Special Services
Child Find and FERPA Rights
A free appropriate public education must be available to all children with disabilities. North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA) 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.
NCVA regards gifted students as diverse learners who require a rigorous academic experience geared toward their individual needs. With intense focus on building robust and competitive skills for global success, NCVA has an Advanced Learning Program (ALP) that seeks to serve gifted students.
As a public 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, NCVA shall have procedures in place to ensure that all children with disabilities—including children with disabilities who are homeless children or are wards of the state, and children with disabilities regardless of the severity of their disability, and who are in need of special education and related services—are identified, located, and evaluated.
Parent/Guardian permission and involvement is a vital piece in the process. Once a child has been identified as having a "suspected disability" or identified as having a disability, NCVA will ask 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 address the student's learning needs?
- 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 obtained from the student, his or her parents, 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, NCVA will keep a record of all persons who review confidential information. Parents have the right to review their child's records per state mandate.
As part of the Child Find process, some services may include a complete evaluation, a personalized education program designed specifically for the child, and a referral to other agencies providing special services.
We are committed to meeting the needs of children with disabilities.
NCVA accept referrals, according to Child Find provisions, from any source that suspects a child may be eligible for special education and related services per 71 Fed. Reg. 46636 (August 14, 2006). If you or someone you know has a suspected disability, please contact Stacey Bryant at ncvaspecialprograms@ncvacademy.org.
A professional translator may be requested at any time by contacting NCVA at 855.669.3660.
