Assessment for Eligibility Under IDEIA and the 2006 Regulations

In this article, the authors briefly examine the legal requirements for assessing students' eligibility for special education services. They then analyze the major changes regarding assessment for eligibility determination in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) passed in 2004 and the regulations implementing the law, published in August 2006. (See the appendix for a description of the changes in IDEIA regarding eligibility determination; these changes are significant and will alter the ways in which school-based teams conduct the eligibility determination process.) Finally, they analyze school districts' obligations under IDEIA and provide suggestions for ensuring that the eligibility process is both educationally appropriate and legally correct. Because individual states will need to align their special education rules and regulations to those of IDEIA, readers will need to monitor developments in their respective states to determine how the new provisions will affect local school districts.