POLICY LETTER: October 17, 2002 to Florida Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services Chief Shan Goff
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October 17, 2002 to Florida Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services Chief Shan Goff (MS Word)
MS WORDOctober 17, 2002 to Florida Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services Chief Shan Goff (PDF)
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October 17, 2002 to Florida Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services Chief Shan Goff (MS Word)
Dated October 17, 2002Ms. Shan GoffBureau of Instructional Support and Community ServicesFlorida Education Center325 West Gaines StreetTallahassee, Florida 32399-0400Dear Ms. Goff:This letter is a follow-up to those actions that the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has taken to address the availability of speech and language pathology as a related service to children with disabilities in Florida. These include OSEP's review of the Florida Department of Education (FDE) and the report issued on April 26, 2001, the January 30, 2002 letter from OSEP to FDE concerning an Office for Civil Rights (OCR) complaint, FDE's additional assurance as stated in the July 1, 2002 grant award letter, and OSEP's review of Florida's Improvement Plan submitted on August 20, 2002.In the monitoring report assessing FDE's compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), OSEP determined that school districts do not ensure that children who need speech and language pathology as a related service to benefit from special education receive that service. This finding was based on 34 CFR 300.24(b)(14) and 300.300 requiring public agencies to provide speech and language pathology as a related service to children with disabilities who need that service to benefit from special education. In response to an inquiry from a member of the public, who also filed an OCR complaint on the same issue, OSEP sent a letter to FDE concerning the standard FDE applied in its September 11, 2001 Report of Inquiry to the complainant. The conclusion that FDE reached in the Report of Inquiry states that a student must be determined eligible under the criteria for the special programs for students who are speech and language impaired in order to receive direct services from a speech and language pathologist. OSEP is currently in the process of reviewing FDE's Improvement Plan intended to guide Florida's efforts to ensure compliance and improve results for children with disabilities and their families who are served under IDEA. The Improvement Plan addresses the areas of noncompliance, including the speech issue, identified in OSEP's monitoring report and will be used by FDE as a vehicle for correcting deficiencies. With regard to the speech issue, the Improvement Plan strategies will not correct the problem because they are based on the incorrect interpretation of the standard as evidenced in the memorandum to district school superintendents developed to respond to the OCR complaint. Although FDE, as set forth in the State Board of Education Rules 6A-6.03012, considers speech to be a special education service, FDE must also ensure that school districts provide speech and language services to any child with a disability who neeSincerely,/s/Stephanie S. LeeDirectorOffice of Special Education Programs Page PAGE 2 Ms. Shan Goff
TOPIC ADDRESSED: State Educational Agency General Supervisory Authority |
SECTION OF IDEA: Part B—Assistance for Education of All Children With Disabilities; Section 612—State Eligibility
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Last modified on April 27, 2017