WHAT ARE COMPENSATORY SERVICES?
Compensatory services are used to help students make up for
progress or skills they lost when their special education
services were not provided. This includes situations where a child
does not get special education services because he or she was
denied a timely initial evaluation, but later found eligible.
If an initial evaluation was denied when it should not have
been, compensatory services may be needed to make up for
the delay in your child getting special education services.
WHO DECIDES IF COMPENSATORY SERVICES ARE NEEDED?
Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) committees decide if
compensatory services are needed and what those services will be.
Parents and guardians are members of the ARD committee. Your
participation is very important.
Decisions about compensatory services have to be made for your child
as an individual. The ARD committee will discuss the amount and type of
special education services that your child did not receive and any non-special
education supports, services, or interventions that were provided.
HOW DO I REQUEST COMPENSATORY SERVICES FOR MY CHILD?
If you believe your child needs compensatory services then you
should request an ARD committee meeting. Parents may request
an ARD Committee Meeting at any time. It is best to put your
request in writing to an administrator. Your child’s school must
respond to your request and let you know if it agrees or refuses to
meet.
HOW WAS YOUR CHILD IMPACTED BY NOT RECEIVING SPECIAL
EDUCATION SERVICES?
Think about the supports, services, or interventions that your
child received before they were eligible for special education
and how well they worked.
» Did your child improve?
» Did your child’s skill gaps get bigger or smaller?
» Be ready to talk about what worked and what didn’t and what
progress you noticed.
WHAT SERVICES DO YOU THINK YOUR CHILD NEEDS?
If compensatory services are needed, think carefully about how
and when those services could be provided. It’s very important
to have high expectations for your child’s learning but at the same
time to be careful to not overwhelm your child by adding in too
much at one time and causing problems in another area.
Providing compensatory services doesn’t mean that every minute of service
that wasn’t provided needs to be made up. Try to think more about how
to reduce the impact of missing those services and ways that your child’s
progress can be accelerated rather than simply making up for service
minutes that weren’t provided.
