JSD24

"Schools shouldn't let a child enroll while knowing noone there is trained to teach them."  Public school must enroll every student no matter what - this includes disability, English language learners, undocumented, etc.  The system is set up so the public school can contract with any other school so that the student receives FAPE.  Refusing to enroll a student because there is no one with expertise in the student's disability is a violation of FAPE & opens a school up to Due Process and needing to pay compensatory services.  (On the other hand, not having someone with the expertise and not providing appropriate special education to an enrolled student is also a violation of FAPE & opens a school up to Due Process and needing to pay compensatory services.)

It's hard for a special ed teacher to know about all disabilities where they can manage an IEP (and the SDI needed to reach goals) for every student.  Deaf & HOH are rare.  Schools should be open to consulting to better understand rare disabilities.  Consultants will often come with a price tag & teachers are spread thin with what they need to do (if they want to do their own research) so I see this as a lack of time & money with being able to provide FAPE for these students.  Without strong parent advocacy, I see students like this slipping through the cracks.