Every Student Deserves a Plan: Special Education and IEPs

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Every Student Deserves a Plan: Special Education and IEPs

Educational Psychology · Chapter 7: Individual Differences, Intelligence, and Inclusive LearningSection 7.5 · lesson 63 of 10010 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

IDEA, the IEP process, and the legal architecture behind inclusive placement.

  • Describe the legislation leading to IDEA
  • Explain the components and process of an IEP
  • Distinguish inclusion, mainstreaming and least restrictive environment
  • Identify IDEA eligibility categories and their implications

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,246 words). Read along, or search it.

Individual Differences, Intelligence, and Inclusive Learning

Every Student Deserves a Plan

This section is unusual for a psychology course, because it is mostly law. That is not an accident, and it is not a detour. Special education in the United States is defined by statute. What a school must do for a student is written down and enforceable. We will trace how that law came about, starting with exclusion. Then the six principles that IDEA guarantees. Then the IEP itself, what it contains and who writes it. Then the eligibility categories, and the timelines that give the law teeth. Then least restrictive environment, inclusion, and mainstreaming. And finally the rights parents hold throughout the whole process. If you teach in a public school, this is your job description, not background.

Before The Law

Two Court Cases in 1972

Begin with what things looked like before any federal legislation. Students with disabilities were routinely excluded from public education. Or they were placed in segregated institutions. Those institutions offered little access to quality instruction. That was the ordinary state of affairs, not a rare abuse. Two landmark court cases changed it, both decided in nineteen seventy-two. The first was the PARC case in Pennsylvania. That is the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children. The second was Mills against the Board of Education. Together they established a constitutional right to a free public education. A right belonging to students with disabilities, specifically. And those two cases led directly to federal legislation three years later.

From EHA To IDEA

One Law, Renamed and Amended

The legislation arrived in nineteen seventy-five. It was the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. It guaranteed a free and appropriate public education to all students with disabilities. That guarantee is usually abbreviated as FAPE, and you will meet it constantly. In nineteen ninety, the act was reauthorized and renamed. It became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA. It has since been amended twice, in nineteen ninety-seven and two thousand four. The later one is generally called IDEA two thousand four. That reauthorization aligned special education with the No Child Left Behind Act. It emphasized academic accountability, and evidence-based instruction. It also emphasized early intervention, through the Response to Intervention framework. So the same statute keeps changing shape as education policy around it changes.

Six Principles

What IDEA Actually Guarantees

IDEA guarantees six core principles, and they are worth knowing by name. Free appropriate public education, which is FAPE. Least restrictive environment, which is LRE. Individualized education programs, the IEPs. Appropriate evaluation. Parent and student participation. And procedural safeguards. Each of those six carries specific legal obligations for schools. That word obligations is doing real work in this sentence. IDEA establishes enforceable rights for students and their families. It attaches procedural safeguards, timelines, and documentation requirements. These are not goals a school aims at. They are duties a school owes.

The Document

What an IEP Contains, and Who Writes It

The Individualized Education Program is the instrument that carries all of this. It is a legally binding document, not an internal planning note. It is developed collaboratively by a multidisciplinary team. That team includes the student's parents. It includes a general education teacher, a special education teacher, and a district representative. And, when appropriate, it includes the student themselves. The document itself has required contents. Present levels of academic and functional performance, as a baseline. Annual measurable goals, which is the word measurable doing the work. The special education and related services, plus accommodations and modifications. And the extent to which the student will participate in general education.

The Process

Referral, Evaluation, Meeting, Review

The process runs in a cycle, and the cycle has statutory deadlines. It begins with a referral, and with parental consent. The clock starts running when that consent is given. A comprehensive evaluation must then be completed within sixty days. If the student is found eligible, an IEP meeting must be convened. That meeting must happen within thirty days. IEPs are then reviewed at least annually. And a comprehensive reevaluation is required every three years. That one is called the triennial review. Pay attention to why those numbers exist at all. A right with no deadline attached is very difficult to enforce. The timelines are what turn a principle into an obligation.

