Child Find

Miami Virtual Program Arizona 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 school, we 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, Miami Virtual Program Arizona will implement procedures to help ensure that all Miami Virtual Program Arizona 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, Miami Virtual Program Arizona 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 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, Miami Virtual Program Arizona 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

Miami Virtual Program Arizona cannot proceed with an evaluation, or with the initial provision of special education and related services, without the written consent of a student’s parents/legal guardians. For additional information related to consent, please refer to the Procedural Safeguards Notice which can be found, by CLICKING HERE or by accessing the link via the Child Find section of the Miami Virtual Program Arizona's website. Once written parental/guardian consent is obtained, Miami Virtual Program Arizona will proceed with the evaluation process. If the parent disagrees with the evaluation results, the parent can request an independent education evaluation at public expense.