IN Fox Chapel Area Winter 2013 | Page 28

FOX CH APE L AR EA SC H OO L NE WS Section 504 – Chapter 15 If you believe that your school-age child may be in need of special education services and related programs, or your child (ages three to school age) may be in need of early intervention, screening and evaluation processes designed to assess the need of the child and his/her eligibility are available to you at no cost, upon written request. You may request screening and evaluation at anytime, whether or not your child is enrolled in the district’s public school program. Requests for school-age evaluations and screenings are to made be in writing to: Special Education Department, Fox Chapel Area School District, 611 Field Club Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238. Requests for children ages three to school age should be made in writing to: Project DART, Allegheny Intermediate Unit, 475 East Waterfront Drive, Homestead, PA 15120. ox Chapel Area academic functioning, observation of the student displaying difficulty in behavior, and determining the student’s response to attempted remediation. Input from parents is also an information source of identification. If your child is identified by the district as possibly in need of such services, you will be notified of applicable procedures. Individualized services and programs are available for children who are determined to need specially designed instruction due to the following conditions: autism/pervasive development disorder, blindness or visual impairment, deafness or hearing impairment, deaf blindness, orthopedic impairment, developmental delay, multiple disabilities, traumatic brain injury, other health impairment, emotional disturbance, specific learning disability, and/or speech or language impairment. We offer a continuum of services for students with disabilities that begins with full inclusion in the child’s home school and class to separate programs within other schools in which peers without disabilities would not participate. In compliance with state law, services designed to meet the unique needs of gifted students are provided. Students are identified individually based on state law and district policy, and those students who possess superior intelligence scores or meet multiple criteria indicating gifted ability may receive services. If you believe that your school-age child may be eligible for gifted services, screening and evaluation processes designed to assess his/her eligibility are available to you at no cost, upon written request. You may request screening and evaluation at any time, whether or not your child is enrolled in the district’s public school program. Requests for evaluation and screening are to be made in writing to: Pupil Services Department, Fox Chapel Area School District, 611 Field Club Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238. Potential Signs of Developmental Delays and Other Risk Factors that Could Indicate a Need for Special Education Services Confidentiality Some indications that your child may be a child with a disability who is in need of special education are: • Exhibition of an emotional disturbance over a long period of time which affects your child’s ability to learn; • Consistent problems in getting along with others; • Difficulty communicating; • Lack of interest or ability in age-appropriate activities; • Resistance to change; • Difficulty seeing or hearing that interferes with the ability to communicate; • Health problems that affect educational performance including attention problems; • Difficulty performing tasks that require reading, writing, or mathematics; and • When, a child who is at least three years of age but before he or she has started school as a beginner, scores on a developmental assessment device, on an assessment instrument which yields a score in months, which score indicates that the child is delayed by 25 percent of the child’s chronological age in one or more developmental areas, or if the child is delayed in one or more of the developmental areas, as documented by tests performance of 1.5 standard deviations below the mean on standardized tests. 26 Fox Chapel Area In compliance with state and federal law, the school district will provide to each protected handicapped student, without discrimination or cost to the student or family, those related aids, services, or accommodations which are needed to provide equal opportunity to participate in and obtain the benefits of the school program and extracurricular activities without discrimination. A protected handicapped student must be school age with a physical or mental disability which substantially limits or prohibits participation in or access to an aspect of the school program. You may request screening and evaluation of Chapter 15 services at any time, whether or not your child is enrolled in the district’s public school program. Requests for evaluation and screening are to be made in writing to: Pupil Services Department, Fox Chapel Area School District, 611 Field Club Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238. Gifted Education – Chapter 16 All information gathered about your child is subject to the confidentiality provisions contained in federal and state law. The district has policies and procedures in effect governing the collection, maintenance, destruction, and disclosure to third parties of this information. For information about this, as well as the rights of confidentiality and access to educational records, you may con X