Advocacy Resources

Special education is a service, not a place. Special education is instruction that is specially designed to meet the unique needs of children who have disabilities. Special education and related services are provided in public schools at no cost to the parents and can include special instruction in the classroom, at home, in hospitals or institutions, or in other settings (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)).

Each of these children receives instruction that is specially designed:

• to meet his or her unique needs (that result from having a disability); and
• to help the child learn the information and skills that other children are learning in the general education curriculum.

To qualify for special education services, the student must meet two requirements, which is the two-pronged approach to eligibility. First, the student must have a disability and show a need for services. Second, it must be shown that the child needs services in order to succeed in the general education classroom. In other words, just because a student has dyslexia (or any other disability) does not mean they automatically qualify for services.

(i) General. Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.

(ii) Disorders not included. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage (Sec. 300.8 (c) (10)).

See the Defining Dyslexia post for our definition.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is a federal law that requires a school district, which receives federal funds, to provide Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to each child with a disability in the district. Section 504 states that: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States…shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) states that Section 504 requires districts to provide to students with disabilities appropriate educational services designed to meet the individual needs of such students to the same extent as the needs of students without disabilities are met. An appropriate education for a student with a disability under the Section 504 regulations could consist of education in regular classrooms, education in regular classes with supplementary services, and/or special education and related services.

You might want a 504 instead of an IEP if your student is reading and spelling at grade level but still requires accommodations to maintain their progress or you have decided to pay for private services rather than use special education instruction offered by the school.

The first step is to send a written school to evaluate your child for eligibility. You might already have a diagnosis from Marker, but the school may still choose to conduct their own assessment. Schools do not diagnose any disability, instead they only determine if the student is eligible for services. The school must respond to your request within a set period time (Check your state regulations). This decision will happen in writing. If they deny your request, the written denial is called Prior Written Notice (PWN).

The IEP team will create an IEP document together. The IEP team includes the following members:

• The parents/guardians
• At least one regular education teacher
• At least one special education teacher
• A representative of the school system who (a) is qualified to provide or supervise the provision of special education, (b) knows about the general education curriculum; and (c) knows about the resources the school system has available.
• An individual who can interpret the evaluation results and talk about what instruction may be necessary for your child. This is usually the school psychologist, speech and language pathologist, occupational therapist, etc.
• Your child, when appropriate
• Other individuals (invited by you or the school) who have knowledge or special expertise about your child. For example, you may wish to invite a relative who is close to your child or a child, an advocate or your own expert.

An IEP is an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and it is a legal document. It includes the student’s present levels, goals and services (Section 300.320 Definition of Individualized Education Program). There is not a standard IEP format and they vary widely from district  to district, but there is a similar sequence for IEP documents and they usually go something like this:

• Background information
• Eligibility category(s)
• Parent concerns
• Present levels
• Goals
• Accommodations
• Services
• Special factors
• Notes (whether this is included varies widely).

You can hire an advocate to try to help you navigate the process or you can consult a special education attorney. It is also helpful to connect with local organizations who can help you through the process in your area. Those organizations are: Decoding Dyslexia, International Dyslexia Association (look for a local branch) and The Reading League.