • their child’s educational placement, and • provision of FAPE (free appropriate public education) to their child. • This includes the right to participate in meetings to develop, review, or revise their child’sindividualized education program (IEP). • Let’s talk fape…

6. FAPE • Free Appropriate Public Education • Created by the IDEA • Created In partnership with you • Schools must provide access to general education and specialized services needed

7. Rights to see Records - When Can you See your Student’s Record? • You can request at any time and the school must allow that within 10 days. • Students over the age of 14 can ask to see their record as well. • The school is under an obligation to keep these confidential.

8. Right to Receive Prior Written Notice • Parental rights under IDEA include the right to receive prior written notice from the school each time that the school proposes to take (or refuses to take) certain actions with respect to your child.

9. Right to Parental Consent • When the term consent is used in IDEA, or the term parental consent, it has the same meaning as the term informed written consent. It means that the parent has been fully informed regarding the action of the school system for which parental consent is being requested.

10. Right to obtain an independent evaluation • If you, as a parent of a child with a disability, do not agree with the results of the individualized evaluation of your child, as conducted by the school system, you have the right to obtain what is known as an Independent Educational Evaluation. This means that you may ask that a professional, competent evaluator who is not employed by the school system conduct another evaluation of your child.

11. The Right to Disagree • Parents have the right to disagree with decisions that the school system makes with respect to their child with a disability. This includes the school’s decisions about: • the identification of the child as a “child with a disability”; • the child’s evaluation; • the child’s educational placement; and • the special education and related services that the school provides to the child.

12. Right to Resolve Disputes • Informal Approaches • IEP review – In rare cases when the family and school don’t agree, it’s important for both parties to first discuss their concerns and try to reach a compromise. • Problem Solving- An internal team is put together to problem solve any situation. • Facilitated IEP meeting – using an impartial facilitator. If these don’t work, there are other steps… • Formal Approaches • Mediation • Filing a state complaint • Due process

13. How can parents and schools resolve disputes? • The Bureau of Special Education Appeals ("BSEA") conducts mediations, advisory opinions and hearings to resolve disputes among parents, school districts, private schools and state agencies concerning eligibility, evaluation, placement, individualized education programs (IEPs), special education services and procedural protections for students with disabilities. • Main Telephone Number:  (617) 626-7250 • One Congress Street, 11th FloorBoston, MA 02114 

14. Determining eligibility

16. Timelines and procedures • Report concerns about Effective educational progress to teacher first. • If concerns persist, parent completes a referral from the Office of Student Services (o.S.s.) • Upon receiving the completed referral the school district sends out a consent to test form in the area of suspected disability within 5 school days. • The district has 30 school days to conduct the evaluation and 45 school days to hold an eligibility meeting. • Parents have the right to request copies of the assessment results 2 days prior to the meeting.

17. The eligibility determination meeting includes determining effective progress in area(s) of suspected disability, reviews evaluation results and decides whether or not the student is eligible to receive specialized services. • If determined eligible, an Individualized Education Program will be developed and sent for parent/caregiver to review, sign and return. • An IEP can be accepted in full or parts only. The team can reconvene to discuss the program or portions of the program that are not acceptable to the parent.

18. ferpa • FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (sometimes referred to as the Buckley Amendment). MA regulations are consistent with FERPA. • It applies to schools that receive federal education funds • FERPA requires schools to protect the privacy of student records and gives parents and students rights to inspect and review records.

19. Discipline and students with disabilities? • Manifestation determination - process to determine if a student’s behavior problem was or was not a manifestation of the student’s disability. • Tutoring starts immediately.