Transition to Early Childhood Programs

The Beach Center Early Childhood blog lists a blog by a mother of a child who is deaf and has a cochlear implant. Cochlear implants are a unique topic by themselves and Ms. Toes has lots of information about them and her daughter. Discussions have begun with the public school about services when the child turns 3 this summer. Because of the cochlear implant and the criteria that schools use, she may not qualify for special education services.

This situation happens frequently to parents whose child received services before they turned 3. I will give some insight into how this happens and how parents might be able to advocate for their child. The first task is to learn the federal and state criteria for eligibility for special education services that your public school uses. Programs for children under 3 base eligibility on the child experiencing developmental delay or having a condition that is highly likely to result in developmental delay and because of this the child needs early intervention. For children 3 years and older the federal law establishes 13 categories of disability. The law allows states to extend special education to children age 3-9 who experience developmental delay, but may not require schools to use this category. However, few, if any states do this for even part of the 3-9 age group. (This is partially due to the fact that the Federal Department of Education believes that states are placing too many students in special education programs.)

So it is important to know if your state and school allows services for any students with developmental delay between ages 3-9. If the state does, study the state regulations and the definitions closely. Texas for example, has a category called noncategorical early childhood for ages 3-5. However, the criterion says the child must be evaluated as having mental retardation, emotional disturbance, a specific learning disability or autism. Why use this category, if the child meets one of these categories? This is confusing to Texas parents.

The federal disability categories are: autism; deaf-blindness; deafness (“a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing with or without amplification that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.”); emotional disturbance; hearing impairment (“impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness”); mental retardation; multiple disabilities; orthopedic impairment (“includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures); other health impairment (“having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, ... that is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia and Tourette syndrome”); specific learning disability; speech or language impairment; traumatic brain injury (“an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force”, it does not include congenital or degenerative brain injuries or those induced by birth trauma); and visual impairment including blindness.

Next you should study the categories of disabilities and the definitions the state uses (states may add categories). The Texas definition of autism includes children with pervasive developmental disorders, although this is not mentioned in the federal regulations. Also in Texas, deafness and hearing impairment are combined into auditory impairment. The required evaluation data must include a description of the implications of the hearing loss for the student’s hearing in a variety of circumstances with or without recommended amplification. The rules may also indicate that special reports, i.e., otological, medical or specialists, i.e., teacher of the deaf, optometrist are need for certain categories.

The federal definition of a child with a disability lays out what some people refer to as a two part process. An evaluation report, following federal and state regulations, determines if the student has one or more of the disability conditions. Then it is determined if because of the disability, “by reason thereof “, the child needs special education and related services to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum. For preschool children, the regulations say that the IEP Team looks, as appropriate, at “how the disability affects the child’s participation in appropriate activities”.

It is important to understand this last paragraph to deal with situations where the school is saying that the child does not have a disability or does not need special education and related services, often referred to as educational need. In the next blog, I will discuss ideas and strategies for dealing with this situation, if it occurs.