Chapter 1: Pre-Referral Services
Finding Help for Your Struggling Child

Who is this for? This chapter is for parents who know that their child is struggling in school, but are unsure whether or not their child has a learning disability.

Why is this important? Millions of school age children experience difficulties with learning. Their struggles in school may be due to factors such as inadequate instruction, cultural or language differences or, in some cases, a learning disability. This chapter outlines a number of services and programs that may be available to help these children succeed before they are evaluated for special education.

What can parents do? Parents can find out if the school has any additional services that might be available to help their child. This chapter explores just a few services available from provisions of IDEA and NCLB. Parents can also ask key questions about the quality of instruction and any additional support that their child is receiving.

Words and Terms To Know

Intervention: A change in instructing the student in the area of learning difficulty to try to improve learning and achieve adequate progress.

Pre-referral interventions: Interventions delivered in the student's regular classroom that attempt to improve learning prior to a referral for formal special education evaluation.

Specific learning disability (SLD): IDEA defines SLD as "A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations."

Get Started: Pre-Referral Services

Note: The IDEA Parent Guide was created to provide a basic understanding of the key requirements of the federal law under IDEA. The information presented here is not legal advice and should not be used as a legal resource.