Categories, Part One

Eligibility Under IDEA

Eligibility is decided against a defined list. IDEA specifies thirteen disability categories. A student qualifies by being found to have a disability under one of them. Consider four of the most common. Specific learning disability is a disorder in basic psychological processes. It affects reading, writing or math. Other health impairment covers chronic conditions limiting strength, vitality or alertness. This category includes ADHD. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability. It affects communication and social interaction. And emotional disturbance covers long-standing emotional or behavioral challenges. Challenges that affect educational performance, which is the qualifying test.

Categories, Part Two

Four More Eligibility Categories

Four more categories fill out the picture. Speech and language impairment covers communication disorders. That includes articulation, fluency, voice, or language itself. Intellectual disability means significantly below-average intellectual functioning. It also requires adaptive behavior limitations, so both parts must be present. Developmental delay covers delays in one or more developmental areas. It is used only for children aged three to nine. Multiple disabilities means a combination of two or more. That combination requires specialized programming of its own. One distinction is worth fixing firmly in mind here. A category answers whether a student qualifies for services. It does not answer where those services will be delivered. That is a separate decision, and it must be made individually.

LRE

The Least Restrictive Environment

Which brings us to the least restrictive environment principle. IDEA requires students with disabilities to be educated in the LRE. That is the setting most similar to general education. Most similar, in which the student can still receive an appropriate education. The phrase with adequate support is part of the standard, not a footnote. This principle creates a continuum of placement options. At one end, full inclusion in the general education classroom. At the other, separate day schools or residential facilities. And here is the rule that gets broken most often in practice. Placement is decided individually on need, never on administrative convenience. And not on a categorical disability label, however convenient that would be.

Inclusion

Inclusion Is Not Mainstreaming

Two words often get used interchangeably, and they should not be. Inclusion means educating students with disabilities alongside non-disabled peers, with appropriate supports. Mainstreaming is an older practice, and it meant something narrower. Placing students in general education only when they could participate without modifications. Notice where the burden of adaptation sits in each definition. Under mainstreaming, the student has to fit the classroom. Under inclusion, the classroom is supported so the student can be there. Research supports inclusion, and not only for the included student. It shows academic and social benefits for general education peers too. Co-teaching is a common mechanism for making inclusion work. A general and a special educator share instructional responsibility. One fifth grader with an intellectual disability is fully included this way. Modified goals, preferential seating, simplified texts, and visual schedule supports.

Parent Rights

Rights You Are Legally Required to Honor

Finally, the rights that belong to parents, which are enforceable. Parents may inspect all records relating to their child. They must receive written prior notice before any change in placement. They may participate in eligibility meetings and in IEP meetings. Under certain conditions, they may obtain an independent educational evaluation. And that evaluation is at public expense. They may also request mediation, or a due process hearing. That last one is what makes all the others real. But there is a practical argument here as well as a legal one. Educators who understand and honor these rights build trust. And trust reduces adversarial conflict considerably. These protections work best when nobody ever has to invoke them.

About Educational Psychology at UPI Study

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Educational Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Every Student Deserves a Plan: Special Education and IEPs

What is IDEA and where did it come from?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the U.S. federal law guaranteeing students with disabilities a free appropriate public education, or FAPE. It began as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which followed two 1972 court cases, PARC in Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education. The law was renamed IDEA in 1990 and amended in 1997 and 2004.
What must an IEP include?
An Individualized Education Program is a legally binding document that must state the student's present levels of academic and functional performance, annual measurable goals, the special education and related services, accommodations and modifications to be provided, and how far the student will participate in general education. It is written by a team including parents, general and special education teachers, a district representative and, when appropriate, the student.
What are the deadlines in the IEP process?
Under IDEA, the process begins with a referral and parental consent, and the comprehensive evaluation must be completed within 60 days of consent unless a state sets its own timeline. If the student is eligible, an IEP meeting must be held within 30 days. IEPs are reviewed at least once a year, and a full reevaluation, called the triennial review, is required every three years.
What is the difference between inclusion and mainstreaming?
Inclusion means educating students with disabilities alongside non-disabled peers with appropriate supports, so the classroom adapts to the student. Mainstreaming is an older practice of placing students in general education only when they could participate without modifications, so the student had to fit the classroom. Both relate to IDEA's least restrictive environment principle, under which placement is decided individually on need, not by disability label.

About the Educational Psychology course

How many college credits is Educational Psychology?
Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Educational Psychology cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 100 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
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