Speech Therapy Rights Under Federal Special Education Law

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the federal law that covers speech therapy through early intervention, for babies and toddlers, and through public schools from age three. It gives parents the right to agree to or refuse evaluations and services, to written notice before changes, to see their child’s records, and to challenge decisions they disagree with.

What you’ll learn

• Which rights apply in early intervention, and which at school
• What you can agree to, turn down or ask to see
• How written notice and your child’s records work
• What to do when you disagree with an evaluation

What Rights Does Federal Law Give for Speech Therapy?

The U.S. Department of Education describes the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as the law that makes a free appropriate public education available to eligible children with disabilities. It also ensures special education and related services for them. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the law covers students with communication disorders, and speech-language pathology services for children with disabilities can qualify under either of its two main parts.

Part C of the law is early intervention, which serves babies and toddlers with disabilities, and their families, starting from birth. Part B serves children and young people aged three through twenty-one, through the local school district. Several rights appear in both parts, but the plan, the paperwork and some time limits differ, so it helps to know which part your child’s therapy comes under.

Whichever part applies, the rights exist so that you take part in decisions about your child’s speech and language development. If your child has not been evaluated yet, getting a speech evaluation walks through the first call. Free speech therapy for children looks at where publicly funded therapy can be found.

Saying Yes or No in Early Intervention

Early intervention needs a parent’s consent twice over under the federal regulations for Part C. The program must have your consent before any evaluation of your child, and again before any service is provided. The Center for Parent Information and Resources adds that consent is given in writing for each service, so a child does not receive a service the parent has not agreed to in writing.

You also decide whether to accept or decline any early intervention service, at any time. Turning one down, even after accepting it, does not put your family’s other services at risk. Saying no to one part of the plan is not saying no to all of it.

The Family Plan and Where Services Happen

The plan itself is the Individualized Family Service Plan, or IFSP. The Center for Parent Information and Resources calls it a whole-family plan, with parents as major contributors to writing it. ASHA adds that Part C requires early intervention providers to involve families in every part of a child’s services, to whatever extent the family chooses.

Services are meant to happen, as far as appropriate, in natural environments. These are settings natural for children the same age without a disability, such as home or community settings. Another setting is used only when the parent and the IFSP team decide the outcomes cannot be achieved satisfactorily in a natural environment, and the plan must then explain why.

Each eligible child and family is also given one service coordinator, who coordinates services across agencies and is the family’s single point of contact. ASHA describes the service coordinator as the person who tells families their rights and responsibilities, and when their informed consent is needed. That makes the coordinator the natural first call whenever a right is unclear.

From clinical practice

May a parent question a speech therapy plan, or only sign it? The paperwork the law requires answers that. No first evaluation or service goes ahead without the parent’s consent. Any change the program proposes, or refuses, has to reach the parent in writing beforehand. The records are open on request as well.

Paperwork Early Intervention Has to Give You

Before an early intervention program proposes, or refuses, to start or change your child’s identification, evaluation or placement, or your family’s services, it must give you written notice a reasonable time in advance. The notice also has to explain all of your procedural safeguards, meaning the protections the law gives parents. Those include mediation and how to file a state complaint or a due process complaint, along with any timelines.

The notice must be in language the general public can understand, and in your native language unless that is clearly not feasible. You can also ask to inspect and review your child’s early intervention records. The program must respond without unnecessary delay, before any IFSP meeting, and never more than 10 days after you ask. Asking in writing, with the date noted, shows when those 10 days are up.

Asking the School District for an Evaluation

From age three, special education and related services come through Part B and the local school district. Either a parent or the school can ask for an initial evaluation to find out whether a child has a disability. For a child aged three or older, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tells parents to contact any local public elementary school, including one the child does not attend.

The school needs your informed consent before that first evaluation. Agreeing to the evaluation is not agreeing to services, which need a separate consent before the school first provides them. The school then has 60 days from receiving your consent to complete the evaluation, unless your state has set its own timeframe.

