E71: Developmental Delay [Eligibility Category BONUS Series]
DOORS ARE OPEN TO THE ULTIMATE PARENT IEP PREP COURSE!*** Developmental Delay is...a little bit different than the other eligibility categories! In this episode we cover: -Using Colorado's Eligibility checklist as an example, we dive into the category of Developmental Delay -We cover common missed opportunities for parent advocacy (that help make that IEP effective!)
***DOORS ARE OPEN TO THE ULTIMATE PARENT IEP PREP COURSE!***
Developmental Delay is…a little bit different than the other eligibility categories!
In this episode we cover:
-Using Colorado’s Eligibility checklist as an example, we dive into the category of Developmental Delay
-We cover common missed opportunities for parent advocacy (that help make that IEP effective!)
-AND we talk about at what age you should know that things change to a different category and what to do at that point!
Shownotes: www.TheIEPLab.com/episode71
The Ultimate Parent IEP Prep Course
[00:00:00] If your child has a delay, motor speech learning, really anything. And they’re in either preschool or elementary school, and either you don’t have an official medical diagnosis or the school is hesitant to put them underneath a different category. Then your child may qualify under the developmental delay or DD category of eligibility for an IEP.
We have some tricky things about this particular category that we will talk about in this episode. So if you have a child just coming into the AP for the first time, or they’re already qualified under the developmental delay category, you are going to want to listen to this episode, to know the positive and negative aspects of this category and get a heads up of what changes are coming your
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 [00:01:00] trends in parents who got effective IEP for My mission is to help you turn insider knowledge of the system and school culture into effective parent advocacy.
Every child’s strengths and needs are a little bit different. So every IEP should be different to you, but sometimes it helps to have a little insider knowledge to know what to change and tweak so that you have the right formula for success for your unique child. Welcome to the lab.
If you weren’t able to catch the parent IEP advocacy summit that happened last week. I am so excited to announce that you can still access all of the 19 sessions.
That were part of that summit. You can go to the IEP lab.com/summit. To purchase your VIP ticket, where you will have a full year to access all of the session videos with subtitles. In an audio version of every session so that you can listen on the go. And a downloadable transcripts that you can make notes and refer back to the [00:02:00] sessions if you need them. There’s everything from going through the eligibility process and opportunities for parent advocacy, as well as going through every section of the IEP and talking about parent rights, it is packed full of value so that you can take that information and the tips and the strategies into your advocacy this year to get a fully supportive and effective iep for your child this year again go to the iep lab.com/summit to grab your vip ticket
Okay today, we are talking about the developmental delay eligibility category under Ida. And if this is your first eligibility category bonus series that you’ve listened to. Well welcome. I’m excited that you’re here. We are going to talk about specific actions that you can take as a parent to get your child an effective IEP you can really have so much positive effect on that IEP plan when you start with the [00:03:00] eligibility process. So again, every three years, your child will have to go through this process again, to be re eligible for an IEP.
So every three years, you have the opportunity to start this over from the top and really get the most information and the best information possible into this evaluation to ultimately make a really amazing IEP at the end. So I’m excited that you are
The first thing that we need to talk about is that Ida is the federal law that online special education. This lot clearly defines 13 different categories of eligibility for an individualized education program or an IEP. So every single state has the category of developmental delay.
But after that states get to interpret this and they get to both write the definition of the category and the outline for the checklist for eligibility. So. For today, we, and really everyone in this series, I have used the Colorado [00:04:00] state checklist for eligibility and that’s for a couple of different reasons. Number one is I myself, am in Colorado.
So I have heard these checklists gone through and explain to parents. I’ve heard the questions of parents for these eligibility category checklists. And so I’m really, really familiar with them. It makes it easier for me to share them with you as an example. The other thing is that. Colorado has a really nice checklist. Some states just have a definition and not a checklist.
