Screening Process

A parent/caregiver, teacher, or doctor can make a referral to Sidney City Schools Early Childhood team. Referrals will go through the Student Services Coordinator. To make this referral, please contact the Preschool Program at 937-497-2275 to set up an appointment for a screening. 

The first step in the process is to observe and interact with your child in order to gain an understanding of their level of development to see if a referral for an evaluation is needed. Each month, with the exception of July and December, screenings are held at Whittier Early Childhood Center. During the appointment, a speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and teacher screen your child. While preschool staff are seeing your child, the parent or guardian is interviewed regarding social-emotional, adaptive, and behavioral skills and concerns you see. Each family should expect the process to last an hour and a half. 

At the end of the screening appointment, you will meet with the school administrator or school psychologist. During this time, the screening results will be shared with you. It will be determined that your child is right on track or a referral for special education evaluation is necessary. 

If further evaluations are warranted, you will then receive information regarding the evaluation process: enrolling your child at Whittier Early Childhood Center for 30 days for evaluation or evaluations that will occur at the child’s current child care location. We will be looking at the following areas when working with your child; fine and gross motor, social skills, language/communication and cognitive. A vision and hearing screening will also be done with each child. 

After all evaluations are complete and it is determined that there is a documented deficit in one or more of the following areas (communication skills, hearing abilities, motor abilities, social emotional/behavioral functioning or vision abilities), the team will hold a meeting to discuss the information. Because of these documented deficits, an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) will be created for your child. This will also define the LRE (least restrictive environment) ensuring that the children have the consistent support they need to access the general curriculum.

The IEP team will discuss the LRE (least restrictive environment) for your child. The law states that your child receive services in an environment that “includes children in public or private institutions or other care facilities; that they are educated with children who are not disabled; special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.” Itinerant services can be provided in the least restrictive environment as agreed upon by the team. Related services, such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, etc. will be provided in an educational setting.