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Identifying Students with Disabilities-4866

Published September 1, 2011

Each year, thousands of Williamson County children are evaluated to determine if they have a disability.  The process, which is called Child Find, is a component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  Child Find uses screening to find students in both public school and private school located in the geographic region, who may need special education services and supports.

There are two types of screening.  The first is a general screening of preschool age children throughout the school year.  These screenings are on-going throughout the school year and serve preschool age children.  The other kind of screening is only for school age children.  A child can be referred for screening by school personnel, the family, and/or individuals in the county (physicians, child care providers, etc.).  This should be done any time it is suspected that a child has a disability.  Children can be screened for the following areas:

*hearing
*vision
*communication skills
*social skills
*motor skills
*behavior/adaptive skills
*academic and pre-academic readiness skills/development

Who to contact

  1. If your child is an infant or a toddler under the age of two and a half years, then contact TEIS (Tennessee Early Intervention System) at (615) 904-3648.
  2. If your child is between the ages of three and five and you are a resident who would attend Williamson County Schools, call Student Support Services at (615) 472-4130.
  3. If your child is enrolled in a Williamson County school, report your concerns to your child's principal and the principal will talk with you about the next steps of the GEIT process.
  4. If your child is home schooled or attending a private school in the geographic region of Williamson County Schools, then call Nancy Medlin at (615) 472-4141.  The federal law of IDEIA (Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act) requires each school district to spend a proportionate amount of its federal allocation for services for students with special needs enrolled by parents in home school or private school each year.  In addition, Williamson County Schools was the recipient of funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  A proportionate amount of the ARRA allocation will be available to students who are unilaterally parentally placed in private or home schools.

Gifted Child Find

Intellectual giftedness is found throughout diverse populations and crosses all economic and cultural boundaries.  In order to identify all children and youth with high intellectual potential, community residents and school personnel are encouraged to help in this identification process.  Each school has a team of professionals who help identify children who may need assistance in the classroom.  This may include students with high academic achievement, creative thinking and intelligence. 

Systematic Grade Level Screening

In Tennessee, each district is required to conduct a system-wide grade level screening in at least one elementary grade.  In Williamson County, the grade level screening is conducted in fourth grade where data about every student is systematically reviewed.  A school screening team is suggested to include the current fourth grade classroom teacher, the gifted education consulting teacher, school psychologist and school counselor.  The purpose of the team is to identify a pool of candidates for individual screening and to review students who are determined to be at-risk.  They may determine that no individual screenings are necessary.

Individual screenings help determine if a student is in need of gifted education services.  When an individual screening is determined to be appropriate, parental consent is needed.  At this stage, achievement testing, a gifted screening and curriculum testing may be administered.  The outcome from this additional data may indicate no further assessment is needed or a full evaluation is recommended.  When no further evaluation is indicated from the data, the screening team completes a Response to Individual Screening which shares results from the assessment data reviewed.  Recommendations for accommodations may be provided.  When no further evaluation is indicated, the results are sent to the parents unless the parent requests a meeting to go over more detailed information from the screening.  When a full evaluation is recommended, a GEIT (General Education Intervention Team) meeting is scheduled and the GEIT process followed.