About
13 percent of children aged 3 through 21 enrolled in public schools received
special education services in school year 2015-16, and about 3 percent of
children from birth through age 2 received special education services.The
percentage of the population served under IDEA varies across states. For
example, in fall 2016, the percentages of the population aged 6 through 21
served in individual states ranged from 6.4 percent to 15.1 percent.
Concerns about
the difficulties identifying and evaluating children for special education have
been raised by the media, experts, and special education advocates. GAO (Government Accountability Office) was
asked to examine how states implement Child Find and how Education monitors it.
This report examines(1) factors that may account for differences in the percentage
of children receiving special education services across states, and (2) how Education
and selected states monitor and support Child Find efforts.
Differences
in states' eligibility criteria and the difficulty of identifying and evaluating
some children suspected of having disabilities may contribute to differences in
the percentages of children receiving special education services across states.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the primary federal
special education law, requires states to have policies and procedures in place
to ensure that all children with disabilities residing in the state who need
special education services are identified, located, and evaluated. These
policies and procedures—known as “Child Find”—are generally implemented by
local school districts (see fig.). IDEA gives states some latitude in setting
eligibility criteria and defining disability categories. In addition, states
may determine their own processes for identifying and evaluating children. As a
result, a child eligible for services in one state might be ineligible in
another.
According to advocates, special education subject matter specialists,
and state and local officials GAO interviewed, a number of challenges related
to correctly identifying and evaluating children suspected of having a
disability can affect eligibility decisions. For example, school district
officials in all four states GAO visited cited challenges in properly
identifying and evaluating English Learner students, as districts do not always
have staff who are conversant in a child's first language and skilled in
distinguishing language proficiency from disabilities.
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