Child Find

CHILD FIND

Child Find is a component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) 2004 that requires States and Local Education Agencies (school districts and charter schools) to identify, locate, and evaluate all children with disabilities residing in the State, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, and who are in need of special education and related services (34 CFR§ 300.111). Child Find is a continuous process of public awareness activities, screening and evaluation designed to locate, identify, and evaluate children with disabilities who are in need of Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Programs (Part C) or Special Education and Related Services (Part B). Galveston ISD meets this federal mandate by conducting Initial Data Consent and Data Collection appointments scheduled through the Special Education office, 409-761-3920.

Children ages 3-5 who are verified to live within GISD attendance zones, are eligible to attend an Initial Data Consent and Data Collection Appointment, for suspected learning difficulties. Learning difficulties may include: speech impairment, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, learning disabilities, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, autism, multiple disabilities, traumatic brain injury, visual impairments, auditory impairments or deaf-blindness.

Special education and related services are available to all eligible individuals ages 3-21. Eligible individuals meet Texas Education Agency (TEA) eligibility criteria for one or more of the following disabilities and demonstrate an educational need for specially designed instruction.

Delayed or Denied Evaluations & Compensatory Services

Evaluaciones Retrasadas o Denegadas & Servicios Compensatorios

Autism Spectrum Disorder

a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experience. Autism does not apply if a child’s education performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance.

Deaf/Blindness

concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.
Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Deaf or Hard of Hearing means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this section.

Under the Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA), younger students (ages 3-9) may be eligible for special education and related services under a broader disability category called “Developmental Delay.” States can choose what to call this general category, how they define it, and what age range it applies.

In Texas, this category is called “Non-Categorical Early Childhood (NCEC)”. It is for students aged 3-5 who have general delays in their physical, cognitive, communication, social, emotional, or adaptive development; and who, because of these delays, need special education and related services. In Texas, a child between the ages of 3-5 may be described as “NCEC” if he or she has been diagnosed as having one of the following:

• Intellectual Delay, NCEC-ID • Emotional Disturbance, NCEC-ED

• Specific Learning Disability, or NCEC-SLD • Autism, NCEC-AU

A determination of NCEC must comply with criteria set forth in federal and state law as described in the Non-Categorical Early Childhood framework of the Legal Framework for the Child-Center Process.

Orthopedic Impairment

Other Health Impairment

having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the education environment, that is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, led poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Specific Learning Disability

a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental apahsia. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Speech Impairment

Traumatic Brain Injury

an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairment in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.

Visual Impairment

Emotional Disturbance

a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:

·       An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.

·       An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.

·       Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances

·       A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression

·       A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.

All services are provided at no cost to the individual or parents. For more information contact the Special Education Department at 409-761-3920.

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