Child Find
Child Find legally requires school districts to identify, locate and evaluate all children in
the community (ages birth-21) who have or are suspected of having a disability. Child
Find is the responsibility of all Houston ISD employees.
Campuses must also ensure the Child Find process is followed for students who may be
homeless, wards of the State, and/or in the Juvenile Justice System.
HISD has systems in place to identify, locate and evaluate young children with
disabilities transitioning from Early Childhood Agencies (ECI) and turning 3. The
evaluation Intake Team participates in ECI transition meetings with ECI agencies and
completes the evaluation process. Campuses must hold the ARD meeting and begin
services by the child’s 3
rd
birthday.
Parents Referrals
• Parents may contact their child’s school to request an evaluation. An Intervention
Assistance Team (IAT) meeting must be scheduled within 15 school days to
discuss concerns.
• At that time, the IAT must provide the parent a prior written notice (PWN) of
whether it agrees or refuses to evaluate the student, along with a copy of the
Notice of Procedural Safeguards.
• If the IAT agrees to evaluate the student, it must also give the parent the
opportunity to provide written consent for the evaluation. An Educational
Diagnostician, Licensed Specialist in School Psychology or Speech-Language
Pathologist must be present to issue consent.
Private School/Home Schooled/Non-Enrolled Students
• Parents may request an evaluation by contacting the Office of Special Education
Services at [email protected] or their neighborhood school if their child
attends a private school within the Houston ISD geographic boundaries or lives
within the Houston ISD geographic boundaries.
• For walk-up evaluation requests, campus personnel must register students as
non-ADA to verify name, address, guardian name and date of birth.
Timelines
• All requests for evaluation must be considered by the campus Intervention
Assistance Team, which includes a Request for Evaluation (RFE) document in
EasyIEP.
• Parents must receive a written response to a request for evaluation within 15
school days. This response must be provided in the form of a Notice of Decision
Not to Test or by obtaining informed consent to proceed with an evaluation. The
response to the request for evaluation must be discussed, decided on, and
documented by the IAT; however, evaluation team members provide the response
to the parent. The Response to the Request for Evaluation is completed in
EasyIEP. Names of all IAT participants must be included on the RFE Response in
EasyIEP.
• Once informed consent is obtained, the Full and Individual Evaluation (FIE) must
be completed within 45 school days of the date the consent was signed by the
parent.
• The ARD Committee must convene within 30 calendar days to discuss the
findings of the FIE and to use those findings to develop the student’s
Individualized Education Program (IEP).
Child Find Monitoring
Leaders must ensure the following:
• All personnel who answer the phone or work in the front office are trained on the
Child Find procedures, specifically for home schooled, private school, and other
students not enrolled in Houston ISD.
• IATs meet regularly to discuss student data (academic and behavior), provide
interventions in deficit areas, systematically monitor progress on interventions,
and refer students that do not show progress.
• IATs must make recommendations for referral based on data. The parent has the
right to deny consent for the evaluation, but the data should drive the decisions of
District personnel.
• IATs maintain documentation of all meetings, discussions and decisions.
• Timelines from Request for Evaluation to Response through the evaluation
process and ARD meeting must be maintained.
For more information, please contact the Office of Special Education Services at 713-
556-8000 or the following team members:
Mary Kay Kinnett, M.Ed., Director-Special Education Compliance, Instruction, and
Services (Evaluation Services)
Speech and Language & Educational Diagnosticians – Interim Supervisor
Traci Whittenberg, Ph.D., LSSP Senior Manager-Licensed Specialist in School
Psychology
