Legal Rights of Children with Epilepsy in School & Child Care

What Laws Apply to Children with Epilepsy?
2.7Q:
Does the IDEA impose requirements for the evaluation process?
A: Yes. The school district or public agency 8 must use a variety of assessment tools
and strategies, including information provided by the parent, to gather
functional, developmental and academic information about the student. The
district may not use any one assessment or single measure as the only criterion
for determining whether a student has a disability or determining an appropriate
educational program for him or her. The district must use technically sound
assessment instruments that may assess the relative contributions of cognitive
and behavioral factors in addition to physical or developmental factors. Also, the
district must ensure that the assessment materials are not selected or
administered in a racially or culturally discriminatory manner, are provided and
administered in the student’s native language or other mode of communication,
and that they are in a form most likely to yield accurate information about what
the child can do academically, functionally and developmentally, unless it is
clearly not feasible to provide or administer the assessment in such a manner.
The assessments must be used for the purposes for which they are valid and
reliable, must be administered by trained and qualified personnel, and must be
administered in accord with instructions provided by the producer of the
assessment.
Assessments must include those tailored to assess specific areas of educational
need, and may not be selected so as to assess only a single general intelligence
quotient (IQ score). Assessments must also be selected and given in a way that
takes into account a student’s disability and accurately tests the student’s
aptitude or whatever the test is measuring, rather than the student’s impaired
skill, unless that is the purpose of the test. The student must be assessed in all
areas of disability. 20 U.S.C. 1414(b); 34 C.F.R. 300.304. For a student
suspected of having a learning disability, the district may use a process that
determines if the student responds to scientific, research-based instruction.
Additionally, in order to determine that a student is eligible for special education
as a student with a learning disability, the team must document the results of an
observation of the student. 34 C.F.R. 300.311. 9 See Chapter 4 for a more
specific discussion of the evaluation process for students with epilepsy.
8 This manual will use the term “school district,” rather than “public agency,” the term used by the IDEA,
because the majority of students with epilepsy attend schools operated by local or intermediate school
systems. It is important to note, however, that the IDEA’s requirements extend to educational programs
operated by public agencies such as departments of juvenile services, departments of mental health, and
schools for the blind and deaf, as well as departments of correction.
9 There are a number of requirements regarding identification of a student as having a learning disability.
See 34 C.F.R. 300.307-311.
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