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Special Education
Procedure for Identifying Students with Disabilities
The Highlands School District uses the following procedures as required by law for locating, identifying, and evaluating the specialized needs of school-age students who may require special programs or services and identifying and evaluating specialized needs of school-age students who may require special programs or services.
Classroom teachers continually assess for signs of Physical, Sensory, Intellectual, or Emotional Disability. Some indications that your child may have a disability that meets the first part of the two-part criteria are:
• Consistent problems in getting along with others
• Difficulty communicating
• Lack of interest or ability in age-appropriate activities
• Resistance to change
• Difficulty seeing or hearing that interferes with the ability to communicate
• Health problems that affect educational performance, including attention problems
• Difficulty performing tasks that require reading, writing, or mathematics
• Chronic behavior or social problems that affect your child’s ability to learn
Screening
The Highlands School District has a screening process in place that identifies students who may need special education. This process may or may not lead to an initial evaluation for special education and includes:
• A review of the student’s records, including attendance and report cards • A review of the student’s vision and hearing
• Assessments at reasonable intervals to determine a student’s performance based on grade-appropriate standards in core academic subjects
• A systematic observation of the student’s behavior in the classroom or area in which the student is displaying difficulty
You may request an initial evaluation at any time, without going through these screening activities.
Please review the following resources:
Special Education Evaluation Process
Parent Guide to Special Education