Eligibility at school is a separate decision, made by the school district against its own criteria, so qualifying for early intervention does not by itself make a child eligible for school services. What a school has to find for eligibility explains that decision. For a child who qualifies, the written plan is the Individualized Education Program, or IEP, developed by a team of school staff together with the child’s parents.

Parents must be given the chance to take part in meetings about their child’s identification, evaluation, placement and free appropriate public education. Speech-language pathology is named in the regulations as a related service, and it covers counseling and guidance of parents as well as therapy for the child. Where state standards treat it as special education, it counts as special education in its own right. Either way, services in the IEP come at public expense and without charge to the family.

Written Notice and Records at School

Schools have a written notice rule of their own. Whenever the school proposes to begin or change your child’s identification, evaluation, educational placement or free appropriate public education, or refuses to, it must tell you in writing a reasonable time beforehand. The same plain-language and native-language requirements apply as in early intervention.

The school must also give you the procedural safeguards notice once a school year. You also receive it when your child is first referred or you ask for an evaluation, and whenever you request it. The notice explains independent educational evaluations, prior written notice, consent, access to records and how complaints are resolved, which makes it worth keeping with your child’s school papers.

Education records are yours to inspect and review as well. The school must respond without unnecessary delay, before any IEP meeting or hearing, and in no case later than 45 days after your request. It must also explain the records when you reasonably ask, which helps when a report uses terms nobody has explained to you.

Disagreeing With a School Evaluation or Decision

If you disagree with the school’s evaluation, you have the right to an independent educational evaluation, or IEE, at public expense. A qualified examiner who does not work for the school carries it out. The school must then, without unnecessary delay, either pay for the IEE or file a due process complaint to show that its own evaluation was appropriate.

You are entitled to one IEE at public expense each time the school does an evaluation you disagree with. Its results, or those of a private evaluation you decide to share, must be considered in decisions about your child’s education, as long as the evaluation meets the school’s criteria.

Mediation, Complaints and Hearings

When a disagreement goes beyond the evaluation, the law’s routes include mediation, a complaint to the state, and a due process complaint, which can lead to a due process hearing. Mediation is voluntary for both sides and paid for by the state, and it cannot be used to deny or delay your right to a hearing.

A state complaint must be signed and in writing, and any individual or organization can file one. It has to concern a violation that happened no more than one year before the state receives it. A due process complaint is the route toward a hearing, and before any hearing takes place, the school must hold a resolution meeting within 15 days of receiving your complaint.

Common Questions From Parents

Can I Ask the School District to Evaluate My Child’s Speech?

Yes. A parent or the school can request an initial evaluation. For a child three or older, the CDC suggests calling a nearby public elementary school, even one your child does not go to. The school needs your consent before it evaluates.

Do I Have to Agree to Everything in the Plan?

Not in early intervention, where consent is given in writing service by service and any service can be declined at any time without risking the rest. At school, services begin only with your consent, and the IEP comes from a team that includes you.

What Can I Do If I Disagree With the School’s Evaluation?

Ask for an independent educational evaluation at public expense, done by a qualified examiner who is not school staff. The school must either pay for it or ask for a due process hearing to defend its own evaluation.

Can I See My Child’s Records?

Yes. An early intervention program must let you inspect and review them before any IFSP meeting and within 10 days of asking. A school must do so before any IEP meeting or hearing and within 45 days, and explain the records if you reasonably ask.

What Is Prior Written Notice?

Prior written notice is what early intervention or a school must give you, a reasonable time before starting or changing your child’s evaluation, placement or services, or refusing to. It must be understandable to the general public, and in your own language unless doing so is clearly not feasible.

What Can I Do If We Cannot Agree?

With the school district, you can ask for mediation, file a complaint with the state, or file a due process complaint. Both sides have to agree to mediation, the state covers its cost, and taking part in it cannot hold up your right to a hearing.

Reviewed by Monica d’Errico-Franklin, M.S., CCC-SLP

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