My Child has ADD; do they qualify for Special Education?

Without wanting to come across circumspect, the best answer to this question is MAYBE.  There are certainly cases where students are serviced under Special Education who are not learning disabled or meet the criteria for having an emotional handicap. In fact, in my years of teaching, I have always had at least one, often more, students whose only "issue" is that they have ADD.

So how does a parent get to the point where their child gets the additional servcies that come with an IEP? Its not a short process, I want you to know that going into it.

And why does it often take so long for a student with ADD to be indentified as needing an IEP? I hope to address that point as well in this post.

Remember, the whole goal of education is to provide a FREE AND APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION to all students. Along with that, the federal guidelines established under 2004's IDEA show a push toward maintaining a "Least Restrictive Environment" for all students.  This regulation is in direct contrast to the way things were handled fifty years ago when students who didn't fit the typical picture would be sent off to either a special school or an institution.  Times have changed dramatically since then and I would like to think we have learned a thing or two along the way.

With that in mind, when a student exhibits behavior in the classroom, say, "typical ADD behavior", many things need to happen, in sequence, before a student is identified as needing special education. General classroom interventions are the first place to begin.  I will have a seperate post on things that have been proven to work with students who are easily distracted. When those classroom interventions show they are not successful, the next step in the process is NOT an IEP.  Since ADD is a medical concern, the logical next step is for the child to be serviced and proctected under what is called a 504-plan.  Just like an IEP, a 504 is a federally recognized, legally binding contract between the parent and the school, and it should lay out reasonable accommodations that your child is entitled to in order to help him or her be successful.

An IEP is advised for students with ADD only when other resources have proven to be 'not enough' to help the student.  Some parents do want to jump straight into an IEP once the diagnosis of ADD is handed down by a doctor (and remember, schools cannot diagnose. This is not to say that teachers are incapable of noticing the behaviors associated with a student with ADD, but since ADD is often treated with medication, it is only diagnosed by a doctor). I would caution them to do this for the following reason. 

The nature of an IEP basically states that for whatever reason, that child is "disabled". While that may be true, and again, in my years' of teaching, I have met students who were truly disabled by their condition, remember, no one wants to call a child disabled when he or she is not.. it feels wrong to educators, to parents and especially to the children affected.

So, the long and short of the question is this - can a child with ADD qualify for and receive Special Education servcies? Yes.  However, as a parent, it is your responsibility to ensure that your child is successful in the LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT POSSIBLE before placing him or her in Special Education.

Educationally yours,

SpEd Guru