The purpose of Child Find is to identify, locate, and evaluate children from birth to 21 years of age with known or suspected disabilities who reside in and/or attend school within district boundaries. Child find is a free referral service designed to determine whether a need for special education and related services exists.

Children learn at different rates but some children have significant difficulty in one or more areas of development.

Students who may have a visual or auditory impairment can be referred at birth. For other suspected disabilities, any student between the ages of 3 and 21 can be referred.

Often it is a parent or family member, Pediatricians, preschool teachers, and family friends may also notice a possible disability.

A multi-disciplinary team of professionals conducts the evaluation.This may include an educational diagnostician, a speech/language pathologist, and a licensed specialist in school psychology. The parent is part of the team as is a teacher if the student is in school.

From the time the parent signs consent for evaluation, the team has 45 school days to evaluate and complete its report. Then within the next 30 calendar days, the team will schedule a meeting to review the evaluation and make recommendations based on their findings.

PLEASE NOTE THAT DENTON ISD DOES NOT COMPLETE ASSESSMENTS DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS.  If you complete a request when school is out during this time, you will likely not receive a call from an assessor until August 31, 2023.

A full, individual evaluation is done to identify the following areas of disability: speech impairment, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, traumatic brain injury, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, specific learning disability, visual impairment, auditory impairment, deaf-blind, and multiple disabilities.

Parents of Pre-K aged children (3-5) are encouraged to complete the CDC Child Development Checklist before requesting an assessment.

If your child is not enrolled in a Denton ISD school you may also visit this page for more information, including a referral form found below.

Referral form here. (En español)

If your child is already in school, then talk to their teacher or your campus administrator.

If you have questions, and your child is not in school, then please email Ms. Brooke Waggoner. 

Further questions specifically related to speech concerns may be directed to Ms. Angie Maupin

Further questions specifically related to Deaf / Hard or Hearing and Visual Impairments may be directed to Ms. Amanda Tefertiller.

Further questions specifically related to students in the 3-5 year old age group my be directed to Ms. Laura Davis.

If the student is being educated in a home school program or a private school program that is within the attendance zone of Denton ISD, then Denton ISD will conduct the evaluation.  Contact Dr. Jay Weidenbach.

More information may be found on our Updates to Special Education page and from our Child Find Pamphlet.