Eligibility Folder

A special education eligibility folder will be established for each special education student and will include but not be limited to the following: copies of referral data, documentation of notices and consents, assessment reports and supporting data, ARD committee deliberations and the IEP. The eligibility folder will be stored in locked filing cabinets and a folder access form will be in close proximity. The access form will list those individuals having direct access to the folders. This access form must be updated annually. All other staff who have an educational need to review the folder must sign the individual folder review form in the student's folder.

Procedures for Handling Special Education Eligibility Folders

• Student eligibility folders are the sole responsibility of the campus diagnostician or speech pathologist.  The diagnostician/speech pathologist should know where all folders are at any given time.
• Student eligibility folders must be handled in the strictest, most confidential way.
• Teachers may remove eligibility folders from the diagnostician/speech pathologist's office only after signing the folder out on the Special Education Eligibility Folder Sign In/Out form. Teachers may not take the folders home or transport them to other campuses.
• Folders should be returned the same day if at all possible.  They must be placed in a locked file cabinet if left in the classroom over night.
• Diagnosticians, Speech Pathologist or a district/campus administrator are the only ones allowed to remove a folder from the campus.
• When a folder is removed by an administrator, the folder must be signed out on the Eligibility Sign Out form.
• Eligibility folders should never be sent from one campus to another campus through the interoffice school mail. They should always be delivered in person by the diagnostician, speech pathologist or administrator.
• When folders are delivered to another location, only the diagnostician, speech pathologist, or administrator can accept the folders.  Folders cannot be left in the office with a secretary.
• The receiving person will sign and date the transfer of records on the Transfer of Student Eligibility Record form.
• The forms remain with the diagnostician and are not kept in the folder.

Folder Sign In/Out Form

Transfer of Student EligibilityRecord Form