The most significant change in the recently re-authorized IDEA relates to the new child find process. In regards to private school students with disabilities, residency in the district is no longer considered. Instead public school districts are required to identify, locate and evaluate private school students with disabilities who attend a private school located in the district. This includes children with disabilities who attend your Catholic school but reside in a Missouri public school district other than the one where your Catholic school is located. (Federal law: 20 U.S.C. 1412 (a) (10) (A) (i) (II))

The new child find process will require the cooperation of private school principals. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is requiring local public school districts to contact private school principals in their jurisdiction by September 30 to discuss the new child find process and other aspects of IDEA affecting private school children with disabilities.

Recommendation: If you have not heard from your local public school district by September 30, contact them and offer your help in identifying your students who have a disability covered by IDEA or who potentially may have a disability covered by the law.

Recommendation: In ascertaining the number of children with disabilities attending private schools within their jurisdiction, some public school districts may rely upon data derived from the 2004 Nonpublic School Survey. This data may not be completely accurate. Assist district officials by providing them with the most up-to-date count of your students with disabilities.

Recommendation: If the district refuses to consult with you or continually delays scheduling a consultation, contact your diocesan school office and email Pam Williams, DESE’s compliance director for IDEA at webreplyspeco@dese.mo.gov.

Child Find Checklist :

In conducting the child find your public school district must:

• Ensure the equitable participation of private school children with disabilities in the child find, including “an accurate count of such children.”

• Undertake “activities similar to those activities undertaken for the agency’s public school children.”

• The cost of carrying out the child find – including the cost of individual evaluations – may not be counted toward the district’s proportionate expenditure on behalf of private school children with disabilities.

• “Such child find process shall be completed in a time period comparable to that for other students attending public schools in the local educational agency.”

(Federal law: 20 U.S.C. 1412 (a) (10) (A) (ii)).

Evaluations – An Overlooked Component of Child Find:

The Child Find should be more than a cursory count of children already identified with disabilities covered by IDEA. It should also consider children who potentially may have a disability covered by IDEA. Your teachers can play an important role in identifying who may have a disability covered by IDEA.

Recommendation: You may wish to invite the public school district’s special education coordinator to conduct an in-service training for your teachers so they can become more proficient in identifying students who may have a disability covered by IDEA. You can also review brief descriptions of each of the disability categories covered by IDEA and distribute to your teachers. These disabilities categories are described in the “State Plan for Special Education 2005.” Visit: http://www.dese.state.mo.us/divspeced/stateplan/FY2005/2005version.html.

For the disability categories click “Regulation III – Identification and Evaluation.”