NCED Legal & Ethical Considerations 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which IDEA provision requires districts to locate, identify, and evaluate all children with suspected disabilities, including those in private schools?
- Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
- Child Find (Correct answer)
- Procedural Safeguards
- Prior Written Notice
Correct answer: Child Find
The Child Find mandate obligates districts to actively seek out and evaluate children who may have disabilities within their jurisdiction, including private school students.
Question 2: An educational diagnostician uses a norm-referenced test that was standardized on a population that did not include students similar to the child being evaluated. This raises concerns about:
- Test-retest reliability
- Measurement validity and cultural bias (Correct answer)
- Inter-rater reliability
- Standard error of measurement
Correct answer: Measurement validity and cultural bias
Using norms from a non-representative standardization sample threatens the validity of score interpretations and may introduce cultural or linguistic bias.
Question 3: Prior Written Notice (PWN) under IDEA must be provided to parents:
- Only when the district refuses a parental request
- Only before an initial evaluation
- Whenever the district proposes or refuses to initiate or change identification, evaluation, or placement (Correct answer)
- At the beginning of each school year
Correct answer: Whenever the district proposes or refuses to initiate or change identification, evaluation, or placement
PWN is required any time the district proposes or refuses to take action regarding a student's identification, evaluation, educational placement, or FAPE provision.
Question 4: A school district proposes placing a student in a self-contained classroom without attempting less restrictive options. Parents disagree. The parents' MOST immediate legal recourse is to:
- File a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights
- Request a due process hearing or pursue mediation (Correct answer)
- Contact the U.S. Department of Education directly
- Withdraw the student and pursue private evaluation
Correct answer: Request a due process hearing or pursue mediation
IDEA's procedural safeguards provide parents the right to request mediation or a due process hearing to challenge placement decisions.
Question 5: Under IDEA's 'educational benefit' standard established in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (2017), an IEP must:
- Guarantee grade-level performance for all students with disabilities
- Provide merely more than de minimis educational benefit
- Be reasonably calculated to enable a child to make appropriate progress in light of the child's circumstances (Correct answer)
- Match services provided in the private sector
Correct answer: Be reasonably calculated to enable a child to make appropriate progress in light of the child's circumstances
The Supreme Court in Endrew F. clarified that IEPs must be reasonably calculated to enable meaningful educational progress, raising the standard above de minimis benefit.
Question 6: Which document outlines the ethical obligations specific to educational diagnosticians certified by the National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) and related bodies?
- APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists
- CEC Code of Ethics for Special Educators (Correct answer)
- NASDSE Policy Guidelines
- FERPA Implementation Guide
Correct answer: CEC Code of Ethics for Special Educators
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Code of Ethics provides the primary ethical framework governing the professional conduct of special educators, including educational diagnosticians.
Question 7: When a diagnostician is asked to conduct a reevaluation, parental consent is required:
- Always, without exception
- Only if the district proposes to change the student's eligibility category
- Unless the district can demonstrate the reevaluation is unnecessary and parents are notified (Correct answer)
- Only for students initially identified after age 10
Correct answer: Unless the district can demonstrate the reevaluation is unnecessary and parents are notified
For reevaluations, parental consent is required unless the district can show the reevaluation is not needed and has notified parents, who do not object.
NCED Legal & Ethical Considerations 3
Which IDEA provision requires districts to locate, identify, and evaluate all children with suspected disabilities, including those in private schools?