Assessment and Decision Making for Special Education Entitlement: Technical Assistance Guide for Mental Disability, April 1997

(1997) Assessment and Decision Making for Special Education Entitlement: Technical Assistance Guide for Mental Disability, April 1997. Education, Department of

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Abstract

The passage of the new Iowa Administrative Rules of Special Education (1995) provided a timely opportunity to update the operational criteria for the identification of individuals with mental disabilities. In order to evaluate these criteria, consultants from the Iowa Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education, initiated a project to develop technical assistance guidelines. The overall purpose of these guidelines is to serve as a resource for multidisciplinary teams who use the mental disability designation. In meeting this purpose, the guide was designed to address four primary objectives: 1) To clarify changes in the new rules of special education. 2) To operationalize the Iowa definition of mental disability, which was taken verbatim from the federal definition of mental retardation. 3) To provide practical guidelines on preferred practices for the determination of mental disability and the need for special education services. 4) To highlight prescriptive assessment practices that lead to improved individual performance.