E61: Orthopedic Impairment [BONUS Eligibility Category Series]
If your child has a neurological, muscular, or skeletal disorder, then this episode is for you! From cerebral palsy, muscular distrophy, spina bifita, this is a common category to get children with these diagnoses what they need in school. We go over the eligibility crieteria from Colorado as an example, and also talk about specially designed instruction vs a 504 that comes up frequently with children looking at this category. Need help finding your own state's eligibility deffinition or checklist for OI?
If your child has a neurological, muscular, or skeletal disorder, then this episode is for you! From cerebral palsy, muscular distrophy, spina bifita, this is a common category to get children with these diagnoses what they need in school.
We go over the eligibility crieteria from Colorado as an example, and also talk about specially designed instruction vs a 504 that comes up frequently with children looking at this category.
Need help finding your own state’s eligibility deffinition or checklist for OI? Hop into the Facebook group and we will help you find it!
Registration is open for the FREE virtual Parent IEP Advocacy Summit! Grab your free ticket here but act quickly-it’s only free until September 22nd!
We look at the Colorado State Eligibility Checklist as an example, and talk about frequently missed opportunities for parent advocacy throughout this process!
Don’t forget to snag your free ticket to the virtual Parent IEP Advocacy Summit! Link to register: www.TheIEPLab.com/summit
Link to Colorado’s Eligibility checklist and further resources (referenced in the podcast): https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/iep_detsli
E61: Orthopedic Impairment [BONUS Eligibility Category Series]
[00:00:00] If your child has a neurological muscular or skeletal disorder, then you may have several categories that your child could be eligible for an IEP under. Today we are talking about the orthopedic impairment eligibility category. But we’re also talking about how it compares to some possible other categories that might overlap with. We are going to have more discussion than checklist on this one, because it includes things like muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. And this one can get a little sticky.
[00:00:34] There are plenty of opportunities for knowledgeable parents to take advantage of some things in this category. So stick with me because we will talk about all of them.
[00:00:44] You are listening to The Parent IEP Lab, the podcast that helps you get an effective IEP plan for your child so that you can get them supported and learning in school. I’m Beth LEAs and Feld occupational therapist, who started to notice trends in parents who got effective IEP. [00:01:00] For their kids. My mission is to help you turn insider knowledge of the system and school culture into effective parent advocacy for your child and create the best formula for success for your particular child. Now let’s get into the episode.
[00:01:16] Oh, just really quick. I wanted to mention that registration is open for the free parent IEP advocacy summit. So claim your free ticket by going to ww dot the iep lab.com/summit. i will have the link in the show notes and more information at the end of the episode but i don’t want you to not get your free ticket as it turns to vip pricing on september 22nd. so go to www.theieplab.com/summit. see you there
[00:01:44] Okay. So if this is your first bonus eligibility category series episode, that you’re listening to well, welcome. If you’ve listened to several of them, you will hear a theme. And that theme is kind of at the beginning of these episodes. [00:02:00] When I tell you about the eligibility process and common missed opportunities for parents to advocate through this process.
[00:02:07] Now, this is my most favorite time. To coach parents through what to advocate for and getting a really good effective IEP for their kid, because you’re essentially starting at the beginning of the process, even if you’re doing a re eligibility. So this is just my favorite place to start. And this is where this kind of bonus, series is coming from when we talk about the eligibility categories.
[00:02:33] So. If you do have a child. Qualified under a different category other than orthopedic impairment. I want to encourage you to scroll down in your podcast app. To look at the categories that we’ve already covered. We’ve already covered autism. We’ve covered OHI. Some of the really common ones are the ones that we started with. So I want to encourage you to go back and kind of look, and if your child [00:03:00] potentially qualifies in two different ones, maybe they have a primary and a secondary, or maybe, you know, they could fall into several different categories.
[00:03:08] I want to encourage you to, to go ahead and listen to multiple. But the couple things that I want to say is that we are going to go through Colorado’s checklist for orthopedic impairment as an example, I know that all of you guys are not from Colorado. Most of my listeners are actually from California, Texas. I do have a lot in Colorado.
[00:03:28] Um, but you guys are listening from all over. So I want to really encourage you to hop into the Facebook group. You can find the link. If you go to the IEP lab.com/podcast, you will see a little link at the top that says, join us in the insiders group. And so you can click that and then apply to get into the Facebook group because they do check those and make sure that you answered all the questions and the membership questions.
[00:03:53] Uh, so that we make sure that we have only parents and maybe a few specialists in there as well to answer questions. [00:04:00] But what I want to encourage you to do is take this Colorado checklist just as kind of a guideline, because. I love examples. I cannot learn without examples. And so I definitely wanted to give you guys an example of a good checklist so that you can say, oh, when they’re talking about this category, this is the kind of stuff that they’re looking for.
