With whom should I consult to refer a student for screening for special services?
If you are concerned about an aspect of a student's behavior, such as physical, health, communication and learning, emotional well-being, or social behavior, a first step is to communicate with the student's parents to gather information. Depending on the area of concern, there are a variety of school personnel who can assist you with screening procedures and information gathering for documenting your concerns and interventions.
Factual Information
You are often the student's best advocate in initiating communication with appropriate personnel in order for the student to receive appropriate services. It is not uncommon for a teacher to ask initial questions regarding a student's behavior during parent conferences where mutual concerns and questions are sometimes shared. The teacher and parents can decide together what steps should be taken. Sometimes the student can share meaningful information to assist you in addressing your concerns.
Unfortunately, the process sometimes is not clearly articulated. Most schools have a variety of teams and personnel to assist classroom teachers in making decisions at the initial stages of referral for screenings and other special services. Student concerns regarding physical and health issues should be referred to the school nurse. Special education personnel such as teachers for students who are deaf/hard of hearing; teachers for students who are blind/low vision; teachers for students who have physical disabilities, occupational therapists, and physical therapists can all assist with screenings and referrals. Frequently, these personnel are not always present at the school and you may not know them. If this is the case, special education staff, administration, and administrative support staff can assist you in communicating with these specialists.
Concerns regarding learning and communication are frequently addressed by teams that meet at the school to problem-solve and support all staff and students in the school. (Refer to Essential Question 7, subquestion 5 kfor more information on site-based student support teams). Many initiatives exist to support teachers when they are concerned about student learning and communication, such as Response to Intervention (RTI) and gathering data to support referrals for special services. Consulting with special education teachers will assist in determining a process for referral. Speech and language clinicians will help with communication concerns.
When teachers are concerned about a student's general behavior and social/emotional skills, a variety of staff are available depending on local systems and resources. Social workers, behavior analysts, school psychologists, and counselors can assist in problem-solving and making referrals to other sources if needed.
Classroom Activities
No classroom activities are available at this time.
Collaboration
No collaborative activities are available at this time.
Resources and Links
Helpful Sites on Screenings
- Information on vision screening for children, including preverbal and challenged children is available on the web site Prevent Blindness America.
- Module on recommended practices for vision screening of children ages birth to five years from the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina.
- Information on hearing screening from newborns through adults is available from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Helpful Sites on Response to Intervention (RTI)
- Recognition & Response: Pathways to School Success for Young Children has resources related to response to intervention with a special focus on young children, such as Making Recognition and Response Work in Your Program and Engaging Parents to assist with collaborative problem-solving.
- The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities has many resources to help with concerns related to learning and response to intervention including Professional development and collaboration within the RTI process that contains video clips of RTI and School-based RTI Practices.
- The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements has four interactive training modules for RTI.
Helpful Sites on communication
- Information on typical speech and language development can be found at the website of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.