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Special Education Handbook
2012-2013 |
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VIII. PARENTALLY PLACED NONPUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN
A. CHILD FIND
(1) GENERALLY
The District locates, identifies and evaluates all children with disabilities who are enrolled by their parents in chartered and nonchartered nonpublic schools, including religious elementary and secondary schools located within the District’s geographical boundaries.
The District consults with the nonpublic school representatives and representatives of parents of parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities regarding the child find process, including:
(a) How parentally placed nonpublic school children suspected of having a disability can participate equitably; and
(b) How parent, teachers and nonpublic school officials will be informed of the child find process.
After timely and meaningful consultation with representatives of nonpublic schools, the District carries out child find activities for parentally placed nonpublic school children, including children whose parents live out-of-state. These activities are similar to the child find activities the District conducts for its public school children and ensures an accurate count of children with disabilities. The District completes these activities in a time period comparable to that for children attending its public schools, including completing any evaluations within 60 days of receiving parental consent. See Chapter V, Section A(1).
The District follows all IDEA and FERPA confidentiality requirements when serving children with disabilities attending nonpublic schools located within the District’s boundaries and obtains parental consent before releasing any personally identifiable information about a child to officials of the child’s district of residence or the nonpublic school in which the child is enrolled.
The District conducts, either directly or through contract, a full and individual initial evaluation of any parentally placed nonpublic school child suspected of having a disability who is enrolled in a nonpublic school within the District’s boundaries. The District obtains written parental consent before conducting an initial evaluation.
(a) If the parents of a parentally placed nonpublic school child do not provide consent or fail to respond to the District’s request for consent to evaluate the child, the District may not use mediation or due process procedures to pursue the evaluation. The District does not have to consider this child as eligible for services.
(b) If the parents do not make clear their intent to keep their child enrolled in the nonpublic school, the District provides the parents of a child who is determined to be eligible for special education services written documentation stating that the child’s school district of residence is responsible for making FAPE available to the child.
(c) The District sends a copy of this documentation to the child’s district of residence, provided the District obtains written parental consent to release the information.
The District conducts reevaluations of parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities receiving special education and any related services to determine continued eligibility for services. The District conducts reevaluations no more than once a year, unless the parents and the District agree otherwise, and at least once every three years, unless the parents and the district agree that a reevaluation is unnecessary.
(2) AUTISM SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS
The District assumes responsibility for the initial evaluations and re-evaluations of children who reside in the District and desire to participate in the Autism Scholarship Program. The district where the nonpublic school is located conducts all reevaluations for children with disabilities participating in the Autism Scholarship Program. (See 3301-51-08(R)(1) of the Operating Standards). The District creates the IEP that is required for eligible children who reside within the District to participate in the Autism Scholarship Program.
B. CONSULTATION
The District consults with nonpublic school representatives and representatives of parents who have placed their children with disabilities in nonpublic schools in a timely and meaningful way during the design and development of special education and related services for the children regarding the following:
(1) CHILD FIND
See above requirements.
(2) PROPORTIONATE SHARE OF FUNDS
(a) The determination of the proportionate share of federal IDEA Part B funds available to serve parentally-placed nonpublic school children with disabilities;
(b) The determination of how the proportionate share of those funds was calculated; and
(c) Consideration of the number of children and their needs and location.
“Proportionate share” refers to the amount of federal IDEA Part B funds the District must expend to provide the group of parentally-placed nonpublic school children with disabilities with equitable participation in services funded with federal IDEA Part B funds. The District follows the formula in 3301-51-05(E)(1)–(4) of the Operating Standards to calculate the proportionate amount.
(3) CONSULTATION PROCESS
(a) How the consultation process will bring together District representatives, nonpublic school officials and representatives of parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities;
(b) How the process will take place throughout the school year to ensure that parentally-placed nonpublic school children with disabilities identified through the child find process can meaningfully participate in special education and related services.
(4) PROVISION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND RELATED SERVICES
(a) How, where and by whom special education and related services will be provided;
(b) The types of services, including direct services and alternate service delivery mechanisms;
(c) How special education and related services will be apportioned if funds are insufficient to serve all parentally placed nonpublic school children; and
(d) How and when these decisions will be made.
(5) WRITTEN EXPLANATION BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT
How the District will provide the nonpublic school officials a written explanation of the reasons why the District chose not to provide services directly or through a contract if the District disagrees with the views of the nonpublic school officials on the provision of services or the types of services.
