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IDEA Implementation: Archdiocese of Chicago

This survey contains basic questions about your school’s participation in the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA).

IDEA is one of two separate federal education programs (the other is The Every Student Succeeds Act, referred to commonly as "ESSA") which, collectively, provide to all public and charter school students, families, and teachers and, also, certain qualified private school students, families, and teachers federally-funded education services and interventions.
 
About this survey, please note as follows:
  • This survey should take, on average, 5-7 minutes for you to complete.
  • This survey is about IDEA only. 
  • When applicable, please answer these questions in light of your most recent experience(s) with IDEA.
  • The data that you provide in this survey will contribute to the aggregate data that will be generated from the data provided by the other principals of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
  • No employee, agent, or affiliate of the Archdiocese of Chicago will have access to your individual responses.
Introductory questions
1.What is your name (first, last)?(Required.)
2.What is the name of your school?(Required.)
3.In which Local Education Agency (LEA), that is, school district, is your school located?(Required.)
4.What is the total student enrollment of your school?(Required.)
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT (IDEA)

 
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal program that provides federally-funded special education and related services to students with disabilities.
 
In some states, there may also exist state laws that grant to private school students state and/or locally funded special education (and related) services.
 
Unlike public school students, non-public (i.e. private/Catholic school) school students do not have an individual entitlement to IDEA services and, thus, not all Catholic school students will necessarily be served under IDEA.
 
Because in accord with the US Constitution's Supremacy Clause state laws may never supersede federal laws, it is the case that state laws may never grant to special needs students less service(s) than those to which they are entitled under federal IDEA law nor undermine or thwart, in any manner, those same students' access to the IDEA services to which they are entitled.
5.In your rough estimation, what percentage of your total student population requires special education and/or related services?(Required.)
Child Find: The IDEA law includes comprehensive guidelines on how private school students’ allocations and services should be determined. Among these guidelines are specific directives on how LEAs are to collaborate with private schools in making and finalizing those determinations. Chief among these means of determination is a process that the law calls “child-find.” Each LEA is obligated to test for a disability(s) any child who is suspected by his/her parents of having a disability(s). As regards any private school, the LEA in which that private school is located has this obligation. This means, then, that irrespective of where a child resides the LEA in which a student's private school is located is the LEA that is obligated to conduct “child find.”
6.Does your LEA (i.e. public school district) conduct “Child Find”?(Required.)
If you selected "no" or "I don't know," then skip to question 8.
7.What percentage of your students after the LEA has conducted "Child-find" (i.e. evaluations) have been identified as having needs for special education and/or related services?
Consultation: According to IDEA, throughout each school year LEAs must engage in “consultation” with all of the private schools which are located within them. This process involves “timely and meaningful” meetings between private school officials, private school parents, and LEA officials.
 
These consultation meetings determine how, where, and by whom special education and related services will be provided.

IDEA permits services to be provided on-site at Catholic schools.
8.Have you and/or your staff engaged in IDEA-related consultation with your LEA?(Required.)
If you selected as your answer either "no" or "I do not know," then please skip to question 16.
9.During the consultation meetings that you and/or members of your staff have had with LEA officials, has the LEA provided confirmation of the number of eligible students who, residing within your school's LEA, have been identified as requiring special education and/or related services?
10.During the consultation meetings that you and/or members of your staff have had with LEA officials, has the LEA provided confirmation of the number of eligible students who, residing outside your school's LEA, have been identified as requiring special education and/or related services?
Proportionate Share: Before any further positive and impactful conclusions can come from a consultation meeting(s), a matter called “proportionate share” must first be determined.
 
To private school students and their families this matter is incredibly important. Why? Because unlike their public-school counterparts, private school students do not have to IDEA services an individual entitlement. Rather, the private school students who qualify for special needs services in any given LEA attain, collectively, a “proportionate share” of the total IDEA funds that the federal government has to that particular LEA allocated. This means, then, that not all special needs children will receive services. During the “consultation” process that occurs between LEA officials and private school officials, the questions of where, how, by whom and to whom special education and related services will be provided are, as mandated by the law, supposed to be answered.
11.Has your LEA clearly conveyed to you the IDEA “proportionate share” amount to which your students are, by law, entitled?
12.Has your LEA engaged in active, collaborative, and meaningful conversation about which services will be provided?
13.Has your LEA engaged in active, collaborative, and meaningful conversation about which of your students will receive services?
14.Does your LEA have a blanket rule about the services that it will/will not provide each year? (For example, has your LEA ever told you, "This year, we will only be providing to your students speech services.")
15.Has your LEA engaged in active, collaborative, and meaningful conversation about how/by whom those services will be provided?
16.Do you have any general comments about your experience of IDEA-implementation in your schools? Please provide:
17.Regarding IDEA, is there a specific topic on which you would find it most helpful to focus? Please describe:
18.Please provide here any additional comments:
Current Progress,
0 of 18 answered