Special Services

We’re Here for You

iQ Academy California – Los Angeles (iQLA) offers robust special education services to support students and meet their needs, empowering them to thrive in school and beyond. With high-quality, personalized learning and the help of teachers and support staff, students with special needs can achieve their academic goals, find their confidence, and pave a path to success.

Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA)


Child Find

IQ Academy @ Los Angeles strives to identify, locate, and evaluate all enrolled children who may have disabilities. Disability, as stated in IDEA, includes such conditions as hearing, visual, speech, or language impairment, specific learning disability, emotional disturbance, cognitive disability, other health or physical impairment, autism, and traumatic brain injury.

The process of identifying, locating, and evaluating these children is referred to as Child Find. As a public charter school, we will respond vigorously to federal and state mandates requiring the provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education regardless of a child’s disability or the severity of the disability. In order to comply with the Child Find requirements, the school will implement procedures to help ensure that all students with disabilities, regardless of the severity of their disability, who are in need of special education and related services—are identified, located, and evaluated —including students with disabilities who are homeless or students who are wards of the state.

Parent/Guardian permission and involvement is a vital piece in the process. Once a student has been identified as having a “suspected disability” or identified as having a disability, the school will ask the student or the student’s Parent/Guardian for information about the child such as:

  • How has the suspected disability or identified disability hindered the student’s learning?
  • What has been done, educationally, to intervene and correct the student’s emerging learning deficits?
  • What educational or medical information relative to the suspected disability or identified disability is available to be shared with the school?

This information may be also be obtained from the student’s present or former teachers, therapists, doctors, or from other agencies that have information about the student.

All information collected will be held in strict confidence and released to others only with parental permission or as allowed by law. In keeping with this confidence, IQ Academy @ Los Angeles will keep a record of all persons who review confidential information. In accordance with state regulations, parents have the right to review their child’s records.

As part of the Child Find process, some services may include a complete evaluation, an individualized education program designed specifically for the child, and a referral to other agencies providing special services.


Consent


Special Education (IEP) or 504 Plans

For students confirmed to present with special education needs, once the IEP team agrees on the IEP and the student’s educational placement, the IEP, which serves as a Prior Written Notice, will be sent to the parent/guardian for signature. This must be signed and returned to the school. IQ Academy @ Los Angeles can only proceed with implementing the student’s IEP upon receipt of the signed initial IEP.

Some students are found to present with one or more disability, but do not meet the eligibility criteria outlined under IDEA (for special education); however, their disability may still require the school to develop a 504 Accommodation Plan to outline the special provisions a student may require for adaptations and/or accommodations in school-based instruction, facilities, and/or activities. Students may be eligible for certain accommodations or services if they have a mental or physical disability that substantially limits or prohibits participation in or access to an aspect of the school program and otherwise qualify under the applicable laws. IQ Academy @ Los Angeles will ensure that qualified students with disabilities have equal opportunity to participate in the school program and activities to the maximum extent appropriate for each individual student. In compliance with applicable state and federal laws, the school will provide students with disabilities the necessary educational services and supports they require to access and benefit from their educational program. This is to be done without discrimination or out of pocket cost to the student or family for the essential supplementary aids, services or accommodations determined to provide equal opportunity to participate in and obtain the benefits of the school program and extracurricular activities to the maximum extent appropriate to the student’s abilities and to the extent required by the laws.


Privacy & Confidentiality


Accommodations

Notice of these rights is available, upon request, on audiotape, in Braille, and in languages other than English. Should you need further assistance or information regarding any of these accommodations, please contact any member of your child’s school team for guidance.


Translation Needs


Special Education Grievances or Disputes

IQ Academy @ Los Angeles recognizes that despite best intentions of all parties, disagreements or miscommunications may arise between the school-based team and families or students. Should this situation occur, the student’s special education case manager will initiate an IEP meeting, where the IEP team will discuss specific details contributing to any educational concern to ensure they are fully discussed and addressed as the entire team determines would consider most appropriate for the student. Collaboration is a primary focus for this type of meeting. IQ Academy @ Los Angeles’ Special Education Team seeks to establish and maintain the confidence of its families to always serve its students in order to maximize their educational success.


Dispute Resolution Options

IEP Facilitation – IEP facilitation is a voluntary process that can be utilized when all parties to an IEP meeting agree that the presence of a neutral third party would help facilitate communication and the successful drafting of the student’s IEP. This process is not necessary for most IEP meetings. Rather, it is most often utilized when there is a sense from any of the participants that the issues at the IEP meeting are creating an impasse or acrimonious climate. A parent should contact the Program Specialist assigned to their student’s grade level if they would like to request the SELPA to facilitate an IEP meeting for their student.


Mediation Only


Formal Due Process