Referrals for students with disabilities come from a number of sources for preschool. We work with local Help Me Grow and Early Intervention Programs to support students and families as they transition from Birth-3 Intervention Services to Special Education Preschool Services. Parents/Guardians with a concern for the development of their child or a child in their care can call the preschool office and make a referral to the school district for their own child. Doctors and Nurse Practitioners may refer a child for developmental concerns in conjunction with a parent referral. 

After initial contact a member of the evaluation team, usually the school psychologist, will reach out to the family to discuss the concerns and get more information about the nature of the child's development. This happens within a week or two of making initial contact with our team. If the evaluation team agrees to move forward with formal evaluation because of a suspected disability, the school psychologist would take a special education referral and consent for evaluation at a preschool planning meeting. The child will then be scheduled for an evaluation at our center by the play-based assessment team. 

Families and children come into our center to participate in play-based assessment by the evaluation team. Depending on the developmental concerns this team would include the school psychologist, intervention specialist, speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, and/or physical therapist. Evaluations take 45 minutes to an hour. Typically parents provide supplemental information regarding what their child does at home and in the community in addition to the formal evaluation. This might be in the form of parent interview or formal rating scales. 

After the evaluation families are invited to participate in a virtual meeting to discuss the results of the evaluation. All team members provide information that was gathered during the evaluation process in a formal document called the Evaluation Team Report or ETR. If the team agrees that the child is eligible for special education services as a preschool child with a disability the team will schedule another meeting to develop and discuss an Individualized Education Plan or IEP. Students who are eligible for special education services are identified under one of the disability categories identified in federal and state law. 

If a child is determined to have a disability by the evaluation team, an IEP is developed to provide services for the child that will meet their specific developmental needs. The IEP will outline the concerns for the child's development as well as the child's strengths and weaknesses. The team will develop measurable goals and objectives based on the child's baseline data from the evaluation. The team will discuss services such as therapeutic services and transportation services in the context of the child's developmental needs. Those services are written into the IEP and parents are provided progress reports every 12 weeks. The IEP meeting is a virtual meeting where the formal document is reviewed and changes are made to finalize the document. 

Parents will go to the Welcome Center and complete an enrollment packet for their student. After the child is enrolled in Reynoldsburg City Schools and has an IEP start date, the family will be invited to come to school and meet the teacher. This will allow the family to see the classroom and meet the staff who will be working directly with their student. Parents will be given additional information at that time about transportation, parent pick-up/drop-off, supplies, and preschool calendar events. Students must be enrolled in order to attend preschool.