Child Find is a special education service provided by Main Preparatory Academy. It is the process of identifying, locating, and evaluating children with disabilities who may be in need of special education and related services.

Child Find- exists to fulfill the state and local education agencies responsibility by federal and state law to conduct Child Find activities so that children who need special services have the opportunity to receive those services.

Child Find is:

• To promote public awareness of disabilities.
• To alert parents, professionals, and the public to children who may have special needs.
• To assist school districts in finding children who may have disabilities and who otherwise may not have come to their attention.
• To enable children and families to receive the special education services that is needed.

What is a disability?

• Birth to Age 3 – An established condition known to result in developmental delay, or a documented developmental delay.
• Ages 3 to 5 – A documented deficit in one or more of the following developmental area: communication, vision, hearing, motor skills, social/emotional/behavioral functioning, self-help skills, and/or cognitive skills.
• Ages 5 to 21 – Identification of one or more of the following conditions: autism, deaf-blindness, hearing impairment including deafness, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, emotional disturbance, specific learning disability, speech or language impairments, traumatic brain injury, and/or visual impairment including blindness.

Who can help?
Parents, guardians, relatives, public, private agency employees, and concerned citizens are used to help school districts find any child, birth through age 21, who may have a disability and need special education and related services.  If you are aware of a child who may have special needs, please notify his/her school district.  Schools can do their job better with your help.

What happens next?
The school district will contact the parents or guardians of the child to find out if the child needs to be evaluated.  Free testing is available to families to determine whether or not a special need exists.  If a need is identified, the child can begin receiving special education and related services. 

Main Preparatory Academy is committed to providing special education students with opportunities along a continuum of services that offers access to and participation in the activities of the school and community environments as appropriate to the age and educational needs of the student.

Main Preparatory Academy upholds the principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as they support the rights of students with disabilities to have decisions regarding their individual instructional program made through the collaboration of parents who know their child best and professional educators who have knowledge of instructional practices and experience in guiding students with disabilities to become productive citizens.

CHILD FIND NOTICE

Main Preparatory Academy, an Ohio community school sponsored by Buckeye Community Hope Foundation is participating in the effort to identify, locate, and evaluate all children from birth through 21 years of age who may have disabilities.

If you have or know of a child who may have a disability, contact the school for more information and help. Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51-01 (B)(10) defines “Child with a disability” as a child evaluated in accordance with rule 3301-51-06 of the Administrative Code as having a cognitive disability (mental retardation), a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance, an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, other impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities, and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.

The school will ask for information specifically about the nature of the child’s disability, specific steps taken to address the disability, and what background or testing information is available regarding the child’s disability. The answers to these questions along with additional information gathered by the community school will be used to determine if the school suspects a disability. If the community school suspects a disability the school will conduct an evaluation which may consist of interviews, observations, screenings, and testing. This information may be obtained from parents and the student, or from other agencies that have information about the student. This information will be used to decide whether the child has a disability what special services the child may need. All information collected will be held in strict confidence and released to others only with parent permission or as allowed by law.

Parents have the right to: Review their child’s records; Refuse permission to release information (except as required by or permitted by law to be released); and Request that information they believe to be inaccurate, misleading, or in violation of their child’s privacy or other rights be changed. The school has a process to resolve disagreements about information collected. If you or someone you know has a child who needs assistance specifically related to a disability, contact us at 234.738.1925.