“Child Find” and Special Education Law in the U.S.

The Simple Answer in bullet points, “Child Find” is:

• a paragraph within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004)
• that requires the state to find all children with disabilities living in that state
• who are in need of special education and related services,
• from birth to 22nd birthday,
• whether or not they are homeless, live in a home, are wards of the state, attend private schools, attend public schools, are homeschooled,
  no matter how “severe” their disabilities are.

Source: http://idea.ed.gov/

Where you will find “Child Find”:

Title 20 of the United States Code (U.S.C.) Section 1412 (a) (1) (3)

“Child find (A) In general All children with disabilities residing in the State, including children with disabilities attending private schools, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, and who are in need of special education and related services, are identified, located, and evaluated and a practical method is developed and implemented to determine which children with disabilities are currently receiving needed special education and related services.”

Source: http://us-code.vlex.com/vid/sec-state-eligibility-19194992

Why does Child Find matter?

• Children with disabilities receive free appropriate public education (in the “old” days children with disabilities were not educated in the school system).
• Early/interventional services prepare a child for education, employment, and independent living.
• The child does not need to have a “label” (a specific disability label/diagnosis) before receiving special education services from the school.
• A 60 calendar day timeline is installed from time of parental consent for assessing a child to completion of the evaluation process to ensure that delays in these procedures do not make child fall further behind.
• Schools can screw up in at least 2 ways: Failure to Evaluate and Failure to Act (both have landed schools in lawsuits and financial settlements to affected students)

Source: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/child.find.mandate.htm