What is special education? Is it simply a room at school? Special help with a certain skill? A place where children with specific disabilities go to receive education? Read below to understand more about how special education is not a place, but rather individualized services for children with special needs.
It is often thought that special education is simply a place. It is a common misconception that special education is just a certain classroom with a specific teacher. While it’s true that your student might be in a room with a special education teacher in order to receive their services, it is the services that are the important part of special education.
Special education services are driven by a student’s individual needs. Needs are determined in a student’s eligibility determination or re-evaluation.
Services are the amount of time required to address these needs as written in the present levels, goals, and service section of the IEP. These specific services will be delivered either in the general education environment or in the regular education environment.
What this means is that the services are defined by the time and the educational environment a student requires to be successful at school.
Also, the student should receive supports such as accommodations and/or modifications in order to progress through school.
Depending upon your student’s needs and supports, their Least Restrictive Environment (LRE – read more about LRE HERE) will fall somewhere along the special education continuum.
Watch my YouTube Video on LRE by clicking HERE.
If you have questions concerning your child’s needs and special education services, give me a call and we can talk about it.
I offer a free initial consultation.