And being an example person myself, I learn best when you give me an example. So I just needed one state to pick from, to say, okay, like this is a general outline, and this is a really good example that I can explain well, so that you can get the idea of what they are looking for, what the school team is looking for in that evaluation report to qualify them under developmental
Now that comes with the caveat that it might not be exactly the same for your state. So, if you’re wondering, Hey, I’m in Texas, [00:05:00] I’m in California, I’m in the Midwest somewhere. And I want to see what my state’s checklist looks like. And are having trouble finding it, or you don’t want to waste time in trying to find it yourself.
Then happen to our Facebook group. You can find the link for it at B IEP lab.com/podcast. And right at the top, you can find the link to that Facebook And that Facebook group just make a new post, introduce yourself, say, Hey, I’m looking for the checklist for eligibility, for my state, enlist your state. And then maybe a couple of categories that you’re looking for and we will help you find those.
I’ve already helped. A lot of people find theirs in their state. And so sometimes. Their names, different things. They’re not called eligibility. Checklists. They’re called something different. And so if you’re getting confused in that lingo, or if you just don’t know where to start, then just happened to that group, click the easy button and let us help you find those checklists as well.
The last thing before we get started is just to say that I am not a [00:06:00] lawyer. So again, I’m using this checklist as just a guideline, as an example for educational purposes, and I’m not a lawyer. So if you have any questions about, well, my child should have qualified under this category, but didn’t, or they didn’t follow this process.
And I don’t know what to do from here. If that’s a more legal type question, then you want to seek out legal consult. If you. Need more information about hiring a lawyer, scroll back in your podcast player and look for the episode with Julie Carter, from Julie Carter law. And she clearly explains when you need to get a lawyer consult, how to find free or pro bono services. And also just kind of what that process looks like when you go to, get a lawyer consult and what questions to ask to make sure it’s a good fit.
So if you have any questions about this eligibility process and it’s more of a legal process, Then check out that episode from Julie Carter, if that sounds helpful. And so that you can, go get a lawyer consult for that as well. So again, we’re just doing this for [00:07:00] educational purposes only so that you can really understand.
What that school team is looking for to qualify your child. And it’s specifically underneath this category that we’re talking about, which is developmental delay.
Okay, so we’re ready. We’re ready to jump into the checklist together. So at the top of the Colorado checklist, it has definition. So the definition of developmental delay is a child with a developmental delay shall be three through eight years of age. And who is experiencing developmental delays in one or more of the following areas, physical, cognitive communication, social, or emotional or adaptive, which prevents the child from receiving reasonable educational benefit from general education.
Now, let me kind of break this down a little bit. So you will notice if you’ve listened to another one of these category podcasts, that this is the only one that has an age limit on it. Okay. So that’s why in the intro, I said, you’re going to want a heads up of what’s coming next because at least in [00:08:00] Colorado, this isn’t in every state.
Some of them have different ages, but every one of them is ending at a certain date. And so before your child’s ninth birthday, they have to do another. Reevaluation and they have to determine another category so they can not be under this developmental delay category forever. It has to be something
Eh, at least in Colorado by their ninth birthday. And I know like in Florida, for example, they just changed their law where it was six years of age and they changed it to nine. So you will have to check with your individual state on when this ends, but it will Now let’s look at the delays. So physical, cognitive communication, social or emotional.
Or adaptive. I just want to say. That a lot of people will come in and say, okay, my child has some physical delays. They still have to prove in their evaluation report, that those physical delays are causing a barrier to their [00:09:00] education. They cannot access their education.
Without an IEP. Because of these physical delays. So more often than not, they have delays in several of these categories. And not just one, because if they have delays in just communication, then they’re probably going to fall under the speech and language impairment category. Right.
So this category really is something that’s more global delays. That’s not defined elsewhere. Right. So they’re going to default to being as specific as possible. And if they don’t quite know what’s going on yet.
And, or they want to wait to put them under a more significant category that has a lot more weight to Then they’re going to choose to put them under developmental delay and make that bigger call. Before they turn And we’re going to talk a little bit more about what those categories might be at the end. So just stick with me until the end
Now, if you’ve listened to any of the other eligibility podcasts, you [00:10:00] will hear these three questions again, but they’re so important. And the first one is my favorite one. It’s the longest explanation I have. I promise because it gets skipped and missed all of the time. So this is the biggest opportunity for parent advocacy that I see missed all of the time.
