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.

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.

• 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

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.

The IEP has two main purposes:

1. To establish measurable annual goals for the student
2. 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

• 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

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.