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Special Education Options for Students with Developmental Cognitive Disabilities

Once eligibility has been established for a student under the DCD category, IDEA 2004 mandates that the educational team determine placement and services needed by the student. These decisions are to be re-evaluated at least every three years. The following summary of federal law is used with permission from the Minnesota Department of Education’s Promising Practices for the Identification of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities manual, page 10 (click on the link entitled "Developmental Cognitive Disability Manual" to download this document):

Pub. L. No. 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 mandated a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for all children with disabilities, ensured a due process right, an IEP (Individualized Education Program), and LRE (Least Restrictive Environment). As such, it is the core of the federal funding for special education. This law was passed in 1975 and went into effect in October 1977, when the regulations were finalized. State parent training and information centers were authorized under the 1983 amendments (Pub. L. No. 98-199). Services for preschoolers and early intervention services for infants were added as Part H in 1986 (Pub. L. No. 99-457). In 1990, the law was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act(Pub. L. No. 101-476). This amendment also mandated transition services, defined assistive technology, and added autism and traumatic brain injury to the eligibility list. The most recent amendments are included in the 1997 reauthorization (Pub. L. No. 105-17). This amendment made significant changes to the discipline sections and requires that positive behavior intervention be used when students with disabilities exhibit behavior problems.

Students with DCD may be served and supported in the educational setting in a variety of ways. Some of the most common options include:

• Regular classroom includes services provided in a classroom with other students who do not have disabilities. Students with DCD may need additional support from paraprofessionals and creative adaptations to the curriculum and educational environment to achieve their educational goals, but they often do well learning alongside other students with educational support services. This is especially true for younger students.
• Resource room includes special education services that are provided outside of a regular classroom and that support the academic progress of a student with DCD. Some examples of a resource area are a special education classroom, a special section of the library, a quiet area in a secluded part of an education building, or a rooms that is not currently being used, such as a gym, physical therapy area, etc.
• Separate classroom includes educational instruction that is provided in a classroom away from other mainstream students. Students with DCD may spend their entire school day in this setting or only part of their day.
• Separate Site: Some students are also served in separate special education schools with or without residential components based on their specific needs. You may hear this referred to as a Center-based Classroom. This type of location or setting is not as common as the first three.

The Individual Educational Program will guide how and where the student with DCD receives special education services because the student’s educational plan must be developed to meet his/her unique needs. The student’s educational team, through careful assessment and evaluation, must identify and develop educational services that specifically meet the student’s educational needs. A paraprofessional who supports a student who receives special education under the DCD category can review the IEP to learn about the student’s history, cognitive impairments, and evaluation tests. You can share your observations of the student’s performance in the classroom, during leisure time, and while transitioning from one learning environment to another, and personal experiences with your supervisor and members of the education team whenever appropriate.

References

Minnesota Department of Education. (2004). Promising practices for the identification of individuals with development disabilities (draft) (Developmental Cognitive Disability Manual). Retrieved March 21, 2007, from http://www.nesc.k12.mn.us/special_ed/manuals/

The Para eLink is sponsored by the Minnesota Paraprofessional Consortium, in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education, located at the Institute on Community Integration in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.

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