Parent and Family Resources

The CCPS Family Support Services center helps families, educators, and community agencies obtain information, support, and resources to address the needs of children in all educational settings.   Family support staff assists clients in finding the answers to their questions, resolving concerns, and making informed decisions regarding children's educational needs.  Family support responds to inquiries about Carroll County Public Schools programs, services, policies, and procedures for Carroll County's special education population.  

The Carroll County Special Education Citizen's Advisory Committee (SECAC) is a committee established by Carroll County Public Schools to seek meaningful input from parents, community partners, service providers, educators, and administrators on local issues about the achievement of students with disabilities.  This collaboration enables the director of special education to make positive changes in the delivery of special education services.  If you have concerns and desire to bring about positive change please consider becoming an active member in this constructive process. 

The procedural safeguards notice includes a full explanation of your rights in an easily understandable manner and in your native language. This procedural safeguards notice applies to children and families receiving services through an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) and also to children/students receiving services through an Individualized Education Program (IEP).  The protections included in this document are established by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) and the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR).

Click the link below for a copy of the Parent Rights: Maryland Procedural Safeguards Notice - Updated July 1, 2021:

Parental Rights - Maryland Procedural Safeguards Notice

If you require the Parental Rights document in another language other than English, please click on the link below.

Parental Rights - Maryland Procedural Safeguards Notice - other languages

The mastery of skills required for reading, writing, and mathematics is normally distributed across the population.  Approximately 80% of students will effectively learn to read, write, and compute, when provided daily instruction in the classroom. Students who do not respond to general education instruction should be provided with specific interventions to remediate academic skill deficits and progress should be monitored to determine whether appropriate growth is made with additional supports. Depending upon students’ response to interventions, specialized instruction through an IEP may not be necessary. If a student does not demonstrate an adequate rate of growth in response to intervention, this may indicate the need for an IEP Team to conduct a comprehensive evaluation to determine if an educational disability exists, and whether or not specialized instruction or accommodations are required for the student to receive FAPE.

Students with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia may fall within this group of struggling learners. However, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dysgraphia are not their own disability categories, but rather examples of a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) under IDEA.  Thus, having a diagnosis of Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, or Dysgraphia does not automatically qualify a student for services. The severity of the academic difficulty and their response to interventions, will determine which tier of support will be most appropriate, rather than the specific diagnosis. If a student with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, or Dysgraphia is demonstrating significant academic deficits and is not responding adequately to intervention, then the IEP team should conduct a comprehensive evaluation to determine that the student meets criteria for one of the disability categories under the IDEA, and determine whether the student requires specialized instruction in order to meet their unique needs.

If you have additional questions regarding dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia or the information on this webpage, please contact administration or the special education department at your local school.

**Please be aware this document may be updated frequently.