Children in City Family Court Systems Need Timely Evaluations by School District

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires school districts to proactively and efficiently identify children who may have disabilities through a “Child Find” system. Yet, as the Law Center’s Sonja Kerr illustrates here, this system often fails children in the Family Court dependency system, many of whom are not identified, despite the fact that rates of emotional, developmental and medical disorders are dramatically higher among these children.

Under the Child Find system, responsibility for identifying these children lies with school districts (and not parents), which must follow specific procedures and provide students with appropriate services. For more information on the responsibilities of the district and what is being done to address this need, read the full article.