What do I do if I suspect my child has a disability?
Contact your child's teacher or school administrator. There are a number of school-based programs designed to assist children that are struggling in school. Educators are trained to work with children with a wide variety of learning needs. There are also school-based teams of professionals that meet to help design, implement, and monitor specific interventions to assist struggling students. Most children respond well to these general education interventions. Parents are important members of our teams, and we want you to be a part of your child's learning and progress. You can request a team meeting to discuss your child's needs.
If your child is still not making good progress, the team may decide to seek evaluations to help determine the presence of a disability. These evaluations can only be conducted with the informed consent of the parents and are provided at no cost to the family. Once evaluations have been completed, the school team discusses the results with you, the parent, and determines whether or not your child meets the eligibility criteria for one of the federally-defined educational disabilities.
If s/he does, then goals are developed and services are recommended to meet your child's needs in order to help address the needs identified through the evaluations.