New Residential Placement Rules: What they Really Mean for School District Placement Options
The COVID 19 pandemic has been difficult for many, but especially for our most significantly disabled students and their families who were faced with having their students home for extended periods of time during the mandatory shutdown of schools and the extended remote programming. Upon returning to in-person schooling, some of these students displayed significantly increasing aggressive behaviors and declining functional performance; resulting in IEP team decisions to place the student residentially. Additionally, nationwide staffing shortages in schools and in residential facilities have resulted in programs being unable to continue to meet the needs of these students, leaving residential facilities no choice but to issue discharge notices to districts with little time to find a new placement.
Consistent with a student’s IEP calling for a residential level of services, school districts throughout Illinois searched for appropriate facilities for these students; however, quickly discovered that there were no appropriate ISBE-approved residential facilities anywhere in the nation with availability. Until very recently, school districts were unable to place a student in a non-ISBE approved facility; therefore, many districts were faced with due process complaints from families due to a failure to provide FAPE in a residential facility consistent with the student’s IEP. As a result, over the last several months, stakeholders worked with ISBE to have emergency rules implemented and legislation filed to make necessary changes to the Illinois School Code in an effort to address this residential placement crisis.
Emergency Changes to the Special Education Rules:
The purpose of the new rule changes was to expand residential placement options and allow school districts to place students in non-ISBE approved placements under certain conditions when no ISBE-approved placements are available for a student. Under the emergency rules, a district may place a student in a non-ISBE approved non-public special education facility and receive reimbursement, provided ISBE provides an emergency and student-specific approval for placement. ISBE shall promptly, within 10 days of the request, approve requests for emergency and student-specific approval for placement when the following has been demonstrated:
The facility demonstrates appropriate certification of teachers for the student population;
The facility demonstrates age-appropriate curriculum;
The facility provides enrollment and attendance data;
The facility demonstrates the ability to implement the child’s IEP; and
The school district demonstrates that it made a good faith effort to place the student in an approved facility, but no approved facility has accepted the student or has availability for immediate placement for the student.
The emergency rules also allow a district to place a student in a non-ISBE approved facility when an impartial due process hearing officer orders such. Such facility shall be deemed approved for placement and resident district payments and state reimbursement shall be made accordingly.
These hearing officer ordered and emergency and student-specific placements can continue under the following conditions:
The student’s IEP team determines annually that the placement continues to be appropriate and meet the student’s needs; and
At least every three years following the student’s placement, the team will review appropriate ISBE-approved facilities to determine whether there are any approved facilities that can meet the student’s needs, have accepted the student, and have availability for placement of the student.
ISBE Forms and Assurances:
At the end of last week, ISBE issued new forms for school districts to submit to seek reimbursement for placements in a non-approved ISBE facility when ordered by a hearing officer (Form 51-77 and 51-77A) or when made due to an emergency and student-specific situation (Form 34-43) consistent with the emergency rules. In order to obtain reimbursement, school districts must make certain assurances to ISBE related to the student and placement as part of submission of these forms. It is important to note that the assurances school districts need to make differ depending on whether the non-ISBE approved placement was ordered by a hearing officer, versus emergency and student-specific placements made in accordance with the rules. Therefore, school districts should review such and pay close attention to the form requirements and assurances when moving forward with placements and when deciding whether to proceed with a due process hearing or a student-specific placement pursuant to the emergency rules.
Recommendations for School Districts:
When faced with a student who requires residential placement and the school district cannot locate an appropriate and available ISBE-approved placement, school districts should ensure the following has been completed:
Utilize ISBE’s Private Facility Search Engine to locate appropriate ISBE-approved placements and consult with ISBE to determine if there are any additional facilities that have not been explored or facilities that are nearing approval status.
Make a good faith effort to locate an available and appropriate ISBE-approved residential placement and maintain clear documentation of such within an Excel spreadsheet consistent with ISBE’s outlined required data.
When exploring non-ISBE approved facilities request that the facility provides documentation of the following, which are required for emergency and student-specific placements made in accordance with the rules, and maintain such documentation.
Appropriate certification of teachers for the student population;
Age-appropriate curriculum;
Enrollment and attendance data; and
Ability to implement the student’s IEP.
Review ISBE forms to ensure the district has the appropriate documentation to obtain reimbursement before the placement is made.
Determine whether to proceed with placement in a non-ISBE approved residential facility via a due process hearing or via the student-specific emergency rule process, as there are differing timing, form requirements and assurance considerations between the two options.
Enter into contract with the non-ISBE approved facility. Note: ISBE is not providing a model contract for such, as they do for ISBE-approved facilities.
Obtain and maintain detailed invoices from the facility breaking down costs of tuition, room and board, individual aide, and other allowable costs.
Obtain the school calendar for the non-ISBE approved residential facility.
While these emergency rules make additional options available to families and school districts by allowing parties to look at non-ISBE approved facilities that may meet an individual student’s needs, there is still a significant shortage of residential placements for students and lengthy waiting lists. Thus, school districts may still be faced with denial of FAPE claims and will need to attempt to program for students in the interim to lessen compensatory education claims while they search for ISBE-approved and non-ISBE approved residential placements.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.