What Are Related Services?

Q: I am a mom to a child with severe sensory issues. What are related services and how do I get them?

Answer: Related Services are any service that you need to help your child benefit from special education including transportation. "IDEA, 97"

Examples of Related Services:

Therapies: Speech, Occupational Therapy,Vision, Physical Therapy, Audiology,Augmentative/Alternative Communication
ABA
Psychological Services: Counseling,Social Skills Training,Rehab. Counseling, Social Work and Parent Consults
Health Services: Health Plans, Services that will carry out health treatments
Orientation and Mobility Services
Transportation
Recreation including: adapted art, PE and music

Do Not Confuse Related Services with Accommodations. Accommodations are things like:

Sitting Student Closer to Teacher
Providing Test Material Verbally
Using a Sensory Diet in the Classroom
Having a One to One Aide or Nurse
Giving more time for testing
Having a person to assist with homework organization
Or any type of thing that can assist the student in meeting the curriculum.

Step One: The child needs to have evaluations before deciding on what related services they need. Ask for the testing results two days prior to the IEP meeting. At the meeting once the goals are set then add the appropriate related services to meet those goals.

(If in your mind you know you want your child to have social skills training you first want to write a goal surrounding social skills. Once you have the goal and the team decides on the steps to meet the goal you then can add that it would be a good idea to have social skills training).