Special Services

We’re Here for You

Insight Schools of California (ISCA) offers robust special education services to support students and meet their needs, empowering them to thrive in school and beyond. With high-quality, personalized learning and the help of teachers and support staff, students with special needs can achieve their academic goals, find their confidence, and pave a path to success.

Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA)

A SELPA is a state-mandated association that provides for all the special education service needs of children residing within the regional boundaries. Each of the approximately 120 SELPAs develop a local plan describing how it provides special education services. Please visit the SELPA for your school as noted below:


Procedural Safeguards


Annual Public Notice of Special Services and Programs

In accordance with federal and state regulations, Insight Schools of California (ISCA) will provide an annual public notice to families informing them of the school’s child find responsibilities, procedures involved in the identification of educational disabilities, and determination of students’ service and support needs.

Families are encouraged to review the following information that describes these regulations. Information regarding the school’s internal practices to comply with these will be available in the Annual Parent and Student Handbook.


Child Find

ISCA strives to identify, locate, and evaluate all enrolled children who may have disabilities. Disability, as stated in IDEA, includes such conditions as hearing, visual, speech, or language impairment; specific learning disability; emotional disturbance; cognitive disability; other health or physical impairment; autism; and traumatic brain injury.

The process of identifying, locating, and evaluating these children is referred to as Child Find. As a public charter school, ISCA will respond vigorously to federal and state mandates requiring the provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education regardless of a child’s disability or the severity of the disability. In order to comply with the Child Find requirements, the school will implement procedures to help ensure that all students with disabilities, regardless of the severity of their disability, who are in need of special education and related services are identified, located, and evaluated—including students with disabilities who are homeless or students who are wards of the state.

Parent/guardian permission and involvement is a vital piece in the process. Once a student has been identified as having a “suspected disability” or identified as having a disability, the school will ask the student or the student’s parent/guardian for information about the child such as:

  • How has the suspected disability or identified disability hindered the student’s learning?
  • What has been done, educationally, to intervene and correct the student’s emerging learning deficits?
  • What educational or medical information relative to the suspected disability or identified disability is available to be shared with the school?

This information may be also be obtained from the student’s present or former teachers, therapists, doctors, or from other agencies that have information about the student.

All information collected will be held in strict confidence and released to others only with parental permission or as allowed by law. In keeping with this confidence, ISCA will keep a record of all persons who review confidential information. In accordance with state regulations, parents have the right to review their child’s records.

As part of the Child Find process, some services may include a complete evaluation, an individualized education program designed specifically for the child, and a referral to other agencies providing special services.


Consent


Special Education (IEP) or 504 Plans

For students confirmed to present with special education needs, once the IEP team agrees on the IEP and the student’s educational placement, the IEP, which serves as a Prior Written Notice, will be sent to the parent/guardian for signature. This must be signed and returned to the school. ISCA can only proceed with implementing the student’s IEP upon receipt of the signed initial IEP.

Some students are found to present with one or more disabilities, but do not meet the eligibility criteria outlined under IDEA (for special education); however, their disability may still require the school to develop a 504 Accommodation Plan to outline the special provisions a student may require for adaptations and/or accommodations in school-based instruction, facilities, and/or activities. Students may be eligible for certain accommodations or services if they have a mental or physical disability that substantially limits or prohibits participation in or access to an aspect of the school program and otherwise qualify under the applicable laws. ISCA will ensure that qualified students with disabilities have equal opportunity to participate in the school program and activities to the maximum extent appropriate for each individual student. In compliance with applicable state and federal laws, the school will provide students with disabilities the necessary educational services and supports they require to access and benefit from their educational program. This is to be done without discrimination or out of pocket cost to the student or family for the essential supplementary aids, services or accommodations determined to provide equal opportunity to participate in and obtain the benefits of the school program and extracurricular activities to the maximum extent appropriate to the student’s abilities and to the extent required by the laws.


Privacy and Confidentiality


Accommodations


Translation Needs


Request for Parent/Guardian Interpreter Services or Disability Accommodations


Special Education Grievances or Disputes


Dispute Resolution Options

IEP Facilitation – IEP facilitation is a voluntary process that can be utilized when all parties to an IEP meeting agree that the presence of a neutral third party would help facilitate communication and the successful drafting of the student’s IEP. This process is not necessary for most IEP meetings. Rather, it is most often utilized when there is a sense from any of the participants that the issues at the IEP meeting are creating an impasse or acrimonious climate. A parent should contact the Program Specialist assigned to their student’s grade level if they would like to request the SELPA to facilitate an IEP meeting for their student.


Mediation Only


Formal Due Process


Migrant Liaison

Krista Mount