CCSD Child Find Department urge parents to get kids evaluated if they suspect learning delay

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A plea to parents, get your kids evaluated if you believe there’s a learning delay. A Clark County School District department wants families to know about its services.

It’s a long purple line to get to the Child Find Department and its hidden door. It’s the main assessment center on St. Louis and Eastern Avenues.

This is a place for children primarily ages three to five.

“The Child Find Department here at Clark County School District does assessments for students who aren’t currently enrolled in school where there’s a suspicion of delay or disability,” said Child Find Coordinator Edward Sikora. Now, if this is the case, the student could qualify for special education.

“We are seeing an increase in needs among kids of all ages,” he said.

Especially the younger ones who could be benefitting from access to early childhood support. The numbers show it.

According to Sikora, an estimated 4,100 referrals were processed for the 2022-2023 and 4.400 for the 2023-2024 school year.  At last check, there have been approximately 2,000 referrals in September for the 2024-2025 school year. Sikora said these numbers are expected to go up.

“Once we finish the assessment, we typically have a pretty quick turnaround, so when the parents come in for the assessment we usually do the eligibility meeting within about two to three weeks,” he said.

Sikora shared with 8 News Now some referrals come from students already receiving early intervention services through the state and the rest are parent referrals.  An example can be a parent contacting Child Find directly or a pediatrician referring the family to the department for an assessment.

Sikora urges parents that now is the time to get their kids evaluated if they believe there’s a learning gap.

“The students are going to end up in one of our classrooms eventually,” he said. The biggest difference is that early intervention equals important milestones children will need.

Sikora also cleared up some misconceptions about CCSD’s Child Find Department.

“One of the things that’s unique here in Nevada is that people will sometimes confuse the child find mandate which is part of the law,” he said. “With the Child Find Department we have here at the Clark County School District, so the law says that the school districts have an obligation to find, locate and identify students ages three to 21 that have a suspicion of disability or delay.”

He said most of those child-find mandates are met with school-age students at the school site. “But our department fills in that gap for students who may not already be attending school,” Sikora explained.

He also clarified that the team at the St. Louis and Eastern Avenues locations only conducts assessments for medically fragile students.

“For the students that don’t have such severe needs, we do have 40 community-based teams throughout the valley so that we can kind of come to the parents and provide services and assessments,” Sikora said.

The teams can all be found on its website and parents are asked to call the department for guidance.

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