If the individualized education program (IEP) team determines that a student is eligible for special education or special education and related services because the student has a disability and needs special education even though the student does not meet specific requirements in this chapter, the IEP team must include documentation in the record as follows:

1. (1) The record must contain documents that explain why the standards and procedures that are used with the majority of students resulted in invalid findings for this student;
2. (2) The record must indicate what objective data were used to conclude that the student has a disability and is in need of special education. These data may include test scores, work products, self-reports, teacher comments, previous tests, observational data, and other developmental data;
3. (3) Since the eligibility decision is based on a synthesis of multiple data and not all data are equally valid, the team must indicate which data had the greatest relative importance for the eligibility decision; and

4. (4) The IEP team override decision must include a sign-off by the IEP team members agreeing to the override decision. If one or more IEP team members disagree with the override decision, the record must include a statement of why they disagree signed by those members.

   The district director of special education shall keep a list of students on whom the IEP team override criteria were used to assist the state in evaluating the adequacy of student identification criteria.

Source: 23 SDR 31, effective September 8, 1996; 26 SDR 150, effective May 22, 2000 ; 49 SDR 12, effective August 14, 2022 .

General Authority: SDCL 13-37-1.1 .

Law Implemented: SDCL 13-37-1.1 .

Prior versions effective: 2000-05-22.