So the first question is yes or no, the evaluation is sufficiently comprehensive to appropriately identify all of the child’s special education and related service. Needs whether or not commonly linked to the disability category. The answer must be yes. In order for the student to be eligible for services.
So what I want you to do. Is, I want you to, even before you are in this process, and even if you’re in this process and they’re getting tested right now, that’s okay. Go ahead and make a list of the challenges that you feel like your child is having in the educational environment. If they are brand new to the educational environment, then that is okay. What concerns do you have as a parent? What concerns do you anticipate that they might [00:11:00] have in the educational setting? And just start there. Sometimes we have this eligibility category when they’re coming into preschool and they haven’t been in school yet. So we really don’t know what the challenges are going to be, but I’m pretty sure that you as a parent probably have some concerns, probably have some idea over what they’re going to need support with.
And so that’s what goes on this list. Now. When you’re going through this process. You are going to be able to be the voice for your kid. So before you have this eligibility meeting with everybody who sits down and you go over that. The evaluation report. Then I want you to be able to have that evaluation report a couple of days before that meeting. And if you need to send an email to whoever is leading up your evaluation to request that I would do that sooner rather than later, and just say, Hey, I’d really like to look over the evaluation report. Can you send it to me about three or four days before
we sit down and have that meeting so that I [00:12:00] can look it over. And so at this point, you’re going to take your checklist that you wrote out of the list of concerns that you have for your kid. And you’re going to compare that to the evaluation summary report. Okay. And then you’re going to make sure that everything on your list of concerns is in that summary report. And if you don’t see it in the summary,
Then you can go back into the report. I just don’t want you to get too overwhelmed in looking at that huge long report. And I want you to have some direction of what you’re looking for. So that all starts with your concern list that you’re making
before you get that evaluation report back now. Again, this number one question is saying, do they have everything included in this evaluation report? And if you say no, then they have to go back and gather that information. Now they might say, oh, it’s okay. We’ll gather that information later. Um, it’s not linked to this disability category so we can qualify them anyway. And I want to encourage you and empower you to stand up and [00:13:00] say, you know what? And especially if you were state has this little clause in it too, when it says whether or not commonly linked to the disability category, that means that they have to cover everything.
Right. Everything. That’s a concern. So you can say yes, but right here, at least in your, if you’re in Colorado, you can say, but right here it says whether or not commonly linked to the disability category. So if there’s something that they missed, it really should be included. And again, If it’s not in the evaluation report, if it’s not incorporated into the eligibility category, then it’s not going to go in the present levels. And it’s not going to go into the rest of the IEP and get supported.
If it’s not in this evaluation report. So it really, I cannot stress this But you need to make sure that everything that you have concerns about is in this evaluation report. Okay. The next one is yes or no, the student can receive. Reasonable educational benefit from general education alone. And in parentheses it says, answer must be no.
In order for the student to be eligible for [00:14:00] services. You might be on the border of getting your child an IEP or not. And this might actually come up for you. So what they’re saying is if we had them in general education without any services, any goals, then they would be fine. They can. Access their education without any additional services.
So that’s why the answer has to be no, in order for the student to be eligible for services, you’re really proving that they need these services. Number three is the student’s performance. And in parentheses it says all answers below must be, is not in order for the student to be eligible for services. And the first one is, is, or is not due to a lack of appropriate instruction in reading, including essential components of reading instruction.
Is there is not due to lack of appropriate instruction in math and is, or is not due to limited English proficiency. And again, if you are in preschool and they haven’t been in school What they’re going to say is, okay. Like, you know, you’ve been reading with them at home. You [00:15:00] have been, you know, involving them in, in pre-academic tasks. You’ve been asking them to do things, um, to improve their learning. Like they have had access to play when they’re at home with you. Right. And they’re just going to make sure that they have.
