Understanding the Most Misunderstood Eligibility Category
Welcome! Our eligibility series continues in today’s show as we take a look at one of the most misunderstood eligibility categories: Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). Although the federal law (IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) trumps state laws, state laws can go further but not limit the IDEA provisions. In California, most state laws are similar to the IDEA, but this may not be the case in your state. It’s worth checking how your state laws compare with the IDEA provisions. Let’s take a closer look!
Show Highlights:
- How a Specific Learning Disability is defined under the IDEA (with the double requirement of having a diagnosis AND that it adversely affects educational process)
- Why a qualifying SLD has to be a specific learning deficit in a particular area of learning and not a broad diagnosis, like dyslexia or autism
- Why most failures occur in the analysis of the broad language of the IDEA by school districts
- How the term “significant discrepancy” can be interpreted in different ways
- How the California education code splits the qualifications into A, B, and C sections of the clarifications
- How the California code addresses the discrepancy model with specific language that demands more than one source to indicate a learning deficit
- Why it’s clear that school districts should be doing more when they analyze the categories of eligibility
- Why parents have the right to ask what is meant by the language used by the school district in analyzing their student–and demand that they support their conclusion with data
Links/Resources:
Contact us on social media or through our website for more information on the IEP Learning Center: www.inclusiveeducationproject.org
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