Is your child having difficulty in school?

Has your child been identified as needing special education services?

If you believe your child may have a disability and may be in need of special education services, an evaluation process to assess your child’s needs is available at no cost through the school district in which you live or from Delaware County Intermediate Unit (DCIU).  

If you request these services, your child will receive an evaluation from a team of experts trained in assessing children. This team will determine if your child has a disability and if so, is in need of special education. Special education often involves adapting materials and modifying instruction to better meet a child’s specific learning needs. You are an important member of your child’s evaluation team. 

Before the school district or DCIU proceeds with an evaluation, it will notify you in writing of specific types of tests and procedures it plans to use, and of your rights throughout this process. The evaluation cannot be scheduled until you sign the written notice, indicating that you consent to the proposed testing and assessments, and return the notice to the school district or DCIU.  

If after an evaluation, your child is found to have a disability and to need special education, the public school will develop, with your participation, an Individual Education Program (IEP). An IEP is a written document that specifically describes the services your child needs. The services in the IEP will be offered to your child in a public school-sponsored placement. If you wish to accept the offer, you will have to enroll your child in the public school. If you choose not to accept the program specified in the IEP, your child’s private school still may be eligible for certain services.

If your child has already been evaluated and offered services in an IEP, and you chose not to accept the services, communicate this to your child’s principal. Again, your child’s private school may still be eligible for certain services.  

Certain services are available to students identified as eligible for special education who are unilaterally placed by their parents in private schools through a federal requirement called Equitable Participation (EP). In Pennsylvania, the IU is the agency responsible for the implementation of the federal requirement for EP. EP requires that each IU, following a federal funding calculation, must expend a designated amount of federal IDEA funds on services and/or resources for students identified as eligible for special education services whose parents have unilaterally chosen to place their child in a private school. The IU is not required to offer the same services that would be offered as a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the public school. The IU is mandated to offer those services determined by their annual consultation with their private school agencies. In circumstances where the allocation of funds for EP under the federal calculation is exhausted, the IU would cease to provide any EP services until the next fiscal year. The IU must participate annually in the notification, consultation, and collaboration with their private school agencies in their local geographic area as required under IDEA 2004 regulations 300.130-300.144.

If you are interested in finding out more about the special education process, please speak with your child’s principal. For additional information, feel free to contact the school district in which you live, or the intermediate unit in which your child’s school is located, as listed below.