Um, you know, some access to learning activities at home. So they’re just going to say yes, especially if they’re just coming into preschool and they haven’t been in school yet. They’re going to assume that they’ve had access to. To things now. There is, there is not due to a limited English proficiency. If you are coming into preschool and they haven’t been in school yet.
This might be something that’s checked off or considered when they’re looking at an IEP, does this children actually have a disability that needs an IEP? Or delay right. Or do they just need support with learning the English language? And that is a different program. Those are different supports. So that might be a discussion if you happen to fall into that
Now the next [00:16:00] section has three check boxes and it says this eligibility definition is reserved for a child between the ages of three through eight. And in which a clear determination cannot be made under any other eligibility category as measured by developmentally appropriate diagnostic instruments, which is our assessments and procedures to be eligible as a child with a developmental delay, there must be evidence through multiple sources of information that child meets one.
Or more of the following criteria. So again, they don’t have to meet all three of these, but they do have to have at least one. So yes or no, a score in the seventh percentile or below on a valid, standardized diagnostic instrument or the technical equivalent in standard scores. And in parentheses it says 77 of the mean is a hundred.
And the standard deviation is 15. Or standard deviations in parentheses, it says 1.5 standard deviations below the mean. In one or more of the following areas of development, [00:17:00] physical, cognitive communication, social, emotional, or adaptive. Okay. So all they’re saying is they’re looking at those scores.
That were in the evaluation report and they have to prove that at least one score in one of these domains was in the seventh percentile or below. Okay. The second one is yes or no empirical data showing a condition known to be associated with significant delays in development. So this only pertains if you have an outside diagnosis of some kind.
Or yes or no, a body of evidence indicating that patterns of learning are significantly different from age expectations, across settings. And there’s written documentation by the evaluation team, which includes the parents. K. Now I rarely see these last two check boxes checked. Normally you’re looking for, . Somebody on the team had a score in the seventh percentile or below, so they can qualify underneath this category. Okay. The [00:18:00] next section says the developmental delay as described above prevents the child from receiving reasonable educational benefit from general education alone. Yes or no requirement of specialized instruction and as needed.
Related services, specialized instruction is again the skills that they’re actually teaching. So they have to prove that, okay, they don’t just need some accommodations, which are just changing the environment a little bit, changing the way things are presented. To your child, but they actually need specific structured teaching in an area. So this is that specialist instruction piece. And we do have the episode with the childhood collective, where we talk about specialized instruction, what it is, we really target that conversation. So if you’re like, can you explain that more?
Go back and look for that episode with the childhood collective, they did a really nice job of explaining that for us. And then the last check box says yes or no, the child has a disability as defined in the state rules for administration of [00:19:00] the exceptional children’s educational act. And is eligible for special education. Again, this is a Colorado law that they’re referring to here.
That laid out the definition and the checklist. And so you’re saying yes, they qualify or no, Then there’s a signature lines for everybody to sign. And then the last check back says a copy of the evaluation reports and the eligibility statement have been provided to the parents. And of course they should be doing that for you as
So there’s a couple of different situations. Like I talked about in the beginning of when they would choose to do this developmental delay category. And the first is that. They’re not really sure what’s happening as far as like, they don’t have a diagnosis. Um, they have delays, but they’re just really uncertain on what that looks like. They can’t really put them under ADHD yet, especially if they’re really young, right.
They can’t put them on her ADHD. It’s a little bit too early for that. They’re not quite sure this is a pattern they’re not familiar with. They might put them under developmental delay. [00:20:00] The other thing that they might do is, and this happens a lot. Is that if they are pretty sure that your child has autism or is autistic, you might even have an outside diagnosis, medical diagnosis of autism, but they still might elect to put them under this developmental delay category. And there’s a couple of different reasons for that. Um, one reason is that they are pretty
Now. Autism can be diagnosed as early as a year and a half, 18 months. So I’m not discrediting that diagnosis at all. If you have that, then that’s wonderful that you have an explanation you have probably access to outside services. That is amazing.
