- Coolidge Unified School District No. 21
- Special Education
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Individual Education Plan (IEP)
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What is Special Education?
Special education is designed for students who have cognitive, academic, language, physical, social, and/or emotional disabilities. Special education is an instruction that is specifically designed to meet the unique needs of these students.
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What is an IEP?
The Individual Education Plan (IEP) is a document that ensures students who are identified as needing special education and who are attending a public elementary or secondary educational institution receive specialized instruction and related services.
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Who is Eligible for an IEP?
- Students from age 3 through high school graduation or the age of 21 (whichever comes first)
- Students who require specialized instruction in order to make reasonable progress
- Students who are not responding to Tier III instruction through the Response to Intervention (RTI) program
- Students who have passing grades and average test scores may be eligible for an IEP
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What Happens if My Child is Eligible for an IEP?
If your child is eligible for an IEP, the team will draft the document and work together to ensure it meets your child's needs before it is finalized.
As the parent, you have the right to bring anyone who has knowledge of your child to the meeting. This could include an advocate, private therapist, or even a neighbor that can take notes.
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What is Discussed and Decided at the IEP Meeting?
The IEP has two main purposes:
- To establish measurable annual goals for the student
- To state the special education and related services and supplementary aids and services that the public agency will provide to, or on behalf of the child
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A School Psychologist's Role in Conducting Psychoeducational Evaluations for Possible Special Education Services:
- Gather social, development, and educational history through interviews and record reviews.
- Administer a variety of Cognitive, Achievement, Social/Emotional, Adaptive Behavior assessments, and conduct classroom observations to obtain strengths and weaknesses of the referred student
- Present assessment results to Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team (parents, teacher, principal, special education teacher, related service providers, etc.)
- Make recommendations for eligibility and program planning based on the data collected
- Interpret findings in comprehensive written report that is provided to parents
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What are Related Services?
Related services are any services that are necessary to help a student access/benefit from his/her special education programming.
To benefit from special education has generally been interpreted to mean making meaningful progress toward meeting IEP goals and objectives.
Disability Categories
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In order to qualify for special education under the regulations that implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a child needs to be a child with a disability, meaning that the child has been evaluated as having a qualifying disability, and by reason, thereof needs special education. [See 34 C.F.R. § 300.8(a)]
- The child must have a qualifying disability as defined by the IDEA regulations;
- The disability must have an adverse effect on the child's educational performance; and
- The child must need specially designed instruction in order to access and make progress in the general education curriculum.
The disability categories under the IDEA are listed below:
- Autism
- Deaf-Blindness
- Deafness
- Development Delay
- Emotional Disturbance
- Hearing Impairment
- Intellectual Disability
- Multiple Disabilities
- Orthopedic Impairment
- Other Health Impairment (OHI)
- Preschool Severe Delay
- Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
- Speech or Language Impairment (SLI)
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- Visual Impairment (VI)
For detailed definitions of the listed categories refer to the ADE Resources located to the right.
