Pupils with exceptional needs: individualized education programs.

Existing law requires local educational agencies to identify, locate, and assess individuals with exceptional needs and to provide those individuals with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, with special education and related services as reflected in an individualized education program. Existing law requires a local educational agency to initiate and conduct meetings for the purposes of developing, reviewing, and revising the individualized education program of each individual with exceptional needs. Existing law requires a local educational agency to give a parent or guardian a copy of the individualized education program, at no cost to the parent or guardian. This bill would additionally require the local educational agency, at least 72 hours before the individualized education program meeting, to make available to the parent or guardian a preliminary draft of the individualized education program in electronic form and to mail to the parent or guardian a hard copy of that preliminary draft, at no cost to the parent or guardian, as provided. By imposing additional requirements on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.