The District obtains a written affirmation signed by representatives of the participating nonpublic schools that timely and meaningful consultation has occurred. If representatives of the participating nonpublic schools do not provide the affirmation within a reasonable period of time or choose not to participate under the proportionate share provisions of IDEA and engage in consultation, the District documents its consultation attempts and forwards the documentation to the ODE-OEC. If a nonpublic school located within the boundaries of the District chooses not to participate, the parents may contact the District to request services for the child.
C. RIGHTS TO SERVICES
The District is not required to pay for the cost of education, including special education and related services, of a child with a disability, enrolled at a nonpublic school or facility if:
(1) The child’s district of residence made FAPE available to the child; and
(2) The parents elected to place the child in the nonpublic school.
The District includes these children and their needs in the population being considered when making decisions about services to be provided to parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities.
If the parents make clear their intention to keep their child with a disability enrolled in the nonpublic school, the child’s district of residence does not need to develop an IEP for the child. If the child with a disability re-enrolls in the District, the District makes FAPE available.
D. EQUITABLE SERVICES DETERMINED
The District makes the final decisions about the services to be provided through a services plan to eligible parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities who are attending nonpublic schools within the District’s geographic boundaries. The District makes these decisions after consultation with nonpublic school representatives and parents of parentally placed nonpublic school children and through meetings to develop, review and revise services plans. A child with a disability attending a nonpublic school does not have an individual right to receive some or all of the special education and related services that the child would receive if enrolled in a public school.
E. EQUITABLE SERVICES PROVIDED
(1) THE SERVICES PLAN
(a) The District, whether or not it is the child’s school district of residence, convenes the services plan meeting, conference call, or video conference for each eligible child who will receive special education and any related services for children who attend nonpublic schools located within the District’s geographical boundaries.
(b) The District determines required participants at the services meeting.
(c) The District ensures that a nonpublic school representative participates in the development or revision of the services plan.
(d) The District conducts a meeting, conference call, or video conference at least annually to review and revise, if appropriate, each child’s services plan.
(e) The District uses the ODE required Services Plan PR-09 form for individually developing a services plan for each participating child that describes the specific special education and related services that the District will provide to the child. Parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities may receive a different amount of services than children with disabilities enrolled in the District.
(2) PROVISION AND LOCATION OF SERVICES
(a) District personnel provide services to parentally placed nonpublic school children who attend nonpublic schools located within the District’s geographical boundaries or the District provides services through a contract with an individual, association, agency, organization or other entity.
(b) The District ensures that special education and related services, including materials and equipment, provided to parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities are secular, neutral and non-ideological.
(c) The District, in consultation with the nonpublic school, will determine where services will be provided. Services may be provided on or off the premises of the nonpublic school. The District may provide services at the nonpublic school with the permission of that school.
(3) TRANSPORTATION
(a) The District provides transportation to parentally placed nonpublic school children with disabilities who attend nonpublic schools located within the District’s geographical boundaries if the services being provided under IDEA are being delivered at a location other than the nonpublic school the child is attending. The District provides transportation:
(1) From the child’s nonpublic school or the child’s home to the site other than the nonpublic school; and
(2) From the service site to the nonpublic school or to the child’ home depending on the timing of the services;
(b) The District may include the cost of transportation to special education and related services that are being delivered at a location other than the nonpublic school in calculating whether it has met the requirements of spending a proportionate amount of federal funds that it receives to serve children with disabilities; and
(c) The District provides transportation to all children, with and without disabilities, who reside within the District and who are parentally placed in chartered nonpublic schools following the requirements in ORC 3327.01.
F. DUE PROCESS COMPLAINTS AND COMPLAINTS TO ODE
Due process rights do not apply to the provision of special education and related services the District has agreed to provide through a services plan. However, the parents of a child with a suspected disability, or a child identified as having a disability, who is enrolled in a nonpublic school, have the right to file a due process complaint against the District where the nonpublic school is located regarding that District’s failure to meet the child find requirements, including location, identification, evaluation and reevaluation of the child.
If the District receives a due process complaint requesting a due process hearing from the parents of parentally placed nonpublic school child, the District follows the procedures that apply to other due process complaints.
The parents of a child with a disability, who has been unilaterally placed in a nonpublic school, have the right to file a formal written complaint with ODE-OEC regarding a number of different issues, which are listed in 3301-51-08(L)(3) of the Operating Standards. |
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