Child Find - what are a school's obligations to evlauate a child with suspected disabiity

CHILD FIND
All children with disabilities, including children with disabilities who are homeless children or are wards of the State - and children with disabilities attending private schools - regardless of the severity of their disabilities, and who are in need of special education and related services, must be identified, located, and evaluated and a practical method is developed and implemented to determine which children with disabilities are currently receiving needed special education and related services. 

Each State is required to have policies and procedures to ensure that “all children with disabilities . . . including children with disabilities who are homeless children or are wards of the State, and children with disabilities attending private schools, regardless of the severity of their disability, and who are in need of special education and related services, are identified, located and evaluated.”   This obligation is known as the “child find” requirement.  IDEA requires Child Find to include “children who are suspected of being a child with a disability … even though they are advancing from grade to grade.” The IDEA “child find” mandate is an affirmative ongoing obligation for schools.

Arizona in turn requires each public education agency (school districts and charter schools) to identify and evaluate all students suspected of having a disability, and to have policies and procedures in place for such identification and evaluation. Thus, at least in Arizona, the threshold is very low, requiring nothing more than a suspicion.

A school’s Child Find obligation is triggered where there is knowledge of, or reason to suspect a student has a disability, and reason to suspect that a student may need special education services to address that disability.  The threshold for suspecting that a child has a disability is relatively low.  A school's appropriate inquiry is whether the child should be referred for an evaluation, not whether the child actually qualifies for services. 

Beyond the initial 45-day screening, under Child Find, schools are obligated not only to seek out disabled students, but to also evaluate or provide services when it has “knowledge” of a disabled child.  Knowledge includes poor grades, behavioral concerns, and/or “off-task” classroom behavior.  Parents expressing concern their child might have autism may trigger an evaluation.  Reported anxieties also trigger the obligation to evaluate.  

Thus, there are no magic words that trigger the duty to evaluate; there need be nothing more than suspicion, possibility, or concern.  The suspicion threshold is relatively low because the key is not whether the child actually qualifies for special education services, but whether the child should be referred for an evaluation. 

The school district responsible for child find:

·         Non-profit private schools district in which non-profit school is located. 

·         For-profit private schools, the district where the parent resides. 

Under Arizona statutes, homeschooled students are considered private school students. 

Charter schools are responsible for child identification activities for students enrolled in the charter school.  However, charter schools are not responsible for outreach under the child find regulations because charter schools have no specific geographical boundaries.

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