CHILD FIND
In accordance with federal law, the District assumes responsibility for the location, identification and evaluation of all children birth through age 21 who reside within the district and who require special education and related services. This includes students who are:
(1) Advancing from grade to grade;
(2) Enrolled by their parents in private elementary or private secondary schools, including religious schools, located in our District (regardless of the severity of their disability);
(3) Wards of the state and children who are highly mobile, such as migrant and homeless children; and
(4) Home-schooled.
FREE APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION (FAPE)
The District ensures that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is made available to all children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21, inclusive, in accordance with IDEA and the Operating Standards.
EVALUATION TEAM REPORT (ETR)
The District ensures that initial evaluations are conducted and that reevaluations are completed for children residing within the District. The District uses a referral process to determine whetheror not a child is a child with a disability. The District also provides interventions to assist a child
who is performing below grade-level standards.
INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAMS (IEP)
The District ensures that an IEP is developed and implemented for each child with a disability, ages 3 through 21, inclusive, who requires special education and related services and who residesin the district.
LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT (LRE)
Defiance City Schools ensures that, to the maximum extent appropriate,
children with disabilities, including children in public or nonpublic
institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who
are nondisabled. Placement of students with disabilities in special
classes, separate schooling or other removal from the regular
educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the
disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of
supplementary aids and services, modifications and/or accommodations
cannot be achieved satisfactorily. The Defiance City School District
ensures that a continuum of alternative placements is available to meet
the needs of children with disabilities for special education and
related services in the least restrictive environment (LRE). A child
with a disability is not removed from education in age-appropriate
regular classrooms solely because of needed modifications in the
general education curriculum.
DISABILITY CATEGORIES
Defiance City Schools District educates approximately 550 students on IEP
plans. These students are supported by thirty-plus Intervention Specialists. Categories of
identified disabilities served are as follows: Multiple Disabilities,
Hearing Impairments, Cognitive Disabilities, Visual Impairments, Speech
and Language Impairments, Specific Learning Disabilities, Autism,
Traumatic Brain Injury, Other Health Impaired, and Orthopedic
Impairments. |