[00:04:22] And then when you come to the IEP and you come to the eligibility meeting, If they start out with what are your child’s strengths and what are your child’s struggles? You know, how to tailor those struggles towards what they’re actually looking for. You will have context in what kinds of things are they looking for to qualify them for an IEP or not? And what kind of things can they help support in the school environment that they might need some more information from you? So this is a common.
[00:04:51] Thing that parents get put on the spot and they get asked, you know, what are they struggling with? What do they need help with? And you’re like, well, where do you [00:05:00] want me to start? Like, what is relevant for you? And that’s what this series is doing is breaking that down using Colorado’s checklist as an example.
[00:05:08] Now again, if you need help finding your own state’s checklist, some states don’t even have checklists. They just have definitions. So we can help you find that if you go into the group, Make your own post. Um, kind of introduce yourself, say what state you’re in hey,, looking for the checklist for this category. And we can help you find that sometimes you really have to dig on these state websites to even find what you’re looking for. And some of them are called different things. So let us help you jump into the Facebook group.
[00:05:37] Let us know if there’s something specific you’re looking for and we can help you between the other parents that are in there. I’m in there almost daily as well, answering questions. So. Let us know if you need anything in there as well. The second thing that I want to mention is of course that I am not a lawyer. So if you have any questions, that pertain to your child getting [00:06:00] denied eligibility under one of these categories, or if you need specific advice to your situation, then I would really encourage you to seek out some legal counsel.
[00:06:10] Um, and so, but I, I never claimed that I am a lawyer. That’s why I have them on the show every once in a while so that I can learn from them too. Cause I am not a lawyer.
[00:06:20] Okay. So we are going to jump in the checklist and then we’re going to have a discussion about some examples that I have seen for children who qualify under orthopedic impairment.
[00:06:30] And there’s a big caveat to this one. That I have seen come up in the schools myself. And I’m sure that you might’ve seen under this category as well. And so we’re going to talk about that after we go through the checklist. Okay. So at the top of the checklist, it has a definition. So it says a child with an orthopedic impairment has a severe neurological, muscular or skeletal abnormality that impedes mobility, [00:07:00] which prevents the child from receiving reasonable educational benefit from general education.
[00:07:06] So I love that it gives you a definition again. Every single state has this category, but different states will define it in different ways. So your states might be slightly different than the Colorado version, but
[00:07:21] it should have the same category because it’s all falling within orthopedic impairment that comes from the IDEA federal law. Okay. So the next session section, this is really the crux of eligibility when we’re talking about it.
[00:07:34] So these three questions. All right. You will notice that they’re written in double negative. So I will interpret a little afterwards, but this first question is the most important question and missed opportunity that I see for parent advocacy. And it reads the evaluation is sufficiently comprehensive to appropriately identify all of the children’s special education.
[00:07:56] And related service needs whether or not commonly [00:08:00] linked to the disability category. And in parentheses that says answer must be yes, in order for the child to be eligible for services. So again, I encourage you as a parent when you’re going through this eligibility process, like initially, or if you’re going through it at your triennial, which happens every three years.
[00:08:19] I want you to have a list of challenges and strengths, but mainly challenges. That you see your child encountering in the school environment. When you get an evaluation report home, I want you to pull out that checklist that you have, and I want to make sure that every single thing that you have on your list is addressed in that
[00:08:39] evaluation report. If it is not, then you need to go ahead and email the case manager. Who should have given you kind of the notice and bear your paperwork, contact, send them an email and say, Hey, you guys didn’t address this. I have seen it before that somebody is qualified [00:09:00] under the orthopedic impairment category.
[00:09:03] And the whole team. Understands that that is not, was not her main barrier. Her main barrier was anxiety. So even if they’re looking at this orthopedic impairment category, You need to make sure that every single concern you have. So if you’re like, they’re pretty anxious. That needs to be in the evaluation report.
[00:09:25] So that they can properly identify your child’s specific needs. It doesn’t matter if they’re looking at the category first, they really shouldn’t. They’re looking at a whole body of evidence. No matter if it falls within this qualification category or not. Okay. So this is the number one.
[00:09:43] On the page and it’s also the number one missed opportunity for parents because it’s the first one on the checklist. It’s really hard to understand. So hopefully you can go into that. Uh, initial evaluation meeting or the re eval. And meeting the eligibility meaning and you [00:10:00] can be like, okay, I’m going to make sure that they have every single thing that I’m concerned about in the evaluation report.
