[Haley23]

Last year, there was a student who had a referral meeting scheduled for late March. It didn't happen because of the shut down. The student is now apparently being home schooled this year- not enrolled in our district e-learning program, actual independent home school.

Is my understanding of child find laws correct that we need to call this family and offer an evaluation, because we suspect this child has a disability, even though she is no longer enrolled in school? Based on previous meetings I'm 95% sure parents will say no anyway. I just want to cover my butt if I'm supposed to be offering it.

[WalkDontRun]

Are you responsible for initial evals? I know in my district it would be our psych that would follow up on this and offer a referral meeting.

[Haley23]

Are you responsible for initial evals?

Yes, I am.

[WalkDontRun]

Wow—that’s a lot on your plate! It’s amazing how different things are state to state and district to district.

[heatherk]

Yes, someone needs to follow up with the family and document that contact.

[Haley23]

Thanks. So I've obviously never been in this situation before. If the parents do say yes, do we just do the testing and evaluation report and meet with them about that? Determine eligibility even though she's not in school? Write an IEP that would be implemented if she came back to school?

I will ask my sped director if I need to, but it's always good if I can come in sounding like I know what I'm talking about .

[Lv2play]

if they are home schooled you could still offer to evaluate. if parents give permission and testing is completed showing that the child qualifies the eligibility report could show that child technically qualifies as (stated disability) but parents refuse services at this time. In our state the eligiblity remains in place. When this covid mess gets better and they choose to return to school a new eligibility report could be signed to indicate services are being provided.

[Haley23]

So I asked my sped director and she said the student is no longer our responsibility since she is being homeschooled . I was pretty sure I was right, but I'm not going to argue with her. She also said if she comes back at some point, she would need to start the MTSS process over which I think is stupid. But I'm not going to worry about it as I have no indication she's actually coming back. Parents apparently told the secretary that the reason they wanted to do homeschool instead of e-learning was that she made "more progress at home" last spring and they can do better than the school . Have at it, then.