MY CHILD IS LEARNING ENGLISH AND THE TEACHERS SAY HE MAY HAVE A DISABILITY
BY CLAUDIA RINALDI, PH.D
My child is a 2th grader. Although he was born here in the U.S., his first language was Spanish. We speak both Spanish and English at home. He loves school, but I see him struggling when he reads in both English and Spanish. He is in a dual language bilingual program where half the day he learns in Spanish and half the day in English.
I am very proud that he is reading both in Spanish and English, so that he can be bilingual and bi-literate. He loves to learn, but the teachers say he may have a disability. What does this mean?
Schools in the U.S. are required to provide a free education to all students. For bilingual students learning English, this means that schools are required to provide bilingual education or English as a second language support so that students can understand the curriculum as they learn English. In addition, some 12% of students in the U.S. also have a disability. A disability refers to a learning struggle that interferes with academic learning in a way that requires specially designed instruction to meet the grade-level expectations. For children to be identified and served for a disability, parents must consent. Once the school has your written consent, a team of educators from the school begin a special education evaluation, to determine if your child meets the criteria for a disability. According to the Individuals Disability Education Act of 2004, there are 13 areas of disabilities that can affect academic learning in students, ages 3-21 served in U.S. public schools.
In this article we will go over the role of parents in the special education referral and evaluation process. We will review the educational rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal and state education law that ensures that students received a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE). We will also provide some guidance and questions to bring to the school.
Parents worry that their child may struggle to learn in school. In fact, learning to read is the first place where parents and teachers
may notice a problem. The "learning to read" process begins early in life when children begin to love books at home, and more formally once children start Kindergarten. In English, children take most of the early elementary years in the process of "learning to read" and starting in about 4th grade, once the process is expected to be completed, the curriculum changes to what we call "reading to learn". When children struggle with the initial K-3rd grade learning to read process, the teachers try differentiation, scaffolding supports, small group instruction and many other strategies to help students read at grade-level, as part of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) (see reader.mediawiremobile.com/epmagazine/issues/207743/view- er?page=45). An MTSS framework is a way schools can provide a preventive tiered support of instruction and intervention for any student, as part of the general education process. When students continue to struggle despite the supports, the teachers typically refer the child who is struggling to a team within the school that brainstorms additional strategies and tries them out for another 4-6 weeks. Teachers also typically meet with the parents to learn more about the home to school connection and to share concerns they may have. It is important for parents to meet with teachers to better understand the challenges your child may have in school, and how you can help at home. This is sometimes hard for families from different cultures, where we see teachers as the experts and our role as ensuring that our children behave in school. Once the child support team, also known as the teacher support team, reconvenes, the team reviews student work and his/her progress. At this time the team may decide that the student's struggles may require additional support, and they formally refer the child for a special education evaluation process.