Pursuant to IDEA ’04, Section 1412 (a)(3) and 1412 (a)(10) all school districts are required to actively identify every student with disabilities residing within the district’s jurisdictions who may be eligible for special education and related services. Saucon Valley School District accomplishes this task with its Child Find process.

The Child Find Process is a systematic approach providing initial screening and direct intervention to students experiencing difficulty academically or behaviorly. This process can be the first step in identifying whether a student is eligible for special education services.

A student is identified “at risk” of school failure by student performance data. These data may include grades, district or school assessment results, standardized test scores, attendance rates and disciplinary referrals.

The Child Find Team meets to examine the data and design appropriate interventions for the student. With the interventions in place, the child’s performance is monitored for a specified length of time. After this time period, the team reconvenes to assess the data and decide if further evaluation is warranted.

Team members may include parents and any appropriate school personnel. Parents/guardians play an integral part in the success of the process and are encouraged to attend their child’s team meetings and reinforce interventions and strategies implements both at school and home.

If you believe that your school-aged child may be in need of special education services and related programs, or that your child, age 3 to school age, may be in need of early intervention, screening and evaluation are available at no cost. This screening is designed to assess the needs of your child and his/her eligibility for services. A written request for screening and evaluation can be made at any time, whether or not your child is enrolled in the District’s public school program by contacting Ms. Moira O’Connor, Director of Special Education for Saucon Valley School District.