The Board of Education recognizes the importance of setting appropriate procedures to determine whether or not students should be declassified from special education services. The School District will establish and implement a plan for the appropriate declassification of students with disabilities which must include:
- The regular consideration for declassifying students when appropriate;
- A reevaluation of the student prior to declassification; and
- The provision of educational and support services to the student upon declassification.
Eligibility Determinations
The Committee on Special Education (CSE) must evaluate a student with a disability prior to determining that a student is no longer a student with a disability as defined in accordance with Commissioner’s Regulations, and the District shall provide a copy of the evaluation report and the documentation of eligibility to the student’s parent/legal guardian. The results of any reevaluations must be addressed by the Committee on Special Education (CSE) in a meeting to review and, as appropriate, revise the student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Prior to the reevaluation, the School District shall obtain informed written parent/legal guardian consent unless otherwise authorized pursuant to law and/or regulation. Parent/legal guardian consent need not be obtained if the District can demonstrate that it has taken reasonable measures to obtain that consent, and the student’s parent/legal guardians fail to respond. The District must have a record of its attempts to obtain parent/legal guardian consent. Should the student’s parent/legal guardians refuse consent for the reevaluation, the District may continue to pursue the reevaluation by using mediation and/or due process procedures.
The District shall take action to ensure that the parent/legal guardian understands the proceedings at the meeting of the Committee on Special Education (CSE), including arranging for an interpreter for parent/legal guardians with deafness or whose native language is other than English.
Recommendation for Declassification
If the student has been receiving special education services, but the Committee on Special Education (CSE) determines that the student no longer meets eligibility for special education services, the recommendation shall:
- Identify the declassification support services, if any, to be provided to the student; and/or the student’s teachers; and
- Indicate the projected date of initiation of such services, the frequency of provision of such services, and the duration of these services, provided that such services shall not continue for more than one (1) year after the student has been declassified.
Declassification Support Services
When appropriate, the District shall provide declassification support services to students who have been declassified in accordance with the recommendation of the Committee on Special Education (CSE).
Declassification support services are services provided by persons appropriately certified pursuant to Part 80 of Commissioner’s Regulations, or holding a valid teaching license in the appropriate area of service.
Procedural Safeguards Notice
The District shall use the procedural safeguards notice prescribed by the Commissioner of Education. The District will further ensure that the procedural safeguards notice is provided in the native language of the parent/legal guardian or other mode of communication used by the parent/legal guardian, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so. If the native language or other mode of communication of the parent/legal guardian is not a written language, the District shall take steps to ensure that the notice is translated orally or by other means to the parent/legal guardian in his/her native language or other mode of communication; that the parent/legal guardian understands the content of the notice; and that there is written evidence that all due process procedures, pursuant to law and/or regulation, have been met.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 [Public Law 108-446 Section 614(a)J Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 20 United States Code (USC) Section 1400 et seq. 34 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 300 Education Law Sections 4401-4410-a 8 New York Code of Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) Sections 100.1(q), 100.2(u), 200.2(b)(8), 200.4(b)(4), 200.4(b)(5), 200.4(c)(3), 200.4(c)(4), 200.4(d)(1) and 200.5(a)
Adopted November 1, 2016
Revised and Adopted May 1, 2018