Special Education Terms, Translated for Parents

The PLAAFP is the foundation of any Individualized Education Program (IEP). It describes your child's current academic achievement, functional performance, strengths, needs, and disability-related school impact. Goals, services, accommodations, and progress measures should connect back to needs documented in the present levels.

Under IDEA, eligible children with disabilities must be offered a Free Appropriate Public Education. 'Free' means provided at public expense. 'Appropriate' means the IEP is individualized to the child's needs and reasonably calculated to enable progress appropriate in light of the child's circumstances.

LRE means children with disabilities should be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate. Special classes, separate schooling, or removal from general education should happen only when education in regular classes cannot be achieved satisfactorily with supplementary aids and services.

Under IDEA, the school must give Prior Written Notice a reasonable time before it proposes or refuses to initiate or change a child's identification, evaluation, educational placement, or provision of FAPE. The notice explains the action, the reasons, the records relied on, and other options considered.

IDEA is the federal law that makes special education and related services available to eligible children with disabilities. It includes rules for evaluation, eligibility, IEP development, services, procedural safeguards, discipline protections, and dispute procedures.

A BIP is a written plan for preventing, teaching, and responding to behavior that interferes with learning or school access. It should be based on data, often from a Functional Behavior Assessment, and should teach replacement skills rather than only list consequences.

An FBA is a process for understanding behavior by looking at what happens before it, what the behavior looks like, what happens afterward, and what function the behavior may serve. The results should help the team choose supports and, when needed, develop or revise a BIP.

ESY services are special education and related services provided beyond the normal school year when the IEP team determines they are needed for FAPE. Teams may review regression and recoupment, emerging skills, severity of need, service interruption, and other individualized data depending on state and local rules.

An MDR is a review held within 10 school days of a decision to change a child's placement because of a code-of-conduct violation. The district, parent, and relevant IEP team members review whether the conduct had a direct and substantial relationship to the disability or was the direct result of failure to implement the IEP. Either finding makes the conduct a manifestation of the disability.

An IEP is a written plan for an eligible student with a disability. It describes present levels, annual goals, special education, related services, accommodations, participation, progress reporting, and other supports the school is expected to implement.

SDI is instruction adapted in content, methodology, or delivery to address unique needs resulting from a child's disability and to help the child access the general curriculum. It is one key distinction between an IEP and a plan that only provides accommodations.

An IEE is an evaluation by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the school district. If you disagree with the district's evaluation and request an IEE at public expense, the district must, without unnecessary delay, either fund the IEE or file for a due process hearing to show its evaluation was appropriate. District evaluation criteria and the rule's other conditions apply.

Section 504 is a federal civil rights law that prohibits disability discrimination. In public K–12 schools, its FAPE requirement can include regular or special education and related aids and services designed to meet a disabled student's individual needs as adequately as the needs of nondisabled students. A 504 plan is not limited to classroom accommodations.

'Stay Put' (also called pendency) generally maintains a child's then-current educational placement during administrative or judicial proceedings on an IDEA due process complaint, unless the parent and public agency agree otherwise or an exception applies. An objection email or state complaint alone does not automatically trigger this rule.

Due process is a formal special education dispute process where a parent and school district present issues to an impartial hearing officer. It can involve disputes about identification, evaluation, placement, services, or FAPE.

The ARD Committee is the Texas-specific term for the IEP team meeting. In most states, this is called an IEP meeting or IEP team meeting. The ARD includes parents, school staff, and specialists who develop, review, and revise the IEP.

RTI is a multi-tiered approach to identifying and supporting students with academic or behavior needs. It uses targeted interventions and progress monitoring. RTI data can be useful, but it should not be used to delay or deny a special education evaluation when evaluation is warranted.

MTSS is a school framework that organizes academic, behavioral, and social-emotional supports across levels of intensity. It can include RTI and PBIS, but it does not replace evaluation or IEP duties when a disability may be involved.

PBIS is a school-wide approach to teaching and supporting positive behavior through expectations, routines, data, and consistent adult responses. For an individual student, PBIS may need to be paired with an FBA, BIP, IEP services, or accommodations.

FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It gives parents certain rights to inspect and review education records, seek amendment of inaccurate records, and control disclosure of personally identifiable information, with exceptions.

Transition services are a coordinated set of activities designed to help a student with a disability move from school to post-school activities such as education, training, employment, adult services, independent living, or community participation.

Assistive Technology is any item, equipment, software, or system used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a student with a disability. AT services can include evaluating, selecting, adapting, training, and supporting use of the tool.

AAC refers to communication methods that supplement or replace speech and writing for people who have difficulty producing or understanding spoken language. AAC can include gestures, signs, picture boards, speech-generating devices, communication apps, and other systems.

Compensatory education is a possible remedy when a school fails to provide required special education or related services. The amount and type depend on the facts, the service gap, the child's current needs, and the applicable dispute or agreement process.

Behavioral data is the systematic recording of behavior patterns such as frequency, duration, intensity, antecedents, consequences, setting events, and replacement-skill use. Teams may use this data in an FBA, BIP, MDR, or progress review.