ANNUAL PUBLIC NOTICE OF Special Education Services & Programs

January 4, 2024 1:06 PM

Special Education Services & Programs, Services for Gifted Students, and Services for Protected Handicapped Students

State and federal special education regulations require each school district to provide notice to the community by publishing an annual public notice to parents, in newspapers or by other media, regarding the school district’s identification and screening activities, the location and time of the activities, and also any evaluation activity which takes place in the Eastern Lancaster County School District.

The district is required to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to children with disabilities who are determined, through the evaluation process, to need special education and related services under IDEA and 22 Pa. School Code §14. A school age child with a disability, who is determined to be in need of special education and related services, is identified as a child with a disability eligible for special education in need of specially designed instruction. The following are disability categories under IDEA: autism, deafness, deaf/blindness, emotional disturbance, traumatic brain injury, hearing impairment, specific learning disability, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, other health impairment, speech and language impairment, orthopedic impairment, and visual impairment including blindness.

Gifted Education

A child is considered mentally gifted when his or her cognitive ability or other factors, as determined

by a multidisciplinary team evaluation, indicate that he or she has outstanding intellectual ability, the

development of which requires special programs and services not ordinarily available in the general

education program. The school entity engages in screening activities during regular classroom

instruction and uses the data thus generated to determine whether a GMDT evaluation is warranted.

In addition, parents may request gifted screening or a GMDT evaluation at any time. Parents are part of the

GMDT and, if their child is determined to be mentally gifted, are part of the development and annual

review and revision of their child’s gifted individualized educational program (“GIEP”) as a member of the

GIEP team. The GIEP describes the present levels, annual goals and measurable objectives, and specially

designed instruction and related services through which the District will provide the enrichment or

acceleration, or both, that is needed to develop the outstanding mental ability of the child. Parents may

request in writing to the building principal that their child be evaluated under the criteria of 22 Pa. School

Code §16.22.

Early Intervention

In Pennsylvania, any child between three years of age and the school district’s age of beginners who

has a developmental delay or one or more of the physical or mental conditions listed above is identified

as an “eligible young child.” Children who are less than the age of beginners and at least three years of

age are considered to have a developmental delay when one of the following exists: (i) the child’s score,

on a developmental assessment device, on an assessment instrument which yields a score in

months, indicates that the child is delayed by 25% of the child’s chronological age in one or more

developmental areas, as documented by test performance of 1.5 standard deviations below the

mean on standardized tests. Developmental areas include cognitive, communicative, physical,

social/emotional and self-help.

Eligible young children are afforded the same

rights under IDEA and 22 Pa. School Code §14 as school age children, in order to determine if they are

eligible to receive special education services through the screening and evaluation process. Once a child is

determined to be eligible to receive special education, an individualized education program will be

developed for the child.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education is responsible for providing programs and services to

eligible young children under Act 212 of 1990, the Early Intervention System Act. Screening for

preschool children is available through the Lancaster- Lebanon Intermediate Unit. For more information,

please contact the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 Early Intervention Program at (717) 606-1601.

Screening

Screening activities are conducted on an on-going basis throughout the school year. Screening is

conducted in the student’s home school unless other arrangements are necessary. Parents can request

screening in writing for their children by contacting the school that their child attends. When screening

indicates that a student may be a child with a disability eligible for special education, the School District will seek parental consent to conduct an evaluation.

Screening activities cannot block the rights of a parent to request, at any time, including prior to or

during instructional support activities, an evaluation for the purpose of determining if the student is a

child with a disability and eligible for special education services.

Evaluation

“Evaluation” is the procedure used to determine whether a child has a disability and if the child’s

disability is of the nature and extent that the child would be eligible for special education and related

services. Evaluation procedures used are determined on an individual basis by a Multi-Disciplinary

Evaluation team, which includes the parents. Parents are asked to provide permission to conduct the

evaluation via a Permission to Evaluate-Consent form. The evaluation team takes into consideration cultural

issues as they determine the assessment tools that will be administered for the student. A single test or

procedure cannot be the sole factor in determining that a child is eligible for special education services.

The initial evaluation shall be completed, and a copy of the evaluation report shall be presented to the

parents no later than 60 days after the agency receives written parental consent. Evaluation for the

purpose of determining if a child is a child with a disability eligible for special education does not

include the procedures or basic tests that are administered to all children.

Parents who think their child is a child with a

disability may request, at any time, that the School District conduct an evaluation to determine if the

child is eligible to receive special education and related services. This request must be made in writing

to the building principal or the Director of Special Education and Gifted Services. If a parent makes an

oral request for an evaluation, the school district shall provide the parent with a Permission to Evaluate -

Evaluation Request Form to complete within 10 calendar days of the oral request.

Services for Protected Handicapped Students

In compliance with state and federal law, and 22 Pa. School Code Chapter 15, the District will provide

to each student with a protected handicap, without discrimination or cost to the student or family, those

related aids, services, or accommodations which are needed to provide an equal opportunity to participate

in and obtain the benefits of the school programs and participate in extracurricular activities to the

maximum extent appropriate to the student’s abilities. In order to qualify as a student with a protected

handicap, the child must be of school age with a physical or mental disability which substantially limits

one or more major life activities which prohibits participation in, or access to, an aspect of school

programs. These services and protections for “protected handicapped students” are different from

those applicable to all students eligible or thought to be eligible for special education services and must be

designed to meet individual educational needs of the handicapped individual as adequately as the needs of

non-handicapped persons are met.

The school district or parent may at any time initiate an evaluation of a student. Parents who wish

to have a child evaluated should contact their building principal for further information on the

evaluation procedures and provision of services to students with a protected handicap.

Confidentiality

The District protects the confidentiality of personally identifiable information regarding its

students in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 and other

applicable federal and state laws.

Parents have the right to inspect and review their child’s educational record. The District will comply

with a request to inspect and review educational records without unnecessary delay and before any

meeting regarding an IEP or any due process hearing, but no later than 30 days after the written request

has been made. Parents have the right to a response from the School District to reasonable requests for

explanations and interpretations of the records. Parents have the right to request copies of the

records. While the District cannot charge a fee to search for or to retrieve information, it may charge a

copying fee as long as it does not effectively prevent the parent from exercising their right to inspect and

review the records. Parents have the right to appoint a representative to inspect and review their child’s

records. If any educational record contains information on more than one child, parents have

the right only to inspect and review the information relating to their child.

Additional Information:

For further information on the rights of parents and children, provision of services, screening and evaluation, and procedural safeguards, please contact:

Eastern Lancaster County School District

Kara J. Martin

Director of Special Education and

Gifted Services

669 East Main Street

New Holland, PA 17557

(717) 354-1510