Do you know about Oregon’s Disabled Child Exemption Credit?

At your child’s annual IEP review meeting this year, be sure to consider COVID recovery services.

Recovery services are extra special education services provided on top of the planned IEP services, to make up for learning losses due to the pandemic.

Teams are supposed to consider whether there’s a need for recovery services “at each annual review meeting held before the end of the 2022-23 school year” (per Oregon guidance).

The special education evaluation results tell us whether a student meets criteria for one of the special education eligibility categories.

The eligibility “gets you in the door” for special ed services. Once eligible, a child can receive services in any area of need. The eligibility category does not define or restrict which services are available on the IEP (Individualized Education Program, the special ed plan).

Washington state has 14 “doors” into special education.

Oregon has 12 doors.

Federal law specifies 13 doors.

See if you can spot the differences :)

Here’s my quick guide for auditing your own child’s IEP for compliance, best practice, and adequate documentation.

Basics on special education and what parents can expect from school. Feel free to grab the pdf

When a school district is not following the IEP, or has otherwise violated a child’s rights regarding special education, one of the only legal remedies available under federal law is compensatory education. If parents bring legal action against a district for violating the IEP for example, parents can’t win money under special ed law (IDEA). They can win attorney’s fees, tuition reimbursement (for example if they enrolled their child in private school because the public school wasn’t providing a free appropriate public education), and/or compensatory education.

Families are doing their best. They are navigating the medical system - pediatricians, developmental pediatricians, neuropsychologists, occupational therapists, speech/language therapists, play therapists, and on and on. After all of this, it’s been figured out. Your child is newly diagnosed. Now what? In addition to working the medical system, parents are also expected to work the school system. 

There are many conversations happening right now about the upcoming school year… including concerns about how special education students have fared during COVID.

Portland Public Schools recently announced a fully online option for K-12 students for the 2021-22 school year.