Students may be referred to the Student Services Team by parents, teachers, and other school personnel.
Typically, a referral stems from concerns regarding a student’s academic and/or social-emotional struggles in school. The initial step in the referral process consists of gathering sufficient information to help define the area of relative weakness, assistance already provided, and whether or not progress has been made. We use a multi-tiered approach to support the identification and support of students with learning and social-emotional needs called Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).
The MTSS process begins with high-quality instruction and the universal screening of all children in the general education classroom. Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning.
A multi-tiered system consists of three (3) levels, commonly referred to as Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III.
Tiers may be differentiated on several dimensions, i.e., the intensity of the instruction, the frequency of delivery, and the level of progress monitoring.
Progress monitoring is a process used to assess students’ academic performance, to quantify students’ rates of improvement (or responsiveness to instruction), and to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction.
To implement progress monitoring, the student’s current levels of performance are determined and goals are established for learning that will take place over time.
The student’s academic performance is then measured on a regular basis (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly).
Progress toward meeting the student’s goal is measured by comparing expected and actual rates of learning. These measurements help inform and adjust the instruction delivered to the student.
Data analysis and decision-making occur at all levels of MTSS implementation and instruction. Teams use screening and progress monitoring data to make decisions about instruction, movement within the multi-tiered system, and disability identification (in accordance with Illinois State Law).
These services may be provided by a variety of personnel, including general education teachers, special educators, and specialists.
Progress is closely monitored to assess both the learning rate and the level of performance of individual students.
Educational decisions about the intensity and duration of interventions are based on the individual student’s response to instruction.
MTSS is designed to inform decisions in both general education and special education, creating a well-integrated system of instruction and intervention guided by child outcome data.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) lists different disability categories under which children may be eligible for services.
For a child to be eligible for services, the disability must affect the child's educational performance.
Students may qualify for services under one or more categories...
"Child With A Disability" means a child evaluated in accordance with Sections 300.304 through 300.311 of the IL School Code. IDEA identifies fourteen (14) disabilities as the basis for students' eligibility for special education and related services.
These disabilities are autism, cognitive disability, deaf-blindness, deafness, developmental delay, emotional disability, hearing impairment, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment.
Autism
A developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. Autism does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disability. A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria in this definition are satisfied.
Cognitive Disability
The student has a significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Deaf-Blindness
Concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with 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 the child's educational performance.
Developmental Delay
For children from birth to age three and children from ages three through nine, the term developmental delay, as defined by each state, means a delay in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication, social or emotional development, or adaptive development.
Emotional Disability
A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child's educational performance: an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; inappropriate types of behaviors or feelings under normal circumstances; a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression and a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. Emotional disability includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disability as defined in this section.
Hearing Impairment
An 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.
Multiple Disabilities
Combination of various impairments which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.
Orthopedic Impairment
A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.), impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.) and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).
Other Health Impairment
A student having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that 1) 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; and 2) that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Specific Learning Disability
A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.
Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of intellectual disabilities; of emotional disabilities; of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
In accordance with 23 Illinois Administrative Code 226.130, Illinois districts are required to use a process that determines how a child responds to scientific, research-based interventions as part of the evaluation procedures to determine special education eligibility under the category of specific learning disability (SLD).
Speech or Language Impairment
A communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, expressive or receptive language impairment, or voice impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Traumatic Brain Injury
An acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
Visual Impairment
An impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
A 504 plan removes barriers to learning.
It provides accommodations that don’t change what students learn, just how they learn it.
It's a common school support for students with ADHD and other kinds of disabilities.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with Disability Act
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination against persons with a disability in any program receiving Federal financial assistance. Students with disabilities shall be provided accommodations in order to ensure equal participation in the school setting.
The Act defines a person with a disability as anyone who has a mental or physical impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activity: self-care, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working.
Academic accommodations may include individualized instruction, extra time, reduced workload or organizational assistance.
Physical accommodations may include assistive devices or special equipment, administering medication or preferential seating, but would not include changes in instructional programs.
When a student with disabilities requires an accommodation, the parents and school representatives will meet to determine the disability, and develop a written plan outlining accommodations that will be provided in the school setting.