Family Voices Indiana

Understanding Article 7 helps parent(s), advocates, school personnel, and students work together more effectively. When positive relationships are established between a parent(s) and the school, students with disabilities receive a better education and leave school better prepared to succeed as adults.

Article 7 is part of the Indiana Administrative Code (IAC) that contains Indiana’s special education rules. These rules have been adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) in order to implement the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act as amended in 2004, commonly known as IDEA ‘04.

The six principles of IDEA ’04: 
• Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), 
• Appropriate educational evaluation, 
• Individualized Education Program (IEP), 
• Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), 
• Procedural safeguards (sometimes referred to as the Notice of Parent Rights or NOPS), and 
• Parent(s) participation in decisions.

IDEA ‘04 requires public schools to provide …

from Indiana Association of United Ways:

Is your Indiana voter registration current? Deadline is Monday, April 4, to vote in the primary! Remember to register to vote or update your registration by April 4to be eligible to vote in the primary on May 3. Or find your county office.  View the list of candidates by political party and district.
Weigh in on issues important to you! Submitting comments during rulemaking periods is an important way to shape policy. State and federal agencies appreciate specific comments about possible impacts and ways to improve proposed rules. Below are a few open comment periods: IN Department of Insurance will hold a hearing on April 12 about a proposed ruleregarding certification and registration requirements, precertification education and examinations, continuing education, duties, conflicts of interest, privacy and security of information, reporting requirements, enforcement, and other matters relating to an individual acting as a navigator and an entity a…

Spring is often case conference season for students with disabilities. We often get calls about special education law. So, this month, we'll be highlighting Indiana's special education law, Article 7.

You can find a copy of Article 7 here

You can find the companion piece, Navigating the Course, meant to be more family friendly, at the same site

You can find national resources related to special education here

You can get help with special education issues in Indiana by contacting our Parent Training and Information Center, IN*SOURCE

If you have specific items you'd like us to cover, please email projects@fvindiana.org

The intent of the Pre-Admission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR) process is to identify the most appropriate services and settings for persons being considered for nursing facility (NF) placement. PASRR is a requirement of all licensed Medicaid NFs in Indiana, including those serving Indiana Health Coverage Programs (IHCP) members. All residents of licensed Medicaid NFs are subject to the PASRR process regardless of known diagnoses or methods of payment (IHCP or non-IHCP). Screening occurs prior to admission or when there is a significant change in the physical or mental condition of a resident. 

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) has been engaged in a redesign of Indiana’s PASRR system since the summer of 2015. The FSSA’s Division of Aging (DA) has been working with hospital staff, NF staff, Area Agency on Aging (AAA) staff, and other stakeholders to design an improved pre-admission screening process that is efficient and effective. The new system desig…

On Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published final regulations outlining how the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act applies to state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance programs. This final rule extends parity to more than 23 million Americans covered by these important programs.

CMS reiterated that the broader goal of this long-awaited final rule was to create consistency between public and private health insurance markets, as well as parity between mental and physical health treatment services. As outlined in our initial write-up for the proposed rule, the regulation preserves the general parity rule that prohibits health plans from applying financial requirements or treatment limitations to mental health and substance use disorder benefits that are more restrictive than those imposed on substantially all medical/surgical benefits of a similar kind.

Key provisions of the final rule include:
·Parity Applies to Both Carve-In and Carve-Ou…