Porter County Education Services

policy______

BOARD OF MANAGERS

PORTER COUNTY EDUCATION SERVICES

PLACEMENT OPTIONS AND CASELOADS

The following are the established Placement Options and Caseloads standards and procedures of the Interlocal required by Federal and State regulation for the provision of special education.

A. General Information

The Interlocal:

1. requires that the case conference committee determine the appropriate placement for a student based on the student’s needs; the nature and severity of the student’s disability; and, the type and intensity of services needed;

Placement is not based solely upon a disability category.

2. makes placements in the least restrictive environment possible in which the necessary special education and related services are provided, regardless of identified disability;

3. provides appropriately-licensed, special education teachers to teach the students assigned to their caseloads;

4. determines caseloads and class sizes for special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, or related services personnel by:

a. the nature and severity of the students’ disabilities;

b. the type and intensity of services needed as specified in the individualized education program;

c. the chronological ages of the students;

d. the chronological and mental age range of the students in part-time and full-time special education placements.

5. may prorate and reduce special education caseloads as necessary if one (1) of the following circumstances exists;

a. A full-time special education teacher or speech-language pathologist provides services to students in more than one (1) of the placement options.

b. The special education teacher or speech-language pathologist is employed or contracted on less than a full-time basis.

c. The special education teacher or speech-language pathologist serves more than one (1) building and travel is required.

B. Special Education Caseloads

The Interlocal provides caseloads for special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, or related service personnel who provide special education services based on the number of students assigned to that person and generally determined by the number of individualized education programs for which that person has partial or entire implementation responsibility and limited in number to allow the teacher to meet the individual needs of each student enrolled as specified in the student’s individualized education program.

C. Experimental Programs

The Interlocal may elect to pursue alternative, experimental, or innovative programs not approvable under Article 7, but will only do so, upon approval for such programs from the State Board of Education.

34 C.F.R. 300.223, 34 CFR 300.305, 34 CFR 300.550 - .552

I.C. 20-1-1-6, 20-1-6-14

511 IAC 7-3-8, 511 IAC 7-3-15, 511 IAC 7-3-25, 511 IAC 7-3-40, 511 IAC 7-3-45

511 IAC 7-3-50, 511 IAC 7-14-1 through 511 IAC 7-14-6