Preschool Special Education Basics

The purpose of Preschool Special Education is to prepare children with disabilities or significant developmental delays for attending school. As a parent, it may be difficult for you to accept that your child may need special education services. You may be tempted to wait and see if your child outgrows his or her delays. Doing so, however, has the risk that your child will fall even further behind. Special education is designed to help your child develop essential skills that he or she is having difficulty with. Getting services now may help reduce the need for services later on.

Children can enter a Preschool Special Education program at age 3, and they may stay in the program until they enter kindergarten, usually at age 5. Preschool Special Education is sometimes referred to as "Preschool Early Intervention" or the "3 to 5 system." It is governed by Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA is a federal law that governs special education for the entire nation. States also have laws and regulations that must be followed, but no state (or local government or school board) can take away any rights provided by the federal law. IDEA requires states to provide Preschool Special Education services for all children who qualify.

The use of the term "Preschool Early Intervention" to refer to special education services for children ages 3 to 5 can be confusing because "Early Intervention" is also a term used to refer to services available to children under the age of 3. To distinguish between the two — very different — systems, the CAR Autism Roadmap™ uses the term "Preschool Special Education" to refer to services available to children after they turn 3 years old and before they enter kindergarten. In the CAR Autism Roadmap™, "Early Intervention" refers to services available to children with disabilities who are under 3 years old.

If you are reading the CAR Autism Roadmap™, chances are you or someone else has concerns about your child's development. Maybe your child has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), or maybe you are awaiting an evaluation by a developmental pediatrician or other specialist. Regardless of how you got here, it is important to know that your child may be eligible for help now – even before getting a medical diagnosis of ASD. That is because the "name" of any diagnosis your child has isn't what is most important. What is more important is identifying your child's needs and getting services to help your child progress.

Even if your child received Early Intervention services before his or her third birthday, there will be a lot for you to learn as there are many differences between the Early Intervention and Preschool systems. The special education process can be a confusing one for many parents. But it is very important that you work to understand it. By learning about special education procedures, you can help your child progress and learn. Below is a quick summary of the basics for families new to special education.

The Essentials

Before Preschool Special Education services can begin, a team will assess your child's particular needs. Your child will have a special education evaluation which will be put into a written document called an Evaluation Report. The Evaluation Report will explain whether or not your child has been found eligible to receive special education services. If your child is eligible, the information contained within the Evaluation Report will be used to create an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for your child. The IEP will set educational, behavioral, and social goals for your child and explain what services your child will receive, and where and how often they will be given. It will also specify how the school will monitor your child to make sure the services he or she is receiving are working to help your child make progress (called "progress monitoring"). The IEP will be implemented by the school as soon as possible after you agree to it. If you disagree with the Evaluation Report and/or IEP, there are dispute resolution procedures, which are designed to help resolve disagreements which occur within the special education system. Your child's Evaluation Report and IEP will be updated periodically for as long as your child continues to be eligible for special education services.Figure 1: The process of qualifying for and receiving Preschool Special Education is a circular one. As your child develops, his or her nees will be periodically reassessed and new plans will be made. The special education process has a built-in check called "progress monitoring," which is a way for families and teachers to assess how your child is doing and make adjustments to your child's plan as needed, even without conducting a more formal evaluation.

Figure 1: The process of qualifying for and receiving Preschool Special Education is a circular one. As your child develops, his or her needs will be periodically reassessed and new plans will be made. The special education process has a built-in check called "progress monitoring," which is a way for families and teachers to assess how your child is doing and make adjustments to your child's plan as needed, even without conducting a more formal evaluation.

Additional Resources

• 10 Basic Steps in Special Education, from the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities