A Sample Letter for Appealing an Identification or Placement Decision

School Boards are required to establish committees for the purpose of Identification and appropriate Placement of students with special needs. These committees are called IPRCs (Identification, Placement and Review Committee). Any student has a right to an IPRC, even if the student is in Kindergarten. Once the child is enrolled, an initial IPRC meeting or a Review can be requested by either the parent or the principal of the school.

What does Identification mean?

Special needs students can be formally identified under one or more of the Categories of Exceptionality. There are 5 categories under the Education Act: Behaviour, Communication, Intellectual, Physical, and Multiple. Specific diagnoses are included under these categories. For example Autism, Learning Disability, Deaf, and Speech Impairment fall under the Communication category. Under the Intellectual category, falls Gifted, Mild Intellectual Disability, and Developmental Disability.

What are the Placement options?

School boards must provide a range of placement options to meet the needs of all their students. Examples are: Regular class, Regular class with indirect support, Regular class with Resource assistance, Regular class with withdrawal assistance, Special Education Class with partial integration, Special Education Class full-time, Provincial and Demonstration schools, Care and Treatment facilities.

What's the next step if the Parent Agrees or Disagrees?

Parents have the right to participate in the meeting and must state their agreement or disagreement of the decision within 30 days following the meeting. If the parent agrees with the IPRCs decision, he/she should sign the form indicating agreement. The Identification and/or Placement will then be implemented or continued as the case may be. But what if the parent disagrees with either the Identification or the Placement decision or both? He/she must file a Notice of Appeal with the Director of Education stating which decision they disagree with and why.

All About Preschool Education

Preschool education is a special learning process prepared for kids that are not matured enough to enroll in the compulsory education system. It's also referred to as "infant education." It's mainly meant for kids that are between the ages of 0 to 3. In some locations, it's meant for children that are between the ages of 1 to 5.

There are diverse forms of preschool education obtainable in various cities and nations across the globe. In the US for instance, preschool comes before the kindergarten stage. In Europe, both kindergarten and preschool run concurrently. They have the same programs and processes in most cities. In African nations, infant education is highly cherished by parents. It's quite different from kindergarten and nursery school levels.

In any case, infant education is generally tailored to meet the needs of kids at their very tender ages. There are unique programs offered at the infant education level. Among them include day-care services. Working parents benefit a lot from the programs. They can easily enroll their kids while still maintaining their jobs. All they need is to drop the kids at the available facilities every morning and then pick them up in the evening.

Meanwhile, preschool education is meant to develop the child in diverse ways. There are several areas that are usually covered. Special programs are normally offered to develop the kid. There's a special focus on emotional development of the child. There's also special focus on social and personal development. The kids are taught how to communicate and use sign language. They are also taught how to speak and listen attentively.

Furthermore, there are several facilities that are usually provided in a reliable infant education system. Among them include playing grounds, recreational facilities, and toilet and bath facilities. There are also special rooms for daily teaching. There are equally rooms for daily feeding of the kids.

To make infant education very proactive, well trained teachers are usually engaged. They are always well groomed to handle kids on daily basis. They have to be with the kids all through the daily training sessions.

In all, preschool education comes with diverse benefits. It helps a lot in developing a child's mental faculty. It improves the thinking ability of the kid. It enhances the social development of the infant. It's also prepares the child to face further educational processes in his or her life. It's indeed a vital level that can launch a child to greater heights.

How To Effectively Help Children Overcome Their Learning Disability

Dyslexia is a well-known learning disability that occurs when the brain recognizes, processes, and interprets symbols or information in another way. It is a lifelong challenge that many children go through as it prevents them from acquiring the proper skills of reading, writing, spelling, and to some degree, speaking. And oftentimes, such learning disability is mistaken for poor intelligence and also laziness.

Understanding dyslexia will help parents recognize the essential symptoms of the learning disability and this can be a great factor in effectively treating it should specialists confirm such a condition in their child. Once the symptoms are recognized, the family as well as the teachers of the child with dyslexia should come together and think about the best intervention programs that will promote dyslexia treatment.

Dyslexia symptoms in children may include difficulty in pronouncing words, recognizing letters as well as matching letters to sounds, problems with learning and accurately using new vocabulary words, troubles in rhyming, and many more. Since there is no known cure for dyslexia yet, the only solution is to seek literacy programs that are designed to address the many symptoms of the learning disability and help the child overcome certain difficulties associated with it.

Educational tools are generally used as treatment as opposed to medication. Basically, an initial assessment should be conducted to evaluate the child's weaknesses and strengths. Parents should approach a specialist or perhaps an innovative education establishment that are centered on treating dyslexia. Then expert teachers together with assessors will work hand in hand to formulate an individualized education program that will address the child's difficulties in reading, writing, spelling, and speaking. Such intensive literacy program must enumerate in detail the child's particular disabilities along with the specific teaching methods.

Well-structured programs created by professionals with countless experiences with children with dyslexia usually apply a multi-sensory approach that may focus on vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, reading and writing, synthetic and analytical phonics, and phonemic awareness.

When it comes to treating dyslexia, it does not solely depend on the teachers at school, the tutors, and other educators who specialize in the learning disability. An effective treatment of a child's dyslexia should also include the responsibilities of the parents. Having a structured environment at home can definitely motivate a child to work on his or her skills in reading and writing. Parents and other family members can instrumentally reinforce the child's comprehension by helping him or her to maintain focus and also by emphasizing certain lessons.