TExES Educational Diagnostician (253)

This chapter explains Child Find, the affirmative duty every district has to locate, identify and evaluate children who may have disabilities. Test questions describe a child who is easy to overlook (a homeless student, a child in a private school, a student who is passing classes, a toddler about to leave Early Childhood Intervention) and ask what the district or the diagnostician should do. The correct answer almost always involves acting rather than waiting.

Under IDEA, each district must have policies and procedures to ensure that all children with disabilities residing in its jurisdiction who need special education and related services are identified, located and evaluated. Child Find covers children from birth through age 21 and applies regardless of the severity of the disability. It is an active duty: a district may not wait for a parent to request an evaluation when the district has reason to suspect a disability and a need for services.

Child Find has three parts:

Federal regulations name groups that districts must not overlook. Expect at least one question on these.

Child Find Populations and What They Mean in Practice

When parents place their child in a private school, the public district where the private school is located is responsible for Child Find for that child, including evaluation. This may differ from the district where the family lives. Parentally placed private school students do not have an individual right to the same services they would receive in public school; instead, the district provides equitable services according to its consultation with private school representatives. The parents may also ask their home district to evaluate the child in order to receive an offer of FAPE if they enroll in public school.

Classroom Example: Ms. Delgado works in a district that contains a small private academy. A parent who lives in a neighboring district calls about her second grader at the academy, who cannot yet blend sounds into words. Because the academy is inside Ms. Delgado's district, her district is responsible for Child Find. Ms. Delgado explains the referral process, helps the parent put the request in writing and begins the evaluation planning steps described in Section 2.4.

Students experiencing homelessness are protected by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act as well as IDEA. Each district has a homeless liaison who helps with enrollment and records. When a student transfers in the middle of an evaluation, the new district must coordinate with the old one so that the evaluation is completed as quickly as possible, rather than starting over without reason.

For students in foster care, ask who has the legal right to act as parent. Under IDEA, a foster parent may act as parent in many situations; when no parent can be identified or located, or the child is a ward of the state without a parent available, the district must assign a surrogate parent. Consent and surrogate parent rules are covered in Section 7.3.

Common Trap: Postponing an evaluation for a highly mobile student "until the family settles." Mobility is a reason to move quickly and coordinate, not a reason to wait.

IDEA states that a child may be eligible even though the child is advancing from grade to grade. Passing grades can hide a disability when the student relies on heavy family tutoring, when grades reflect effort, or when the student is gifted and also has a learning disability. A Child Find question may describe a student with B grades and strong parent concern, test scores in the low range in one skill, and many hours of nightly help. The best answer is to look closely at the data and consider an evaluation, not to dismiss the concern because grades are acceptable.

Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) serves infants and toddlers from birth to age 3 and is run by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission under Part C of IDEA. Services are written in an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). Before a child turns 3, ECI and the district plan the transition so that, if the child is eligible, an IEP is in place by the third birthday. Districts serve eligible children ages 3 through 5 through Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE), formerly called the Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities (PPCD). Transition planning details are in Section 5.7.

Districts must also find preschool children who were never in ECI. Outreach to pediatricians, Head Start, child care centers and community health clinics is part of Child Find.

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and response to intervention (RtI) are valuable, but a district may not use them to delay or deny an evaluation when a disability is suspected. If a parent requests an evaluation, the district must respond within the Texas timeline (Section 2.4) whether or not the student has finished a tier of intervention. Intervention data can be gathered during the evaluation.

Exam Tip: If a question pits "finish another six weeks of Tier 2 first" against "respond to the parent's written request within the required timeline," choose the timeline. Intervention can continue at the same time.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act protects students with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, such as learning, reading, concentrating or breathing. Section 504 has its own Child Find obligation. Every student who is eligible under IDEA is also protected by Section 504, but many students protected by 504 do not need specially designed instruction and are served with a 504 plan instead.

Section 504 and IDEA Compared

The diagnostician supports Child Find by training staff to recognize warning signs, reviewing MTSS data with campus teams, responding promptly to referrals, coordinating with outside agencies, keeping accurate records of referral dates, and making sure parents understand their rights. Diagnosticians also notice patterns, such as a campus that rarely refers emergent bilingual students or one that refers mostly boys for behavior, and bring them to administrators.

Child Find is an active duty to locate, identify and evaluate children with suspected disabilities from birth through age 21.

The district where a private school is located conducts Child Find for students placed there by their parents.

A student who is passing from grade to grade may still have a disability and need services.

MTSS cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation; Section 504 provides a separate path for students who need accommodations but not specially designed instruction.