The Foreign Service Journal, June 2006

86 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 6 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT nity at post, or with other embassies,” suggests Kelly Midura, who found that the school attended by the over- whelming majority of official Ameri- cans at post was unwilling to accom- modate her academically gifted son. She moved him to a British school with excellent results. “Just because most Americans send their kids to a certain school doesn’t mean there aren’t other options.” Sometimes all the planning and research pay off, or serendipity plays a role, and an overseas assignment becomes a dream-come-true for the special needs family. FS spouse Nicole Zupan found this to be the case for her autistic child while they were in Dubai: “Our Australian tutors did wonders for our son. He also had a wonderful nursery, where his teacher took time out of her weekend to attend one of Josef’s play therapy sessions with a psychologist so she could learn what she could do for Josef at school.” However, Zupan warns, the special needs education allowance does not always cover all of their expenses. Yet FS families, especially special needs families, know to expect the unexpected. Sometimes a family will arrive at post only to find that the resources supposedly available to them are not what they expected, or even non-existent. Mari O’Connor has had at least one school refuse to take her child after the initial response was positive. “I have come to realize that, even if it doesn’t seem like a perfect fit, or if you get to post and discover that things sounded much better by e-mail than in person, you can do a lot with the special edu- cation allowance to make it better.” Conversely, a family may discover that, in fact, there are resources at post that the State Department is not aware of. Kristin Cooney, currently posted in Accra, whose daughter has developmental delays involving speech, found her own speech thera- pist after being told that there wasn’t one available. “Like many of us, I have had to put together my own resources, and work with other par- ents of special needs kids, to come up with the plans our kids need,” FS families, especially special needs families, know to expect the unexpected. http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/under standing_iep_process.html. While on the Web site, take the opportunity to subscribe free of charge to LD Online’s informative newsletter). To qualify for special education services in the U.S., students must go through an identifi- cation process that determines eligibility. To get the process started, a parent or teacher will recommend the child for special education. The Child Study Committee (comprised of an administrator, special ed teacher, school psy- chologist or social worker, and teacher) will meet within two weeks to review the referral and decide on the next steps. These steps may include testing, observation and classroom intervention. The process of identification can take as many as 65 working days and still be in compliance with the law. Once the child is found eligible for services, the IEP is written and special education services are guaranteed. It is important to note that this process plays out differently when people come back from overseas with psycho-educational evaluations in hand. The school may, or may not, accept outside testing. Most school divisions do their own assessments, using multiple criteria. If outside testing is accepted at all, it may be considered as but one factor in the assessment process. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a hard and fast rule on whether or not a school will accept outside testing; it depends entirely on the policy of the school. In many cases, the family will need to start the process once they arrive back in the U.S. Qualifying for special education depends on very strict criteria within the local school division and national standards, and the dis- ability must be significant enough to meet the criteria. Other Options Your child may go through the entire process and not qualify for special education. Should this be the case, there are two options: • One option is the 504 plan (504 is a section of the Americans with Disabilities Act, civil rights legislation that preceded IDEA), which outlines accommodations based on identified needs. The accommodations may include things teachers might do in the class- room, such as preferential seating, extended time for tests and homework, sharing of teacher notes, etc. Continued on page 89 Returning to the U.S. Continued from page 82 An “IEP” written by an overseas school does not have the legal status of an IEP written by an American public school. Continued from page 83