A Special Education Guideline for

Transition to Kindergarten and

Other Inter-building Moves

Number 16

This is a revision. Please replace previous Guideline with this number and file this one.

All students make one or more moves between buildings during their careers. Each school district has unique needs with respect to inter-building moves.

The process of transitioning children who have been receiving Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) services and will continue to need special education in kindergarten has sometimes created uncertainty, both for ECSE staff and for the elementary special educators and other school staff who will be working with the students. This guideline clarifies the issues that must be addressed and identifies the steps that need to occur in order to achieve a smooth transition. There are three components to review during the transition process from Early Childhood Special Education:

1. Eligibility Determination in ECSE

● Children from birth to kindergarten entry become eligible for ECSE services in one of two ways. Either they have met categorical criteria in one of the thirteen categories (Speech/Language, Deaf or Hearing, Autism) in place for K-12, or they have met the Developmental Delay (DD) category that exists only for ECSE. In order to qualify for DD, children must have a diagnosed physical or mental condition or disorder that has a high probability of resulting in developmental delay or score at least 1.5 standard deviations below the mean in each of two or more areas of development that is verified by an evaluation using technically adequate, norm referenced instruments. ECSE staff will use the DD category for determining initial eligibility whenever possible.

● The DD category was created in recognition of the importance of early intervention in preparing children for school. The result is that more children are eligible for services in the early childhood years. For the first time since the ECSE criteria have been in place, each school district, beginning with the 1998 - 1999 school year, was given the option of

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Created and approved Revised April 2013 Approved 7/31/2013 Special Education Guideline #16 using only categorical eligibility or continuing with the broader “Developmental Delay” option in determining who is eligible to receive ECSE services. All districts in SCRED have chosen to continue with the combination of K-12 categories plus “Developmental Delay.”

2. Transition Process

● In January of the school year, Early Childhood Special Education staff will generate information/ recommendations at the ECSE SST (Student Support Team) meetings for all current ECSE students who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten, but age-eligible to attend kindergarten in the fall of the upcoming school year. The information will describe each child’s strengths, needs, goals and objectives, current/anticipated interagency (county or private) involvement, and how the child’s eligibility/need for services was initially established. The child’s eligibility will be described in the most recent Evaluation Summary Report and also listed on the IEP.

● In late January or early February, the information collected will be shared with the Elementary Principal, Student Support Team, and the student’s parents. The list may be revised as new students qualify for services, and some students are dismissed from services for meeting their goals during the current school year.

● In addition, ECSE staff will make recommendations about the anticipated complexity of the transition planning process for each student. With direction from the principal, necessary transition activities and timelines will be identified, along with the course of action for each transitioning student. Principals should decide when to assign the K-12 IEP Manager and when the transition process should begin. This change in case management may occur as early as January, if additional assessment and/or significant planning is required, or as late as April, if transition needs are minimal.

● In summary, ECSE staff and K-12 special education staff will be responsible for due process requirements of the transition year. ECSE and K-12 staff together will write and agree upon the goals for the transition IEP. The ECSE case manager will monitor the IEP goals effective through the summer before entering Kindergarten as appropriate. The K- 12 special education staff will monitor IEP goals effective the first day of Kindergarten.. On the service page of the IEP, service times should be listed for both the ECSE staff and K-12 staff. There should not be a lapse of service time on the IEP during the transition process. Both ECSE and Primary/Elementary staff should be in attendance at transition meetings, in addition to the parents and other members of the team.

Sp.Ed.G.#16 Revised April 2013 Approved 7/31/2013

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Reminders ● Be sure to document regular Kindergarten somewhere. It does not need to be on the grid, but must be somewhere on the IEP in order to claim all time in Kindergarten as membership for general revenue calculation. ● Meeting arrangements must be made with, and Prior Written Notice provided to the family and other participants early enough before the meeting date to ensure that they will be able to attend. This includes ECSE staff and K-12 special education staff.

Sample Goals that flow well into Kindergarten: 1. By (date), when presented with a Letter Sound Fluency probe, (child’s name) will read 10 correct letter sounds in one minute, as measured monthly by special education staff. 2. By (date), when presented with a Letter Naming Fluency probe, (child’s name) will read 14 correct letter names in one minute, as measured monthly by special education staff. 3. By (date), when given wide-ruled paper, (child’s name) will improve his writing skills from currently being unable to print the four letters in his first name and the five letters in his last name independently, to independently printing from memory, with proper letter formation, all nine letters in his first and last name. (Child’s name) will earn 1 point each for writing the 9 letters and 1 point each for proper letter formation for a possible 18 points each opportunity. Data will be collected twice a month by special education staff.

3. Determination of Primary Disability Label in K-12 System

● How the child initially met criteria for receiving ECSE services does affect what occurs in the transition process. Students who initially met the non-categorical criteria (ie. DD) for ECSE must “meet initial eligibility criteria in a disability category upon transition to Kindergarten or before the child’s 7th birthday from the ECSE program.” (Memo from Robyn Widley, ECSE Specialist; April 10, 1992)

Sp.Ed.G.#16 Revised April 2013 Approved 7/31/2013

3 Special Education Guideline #16 ● If the student qualified for ECSE services under a K-12 eligibility category and continues to demonstrate a need for services, that student can enter Kindergarten without additional assessment. If other needs have been identified, then further assessment will need to occur.

● For students qualifying under the categories of Hearing Impaired (HI) and Visually Impaired (VI), the SCRED itinerant teacher may remain the IEP manager. Students labeled Physically Impaired (PI) should be assigned to case managers. The primary case manager will be a special education teacher from the school, and the secondary case manager is the OHD consultant from SCRED.

● If K-12 eligibility has not been established and there continues to be a need for special education/related services, students will enter kindergarten with “DD” as their primary disability label. An ECSE licensed teacher will continue as part of the student’s IEP team and will provide minimal consultation services (i.e., will participate in all IEP meetings), as long as the DD label is in place. The K-12 staff will have primary responsibility for both instruction and due process requirements.

● Students entering the K-12 system with the DD label must receive assessment, with an ECSE teacher on the team, during the school year that precedes the one in which the student is 7 as of September 1. The purpose of such assessment is to either determine categorical eligibility or to document that special education services are no longer needed. Planning for this assessment should begin in January of the school year in which the student turns seven and follow the process that is described above.

● Any students referred to special education in kindergarten will go through the Elementary SST for pre-referral interventions and/or assessment for categorical eligibility.

Sp.Ed.G.#16 Revised April 2013 Approved 7/31/2013

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