When is my child eligible for Preschool Special Education Services? What happens after my child receives a Committee on Preschool Education (CPSE) evaluation?

After your child’s CPSE evaluation is completed, you will be invited to a CPSE meeting, as a member of the Committee, to review the evaluation results. Based on that information, the Committee then decides if your child is eligible or not eligible to receive special education services .If a child is eligible, the Committee then develops and implements an appropriate Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to meet the needs of the child or student. Based on the IEP, the Committee must ensure that services are provided in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Placement must be as close as possible to the student’s home, and unless the student’s IEP requires some other arrangement, the student must be educated in the school he or she would have attended if not disabled. You , as the parent ,should attend this meeting because you have important information to share about your child. If you cannot attend, you have the right to ask the district to change the time or place of the meeting.

In order to be eligible , a preschool child must exhibit a significant delay or disorder in one or more areas of cognitive, language and communicative, adaptive, socio-emotional or motor development which adversely affects a student's ability to learn at school. . Such delay or disorder must be documented by the results of the individual evaluation which includes but is not limited to information in all functional areas obtained from a structured observation of a student's performance and behavior at school, a parental interview and other individually administered assessment procedures, and, when reviewed in combination and compared to accepted milestones for child development, indicate:

(a) a 12-month delay in one or more functional area(s); or

(b) a 33 percent delay in one functional area, or a 25 percent delay in each of two functional areas; or

(c) if appropriate standardized instruments are individually administered in the evaluation process, a score of 2.0 standard deviations below the mean in one functional area, or a score of 1.5 standard deviations below the mean in each of two functional areas.

A child who is diagnosed with one or more of the following diagnoses:

- autism - deaf-blindness
- deafness - hearing impairment
- orthopedic impairment - other health impairments
- traumatic brain injury - visual impairment, including blindness

(From: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/lawsregs/sect2001.htm )