But what happens is they get pretty hesitant when it comes to labeling too soon for things like intellectual disability. Four. Autism. And for serious emotional disability. Because those are areas [00:21:00] that if you are wrong about that category and you have to backtrack later. It’s actually harder to figure out. So they would rather put them under a developmental delay, knowing that they have to come back and look at all information before they turn nine.
So that they can get that category right. The first time. So this is kind of like a holding pattern it’s to enable them to get the services they need. It really doesn’t have any limitations for what kind of services they can get. They can qualify for whatever they need under this category. And then they know that if it’s those same people who come back and evaluate in three years or before they turn the age of nine.
Or if it’s a different team, they know that that child is going to be taken care of because that team is forced to look at all of the information. And determine the best category from there because developmental delay is not an option anymore. No. I’ve heard of districts being really [00:22:00] hesitant to do the autism label. I cannot tell you why that is. They are really supposed to do the most accurate.
Eligibility category first. They really aren’t supposed to do, oh, well we know that they have autism. It’s pretty clear that they’re autistic. We’re going to do developmental delay. Like if it is really clear and they have all that evidence. Then they are really supposed to do the eligibility category.
That is that makes the most sense that they pick it up if you move to a different district or if the school team changes. If they pick up that IEP, it’s all supposed to make sense and explain your child really well. Okay. But some districts are really hesitant to do it. And I don’t really have a good explanation for that, especially because in the districts that I’ve worked for.
Again, we have been preached That we’re really supposed to be accurate with the qualification category that we’re choosing for [00:23:00] them and B from a money standpoint. At least in Colorado, certain eligibility categories get a little bit more money reimbursed for the state for having certain eligibility categories.
So we were never, ever. We were never told to qualify underneath these categories first because they pay more money. But they just told us and made us aware that we would rather not do developmental delay. If you can help it, if it’s a clear. Qualification underneath a different eligibility category.
And autism was one of those examples where the state reimburses a little bit more per year for children who are under the autism label, under the autism category versus developmental delay. That was maybe done on purpose to encourage teams, to do a good job and a better job of qualifying under the right category. But I have had parents go through the ultimate parent IEP [00:24:00] prep course, which doors are open right now, by the way, if you want some help for the next three In getting through this process and getting an effective IEP that is open. But I have had parents go through that where they’re like, they won’t do the autism label. They refuse to do it.
They’re under developmental delay. And sometimes that’s legit and they’re saying, okay, they’re coming into preschool. We’re not really sure what the educational impact is. So we’re going to do developmental delay for the first couple years, and then change it after that. That’s okay. As long as you feel like they have the right reasons for doing developmental delay, that’s
This is a good category to be under because everybody on your team has an open mind. They’re not. Automatically thinking, oh, they’re autistic. They’re under this label. So they need this, this and this service. So the cool thing about this category is that everybody just has an open mind. They’re like.
We don’t know what it is yet. They might have a diagnosis. They [00:25:00] might not. We’re pretty sure it’s this, or we’re pretty sure it’s But they’re keeping an open mind about what your child needs. And so you really have the opportunity to have a truly specialized. IEP. Underneath this category because there’s no preconceived notions about what a child needs or doesn’t need, and it can be really individualized. And you just also have this heads up before they turn nine, that you can be kind of collecting your own evidence and really being sure that, you know, and you’re keeping track of the limitations that this disability or delay is having on your child in the meantime, so that when they go through this.
Reevaluation process to change the category. You’re going to have a really great list of things that do challenge them and they do need support for in that educational environment so that you can make sure that when they change that category, it’s going to be the correct category. It is going to be a category that allows [00:26:00] them access to specialized programs. If that’s what you’re looking for.
And that that IEP covers everything that you have concerns about and is fully supportive and effective for your child. So absolutely there are advantages to this developmental delay category. But I just want to let you know that sometimes, like, people are not happy with this. A particular category because they don’t feel like it explains their child very well. Especially if you have an outside diagnosis of something.
