Sped Ed Annual Public Notice/Child Find

CAP also provides a Free Appropriate Public Education (“FAPE”) to children who need specially designed instruction and have one or more of the following physical or mental disabilities:

• Autism/ Pervasive Developmental Disorder

• Emotional Disturbance

• Deafness

• Hearing impairment

• Specific learning disability

• Intellectual disability

• Multiple disabilities

• Other health impairment

• Speech or language impairment

• Visual impairment, including blindness

• Deaf-Blindness

• Orthopedic impairment

• Traumatic Brain Injury  

CAP provides appropriate special education programs and related services that are:

• provided at no cost to parents;

• provided under the authority of a school entity, directly by referral or by contract;

• individualized to meet the educational needs of the child;

• reasonably calculated to yield meaningful benefit and progress and designed to conform to an Individual Education Program.

Special education is designed to meet the needs of each eligible student, including specifically designed instruction conducted in the classroom, home, community settings, hospitals, institutions, and other settings.

Related services available to students include transportation, speech and language therapy, audiological services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, social work services, school health services, medical services for diagnosis or evaluation, parent counseling and education, rehabilitation counseling services, and assistive technology services.

Prior Written Notice: Community Academy must notify you in writing whenever it proposes to initiate or to change the identification, evaluation, educational program or placement of a child or whenever it refuses to initiate or make a change in the identification, evaluation, educational program, or placement requested by a parent. Such notice must be accompanied by a written description of the reasons for the proposal or refusal, the options considered, if any, and the reason why such options were rejected.       

Consent: Community Academy cannot proceed with an evaluation or with the initial provision of special education and related services without the written consent of the parent. Community Academy may not seek a hearing to override the refusal of parental consent to an initial placement in special education.      

Protection in Evaluation Procedure: Evaluations to determine eligibility and current need for special education and related services must be administered in a manner that is free of racial, cultural, or linguistic bias. Evaluations cannot consist of a single test or assessment and testing must be a valid measure of the psychological, social, emotional, or other learning characteristic or behavior that the school is using it to measure. Testing and assessment must be administered in accordance with professional standards and the criteria established by the publisher. It must be administered in the native language of the child.    

Confidentiality: The records and documents that are part of the evaluation and screening process are confidential and protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). School districts, intermediate units, and charter schools maintain records concerning all children enrolled in the school, including students with disabilities. All records are maintained in the strictest confidentiality. Your consent, or consent of an eligible child who has reached the age of majority under State law, must be obtained before personally identifiable information is released, except as permitted under FERPA. The age of the majority in Pennsylvania is 21. Each participating agency must protect the confidentiality of personally identifiable information at collection, storage, disclosure, and destruction stages. One official at each participating agency must assume responsibility for ensuring the confidentiality of any personally identifiable information. Each participating agency must maintain, for public inspection, a current listing of the names and positions of those employees who have access to personally identifiable information. For additional information related to student records, the parent can refer to FERPA.    

This notice is only a summary of the Special Education services, evaluation and screening activities, and rights and protections pertaining to children with disabilities, children thought to be disabled, and their parents. For more information or to request evaluation or screening of a Community Academy student, contact Cassandra McLaughlin at [email protected] or 215.533.6700 ext. 1214.