The Indian Hill Exempted School District’s Child Find policy requires that all children between birth and twenty-two (22) years of age residing within the district, who have a disability, regardless of the severity of their disability, and who are in need of special education and related services are identified, located, and evaluated in accordance with all federal regulations and state standards. For infants and toddlers, a disability means that a child has a delay in one or more of the following developmental areas: adaptive behavior, cognition, communication, physical development, vision, hearing, and/or social-emotional functioning. For preschoolers and school-age children, a disability means having one or more documented disabilities. These disabilities include: autism, cognitive disability, specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment (including blindness), and developmental delay (preschoolers only).
If you are aware of a child who may have a disability, please contact Erica Leppert, Director of Pupil Services, at (513) 272-4500 or
[email protected].
Eligibility for special education services is based on the presence of a disability that results in the child’s need for specially-designed instruction and/or related service such as speech, occupational, and/or physical school-based therapy, not on the possible benefit from the aforementioned instruction or services. During an evaluation (ETR), team members must be able to document the adverse educational impact of a child’s needs on grade level performance. For example, a student may demonstrate communication differences, delays or even impairments, without demonstrating adverse effect on educational performance. IDEA requires that determination of a disability consider how the disability affects the progress and involvement of the student in the general curriculum. Consideration by the ETR team is given to the academic, vocational, and social-emotional aspects of a child’s disability. For more information regarding disability categories and the evaluation process, parents may access
Whose IDEA is This, which outlines those processes, as well as a family’s procedural safeguards.
Director of Pupil Services
Erica Leppert
(513) 272-4500
Indian Hill Evaluation Chairs are the school psychologists:
Primary/Elementary School Psychologist: Middle/High School Psychologist:
Janie Gardner, Ph.D. Amy VanStrien
(513) 272-4768 (513) 272-4564