Solon Schools Seeking to Identify Children with Disabilities

SOLON, OH - School districts across the state of Ohio are attempting to meet federal and state mandates requiring the provision of a free, appropriate public education for children with disabilities. Solon schools are participating in this effort to identify, locate and evaluate all children from birth through 21 years of age who may have disabilities.

The district is defining disability, in this instance, to mean conditions such as hearing impairments, visual impairments, speech or language impairments, specific learning disabilities, emotionally disturbed, multiple disabilities, mental retardation, other health impairment, physical impairments, autism, and traumatic brain injury.

The district is searching for these children because they sometimes operate outside the mainstream community, or their parents are unaware that there are programs explicitly designed for their children.

To provide appropriate education, the district is going to ask for more information about the child. They'll want to know the nature of the disability, what treatments have been attempted, and any other background information relevant to the child's education.

This information may be collected in several ways, including interviews, observations, screening and testing. This information may also be obtained from parents and the student or from other agencies that have information about the student. This information will be used to decide whether the child has a disability and needs special services.

All information collected will be held in strict confidence and released to others only with parent permission or as allowed by law. For example, the school district will send records on request to a school district or other educational agency in which a student intends to enroll. The parents may have a copy of those records upon request.

The school district will keep a record of all persons who review confidential records with the exception of authorized school employees or other educational agency personnel. The school will also maintain a list of those employees who may have access to records.

Parents and students have rights in this process. Parents have the right to:

• Review their child’s records;
• Refuse permission to release information (except as required by or permitted by law to be released); and
• Request that information they believe to be inaccurate, misleading or in violation of their child’s privacy or other rights be changed. The district has a process to resolve disagreements about information collected.

The school district operates a Child Information Management System that assures a practice method of identifying which children are currently receiving special education services and which children are not. Certain data regarding children are maintained within this system.

If you have or know of a child who may have a disability, contact the Solon Board of Education at (440) 248-1600.

Image via Solon Schools