Minnesota: Minn. R. 3525.2710 Subp. 2 governs the reevaluation of each child with a disability and provides that a school district shall ensure that a reevaluation of each pupil is conducted if conditions warrant a reevaluation or if the pupil's parent or teacher requests a reevaluation, but at least once every three years and in accordance with Minn. R. 3525.2710 Subps. 3 and 4. Additionally, Minn. R. 3525.1325 – 3525.1356 governs the entrance and exit criteria of children with disabilities and includes autism spectrum disorders, deaf-blindness, emotional or behavioral disorders, deaf and hard of hearing, developmental cognitive disability, other health disabilities, physically impaired, severely multiply impaired, specific learning disability, speech or language impairments, visually impaired, and traumatic brain injury.
Summary of factual data and analytical methodologies:
Chapter PI 11 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code contains the current rules governing the education of children with disabilities, including rules around the identification of children with orthopedic impairments, traumatic brain injuries, and significant developmental delay. Under current rule, orthopedic impairment, traumatic brain injury, and significant developmental delay are defined as the following: - Orthopedic impairment (s. PI 11.36 (2)): Orthopedic impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes, but is not limited to, impairments caused by congenital anomaly, such as a clubfoot or absence of some member; impairments caused by disease, such as poliomyelitis or bone tuberculosis; and impairments from other causes, such as cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures. - Traumatic brain injury (s. PI 11.36 (9)): Traumatic brain injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; speech and language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; communication; judgment; problem solving; sensory, perceptual and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and executive functions, such as organizing, evaluating and carrying out goal-directed activities. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries induced by birth trauma. - Significant developmental delay (s. PI 11.36 (11)): Significant developmental delay means children, ages 3 through 9 years of age, who are experiencing significant delays in the areas of physical, cognition, communication, social-emotional, or adaptive development. The current rules qualifying children for special education services under any of these categories do not address reevaluation criteria for special education. As such, the department proposes to amend ch. PI 11 to create reevaluation criteria for the purpose of addressing continuing eligibility for special education services and ensuring that students who may be making progress and may no longer meet initial criteria are still eligible to receive services if they continue to need specially designed instruction. The proposed rule is intended to conform the reevaluation criteria for services under these categories with that of criteria that exist for other disability categories, including blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing, and deafblind (which became effective August 1, 2021, under Clearinghouse Rule 20-072); and speech and language impairment criteria (which became effective on August 1, 2021, under Clearinghouse Rule 20-074). Without a rule change, the department would be required to implement ch. PI 11 as it currently exists, and there would be no reevaluation criteria to determine continuing eligibility for special education services for children that have an orthopedic impairment, traumatic brain injury, or significant developmental delay Analysis and supporting documents used to determine effect on small business or in preparation of economic impact report:
N/A
Anticipated costs incurred by private sector:
N/A
Effect on small business:
The proposed rules will have no significant economic impact on small businesses, as defined in s. 227.114 (1) (a), Stats. Agency contact person: (including email and telephone)
Carl Bryan
Administrative Rules Coordinator
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
(608) 266-3275
Place where comments are to be submitted and deadline for submission:
Comments should be submitted to Carl Bryan, Department of Public Instruction, 125 S. Webster Street, P.O. Box 7841, Madison, WI 53707-7841 or at adminrules@dpi.wi.gov. The Department will publish a hearing notice in the Administrative Register which will provide information on the deadline for the submission of comments. RULE TEXT
SECTION 1. PI 11.36 (2) is renumbered PI 11.36 (2) (a).
SECTION 2. PI 11.36 (2) (b) is created to read:
PI 11.36 (2) (b) Upon re-evaluation, a child who met initial identification criteria and continues to demonstrate a need for special education under s. PI 11.35, including specially designed instruction, is a child with a disability under this subsection. SECTION 3. PI 11.36 (9) (e) is created to read:
PI 11.36 (9) (e) Upon re-evaluation, a child who met initial identification criteria and continues to demonstrate a need for special education under s. PI 11.35, including specially designed instruction, is a child with a disability under this subsection. SECTION 4. PI 11.36 (11) (e) is created to read:
PI 11.36 (11) (e) Upon re-evaluation, a child who met initial identification criteria and continues to demonstrate a need for special education under s. PI 11.35, including specially designed instruction, is a child with a disability under this subsection. In conducting the re-evaluation, the IEP team shall consider all other suspected impairments under this section before continuing to identify the child’s primary impairment as significant developmental delay. SECTION 5. EFFECTIVE DATE:
The proposed rules contained in this order shall take effect on the first day of the month commencing after the date of publication in the Wisconsin Administrative Register, as provided in s. 227.22 (2) (intro.), Stats.