And they’re like, it almost feels like they’re ignoring that diagnosis. And I think parents probably not to put thoughts in your head for sure. But I just feel like if I was in that situation and the team, like we were like, yeah, we see that autism diagnosis, but we’re going to put them under developmental delay. You kind of feel like you’re not heard and you kind of feel like, oh yeah, but that’s not how we do it here. And I hate.
I hate that feeling and I hate having other people feel that way as well. I [00:27:00] don’t want you to feel that It is it’s going to be okay. Right. There are advantages for being underneath this category. They have to change it at some point, no matter What state you’re in. Um, but in most states, it is before age nine, and then you will be ready by that
With the list of challenges that they’re having. And you will have an idea of the eligibility category. That you really want them to be under because you’ve been paying attention for so long. So it is not a bad thing okay. So again, if you have any questions about your particular state’s definition of developmental delay or any other category, or if you want to see if your state has a checklist, if you need help finding that absolutely jump into the Facebook group.
Again, you can go to the IEP lab.com
slash podcast. And you can find the link at the top of the page there. Go ahead and, and click that link. Ask for permission to get into the group, make a new post, and really tell us what you’re looking for so that we can help you find it so that [00:28:00] you can get a really great IEP for your kid this year.
Again, just a quick reminder that if you haven’t caught my webinar, that I’ve been doing a couple of times this week, there might be one more coming. We will see. How to go through that IEP and really determine if it’s effective or Then, definitely check that out. If you haven’t seen it, if you’re on my email list, you probably got a couple emails about joining me in that webinar.
And this is all to kick off the doors opening of the ultimate parent IEP prep course. And this is three months of group coaching. It allows you to ask direct questions to me and get really private support from me. So if you want me to check a goal, if you want me to kind of brainstorm with you about accommodations, we can do that privately through a jot form. You also get access to the library.
Everything’s set up in a four step process to get you educated about what your plan is. To get this. Incredibly amazing IEP for [00:29:00] your kid. And so step one is just knowing the system. So I go through this framework with you. Where we break down the sections on the IEP, we help you understand what is supposed to be in each of these sections.
And what’s supposed to happen in each and one of these processes. So we talk about the evaluation process like we did today, but we also talk about the IEP process. So at every IEP, when that comes up every year, what are you going to be prepared for? How should you be preparing for that?
And then step two is really making your decisions. This is the most favorite part of the whole entire course. Um, when parents go through it, they really like step two. And that is how to know what to ask for. So I take you through this framework where we just kind of do a brain dump of everything that you’re concerned of. And then I take you through two specific research based frameworks so that you can narrow down your priorities for the year.
And you also fill out your parent input plan, which is what you take [00:30:00] to the meeting, whether that’s virtual in person and you have everything where, you know, how they usually like. Put you on the spot for things, which is my number one pet peeve about IUP is ever, you are not going to have that happen to you because you have every single thing that you want to say in that outline that you’re bringing. And we talk about how to share that with your team as well, outside of the meeting or inside of the meeting
then step three is how to get accountability. How are you, how do you get the follow through from your team, especially this year where everybody is so concerned about staffing issues. We’re going to talk about how to get the follow through from your team and what you can do to influence that in your school district as well. How do we make sure that the IEP is being followed? And then lastly, we are talking about resources. So I have a whole resource list for you. National resources, local resources.
We have. A lot of different links to like podcasts courses, um, [00:31:00] how to find a lawyer, how to find an advocate, how to interview them, to make sure that they’re a good fit. So it’s a really great library that you have access to for life. And that gets updated at least every year, if not. More than that. It was just updated after I had my summer parent group go through.
And so it’s brand new information in there. And of course it’ll will get updated from here on out as well, plus group coaching. So you get me for an hour and a half small group setting so that you can kind of banter back and forth and talk about options. Talk about what you should do, how to phrase things when you ask for things as well.
So if you want to check that out, you can go to the IEP lab.com/course. And that link is in the show notes as well. Underneath this episode in your podcast player. Thank you again so much for listening. I’m so excited to jump into the last two categories that we have left in this bonus series. And I will see you.
Next week, same time, same place. Thanks so much. Talk to you soon. [00:32:00] Bye.