[00:10:07] Okay. So number two is the child can receive reasonable educational benefit from general education alone. And again, in parentheses, it says the answer must be no in order for the child to be eligible for services. This means that if they were not given an IEP. And not given any additional supports that they would be just fine. So this is just kind of reiterating that yes, they do need additional support. So the answer must be no in order for the child to be eligible.
[00:10:39] Again, it’s written in a double negative. So confusing. The third one under this section is the child’s performance. And then there’s kind of check boxes after that. There’s three of them. And it says in parentheses, all answers below must be, is not in order for the child to be eligible for services. So the first one is, is, or is not due to a lack of appropriate [00:11:00] instruction in reading, including the essential components of reading instruction.
[00:11:05] The second one is, is, or is not due to a lack of appropriate instruction in math and is, or is not due to limited English proficiency. Now these are the, the check boxes that are on every single eligibility for the state of Colorado. And in some categories, these are super relevant, like, okay. Um, if you’re looking at specific learning disability, under reading,
[00:11:26] Obviously the first one is going to be really important. But for orthopedic impairment, we’re talking about more you know, muscular dystrophy, spinal bifida. You know, some of those medical diagnoses. And so these aren’t as much of a consideration as some other categories. So we are going to move on to the next check box and really there’s only three check boxes left. This is a really short eligibility category.
[00:11:53] So in the next section says to be eligible for a child. To be eligible as a child with an orthopedic impairment. There [00:12:00] must be evidence of the following criteria. Yes or no, a congenital anomaly. And it in parentheses, it says EG, spina, bifida. Osteogenesis imperfecta or clubfoot. Effects of the disease.
[00:12:15] Examples are bone tumor, muscular dystrophy, juvenile arthritis. Or from other causes and the examples of this are cerebral palsy, amputations, trauma, and or fractures or burns that cause contractures. Now, when they say trauma, They mean trauma to the body. They don’t mean mental health trauma just to be clear right there. So that has to be yes. In order to qualify.
[00:12:42] The next section says the orthopedic impairment as described above prevents the child from receiving reasonable educational benefit from general education. As evidenced by the following criteria. Again, there’s just one. Yes or no question here. The disabling condition interferes with [00:13:00] functions of daily living,
[00:13:01] including, but not limited to ambulation, which is walking. Attention. Hand movements, coordination, communication. Self-help skills and other activities of daily living to such a degree that the child requires specialized instruction and related services, which may include special equipment. Okay. So as you can probably guess this is one of the things I was hinting at in the introduction.
[00:13:29] Because you remember, I mean, if you haven’t listened to my original eligibility podcast, it’s I think it’s episode six or seven with Christina Nelson. And we talked about the different things that you have to have in order to qualify for an IEP. And the second one. Is that you require specialized instruction. And actually we just talked about this with ADHD as an example with the childhood collective in episode 60. [00:14:00] So if you are like what’s specialized instruction, go listen to that episode because we go into detail on what actually specialized instruction is.
[00:14:08] And a lot of good examples in that episode. But to be short and to have it here for you. Specialized instruction is teaching. It’s not just giving an accommodation, so say, to give you an example, one of the kids that I’ve had on caseload before he had muscular dystrophy. And he used the elevator instead of using the stairs.
[00:14:30] Because he was in a scooter. And later a power wheelchair. So he needed to use the elevator. We’ll using the elevator as an accommodation. But anything that we had to do to teach him how to use the elevator would be considered specialized instruction. Now he only needed to be taught that once, so that wouldn’t be like a continuous service.
[00:14:51] But he did need some specialized instruction as far as self-advocacy goes. So as his disease progressed [00:15:00] and he lost some function, he needed to be able to tell people and to have the courage, to tell people in the skill to tell people, Hey, do you mind doing this for me? Or, Hey, I need help with this.
[00:15:13] Um, he needed to advocate for his own accommodations because his endurance was going down. So that is specialized instruction. Is the teaching part. It is the skilled part that somebody does for your child. Without that they’re going to say, oh yeah, your child can you know, be able to access everything in the educational environment with a 5 0 4, which 5 0 4 is just accommodation. So it’s just the using the elevator and not the teaching, how to use the elevator.
[00:15:45] It’s having accommodations, but not getting taught how to advocate for those accommodations. And a lot of the kids who may be considered for this orthopedic impairment category. A lot of them have [00:16:00] tremendous skills. A lot of them actually, I think most of them that I’ve seen. In this category are actually on grade level for academic type skills. And so the specialist instruction is such an opportunity for parent advocacy.
[00:16:14] Because, you know,
[00:16:16] If they have those skills to ask for those accommodations or if they don’t, if they need to be taught something. Or if they don’t . So this is one that I see. Is really the, crux of this eligibility category is okay. They might have this impairment. But do they actually need specialized instruction?
