What is Special Education?
Several short videos about special education can be found here.
Special Education
California provides specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities. This instruction is provided in a variety of settings that allow infants and families, preschoolers, students, and young adults to be educated with their peers as much as possible; that is, in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Special education services are available in a variety of settings, including day-care settings, preschool, regular classrooms, classrooms that emphasize specially designed instruction, in the community, and the work environment (California Department of Education website).
The disability categories include the following: intellectual disabilities, speech or language impairment, visual impairment, emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, deafness, hard of hearing, deaf-blindness, multiple disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury.
Related Services
Related Services means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education, and includes speech language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. Related services also include school health services and school nurse services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training (Code of Federal Regulations 34 CFR 300.34(a)).
