Archive: Around Town

I received a letter from the school inviting me to a CSE Meeting to discuss my child’s eligibility for special education services. What should I do to prepare? What will happen at this meeting?

Every school district has a Committee of Special Education (CSE) whose job is to determine a child’s disability, evaluate for and design an individualized plan, and evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of the plan on an annual basis. The school’s obligation goes as far as “finding” children with disabilities. That is, it is the school’s responsibility to identify and provide services for children with disabilities who have not been brought to their attention by parents or guardians. The CSE has a big job with a lot of responsibilities and mandates.

A CSE is one of the most misunderstood and unexplained entities. Typically, because schools aren’t in the business of informing parents of their child’s educational rights and entitlements, it is up to the parents to discover this on their own. It is much like knowing your rights and responsibilities of driving a car, paying taxes, or going to the doctor. It is up to the “consumer” to know the law.

There are two areas of rights and responsibilities that parents need to make themselves aware of when meeting with the CSE: procedural rights and substantive issues.  Congress intended that parents play an integral role in planning for their child’s special educational needs; federal and state laws ensure that parents’ rights to participate can be enforced.

At a minimum, the composition of a CSE team consists of certain members who are required by law to be a part of this team. First, and foremost, as a parent, you are a crucial and important member of this team. Always remember this because there will be times when you are either made to feel as though you do not have a say in advocating for your child or information may be withheld keeping you from functioning as a full member. 

States can have some variation in who is part of a CSE team but federal law mandates that at least the following people have to comprise a team: parents, a regular classroom teacher, a special education teacher, a representative of the school (with special education qualifications who is knowledgeable of the general education curriculum and local resources), a school psychologist (or someone qualified to interpret evaluation results), other individuals who have special knowledge of your child, and the child, if appropriate.  Parents have the right to bring others who have knowledge about the child to the CSE meetings.

Even though IDEA 2004 outlines and describes the rules, regulations, and rights for everyone—parent, child, school—the process is about negotiating with the CSE to get the services your child is entitled to. In other words, the law isn’t necessarily a given in practice. An analogy is laws meant to protect the public from unsafe toys or health risks but many victims have to go to court to negotiate a settlement with a company.

Every meeting that is convened either by the school or requested by the parent is required to follow a protocol. For parents, you have to be aware of the protocol and more importantly you have to be organized from the start.  Document! Document! Document! Write it down. Record. Keep a file. If you’re typically not an organized person or just thinking about having to document every telephone call, letter, conversation—putting everything in writing—then you need to devise a plan that will help you stay on top of all the details of a process. At some point during the process, you will need to rely on your documentation to substantiate your rights and entitlements in advocating for your child’s educational needs.

Your school district must give you prior written notice whenever it proposes to initiate or to change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of your child, or the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE); or refuses to initiate or to change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of your child, or the provision of FAPE to your child.

If it is determined that your child is eligible for an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan), then the school is required to review this plan at least once a year (called an annual review) to determine if goals have been met.  If parents disagree with the assessment, they have options to pursue beyond the annual review. Possible classifications for your child include: autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury; or visual impairment (including blindness).  To be eligible for an IEP, a child’s disability must fit into one of the categories and the disability must adversely affect educational performance.

In summary, the CSE convenes for the purpose of determining a child’s eligibility for special services and for reviewing a child’s progress. There is, at a minimum, a certain composition of people who sit on a CSE team. Parents are integral team members who often feel intimidated, anxious, and/or frustrated with the advocacy process. They can greatly reduce these concerns by knowing their rights and responsibilities and learning to distinguish between issues that are important to pursue or not in obtaining legal entitlements for their child. Sometimes parents find it helpful to work with someone to help them navigate what can be a complicated and lengthy process. Whether they forge ahead alone or with someone, they are always in the driver’s seat when it comes to advocating for their child. 

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