Cleveland: Can elementary special education students and high special education students receive services in the same resource / special education classroom ?
Services: SPECIAL ED SERVICE DELIVERY
Special Education Law and Advocacy
What does the law specify about assigning frequency (eg. 30 minutes…) of special education service delivery for resource/inclusion classrooms?
IDEA does not specifically address this, but many states do have rules regarding the age span within special education settings. For example, here in Massachusetts, student ages cannot be more than 48 months apart.
And many states have licensing systems that allow teachers to work with specific age groupings. For example, again in Massachusetts, teachers can be licensed to work with students with disabilities in grades pre-K-8 or 5-12.
If your state has either an age span rule or a licensing system that endorses by grade level, this practice of mixing age levels could run afoul of these. Your state Department of Education or local parent center (http://www.parentcenterhub.org/find-your-center/) should be able to point you to any rules that may apply where you are.