[00:16:37] The last thing on the list is just a yes or no question. The child has a disability as defined by the state rules for the administration of exceptional children’s educational act and is eligible for special education. So this category I often see as a secondary disability category. So, you know, maybe they have OHI like other health [00:17:00] impairment as their primary, and then they have orthopedic impairment as their secondary.
[00:17:05] I have seen children with. Cerebral palsy be qualified OHI and then, oh, eye or orthopedic impairment. Secondary.
[00:17:17] In that example with the muscular dystrophy, I came in on a re eval year. And so I was just looking at paperwork and, you know, I saw what he was qualified under. And then I looked at the paperwork and I was like, well,
[00:17:30] He’s on consult for OT. Like we check in and we make sure he has the right accommodations every once in a while. But we’re not really doing any specialized instruction with him. Like I don’t need to go in there and see him every week because he’s good. Like, there’s nothing, there’s nothing for me to do. He’s great.
[00:17:47] Which is a great thing. But I didn’t know why he was on an IEP. And so sometimes if. Sometimes the school will, you know, grant them an IEP, keep them on a [00:18:00] knee. IEP. Because they know that they are going to be more effected by their disability later. And that’s kind of what happened in this case. I came to the, came to the table and I was very honest. This, this parent group was amazing actually.
[00:18:16] I was like, okay. I’m just going to be real here. I’m new. I don’t understand why he has an IEP and not a 5 0 4, because it doesn’t seem like I’m doing a whole heck of a lot for him. And that was true for even the special education teacher who had him qualified but didn’t have him on for a lot of minutes so they can put them on an IEP. They can, I don’t want to say they can fudge it because they do have to have that body of evidence to prove that it’s impeding their education and that they can’t access their education. Education with just. General education alone. Right. They see they need some sort of specialized instruction. But again, I feel like there’s a lot of [00:19:00] opportunity for paired advocacy. If you know, That they need to be taught certain skills in order to be able to access the general education curriculum. I think that’s a great opportunity for you as a parent to say, yes, they need this, make it a little bit easier for that team to be like, okay. Yes. Like we’re going to qualify for them. We need goals around this and this because you’re saying that they need these skills.
[00:19:22] So hopefully you found that really helpful to go through an example of an orthopedic impairment checklist from Colorado. Again, if you need help finding your own states, checklists, no matter what category it is, even if we haven’t gotten there in the podcast yet. Hop into the Facebook group, go to www.theieplab.com/podcast. You will see a link at the top of the page and you just click that link and it takes you right to the Facebook group. So you can request access to that. And we would love to help you find your checklists or your definitions, whatever your state has on its website for resources.
[00:19:58] Sometimes we get a [00:20:00] dig, so we will definitely help you for that now. If you do have a child who is qualified under orthopedic impairment. I do feel like some districts use this category all the time and then some districts don’t use it hardly at all, but either way, if you have a child who would benefit from some assistive technology, then I’m really excited for you to hear the podcast
[00:20:24] That is coming up on assistive technology evaluations. That’s where I really see a lot of involvement from the whole team, with somebody who is qualified under orthopedic impairment to really get a really solid base of what accommodations are really going to help, what assistive technology is going to help. So I’m really excited for you to hear about that too.
[00:20:45] So as we wrap up just one reminder, before I go. That registration is open for the parent IEP advocacy summit. Now just a little bit more of details. We have 17 speakers, 18. If you include [00:21:00] me. From people all over the country who are specialists in all different things. We are really focusing on the basics of IEPs in this year summit.
[00:21:10] I’m really excited to bring you. You know the session on going through the major sections of the IEP together and opportunities in re-evaluations with somebody other than me. Because Chelsea from LD expert has a lot of amazing experience and she does have acute, a few things that she talks about in that session that I didn’t think of, that I haven’t done in my own podcast or my own lessons as well. So I’m really excited to bring you that.
[00:21:38] Again, the free ticket is only available up until the time that the summit starts. So it’s only available until September 22nd. The summit is happening September 22nd to 25th. And you can upgrade to a VIP pass. We are in the early bird window for that pricing for the VIP ticket. So it’s only $27 to have those videos all year [00:22:00] round plus additional handouts from speakers and additional discounts from sponsors.
[00:22:05] As well as you get an audio version as well. So if you’re like, I don’t have time to watch the video, then you have the audio available to you as well so i’m so excited to bring this summit to you and Just go to www.theieplab.com/summit. and the link is in the show notes as well thank you as always for listening to this podcast i will see you next time thanks so much