
Special Education Terms to Know: Part 2
So my post got so long I needed to break things up! Here is another installment of the terms, defined, for your reading pleasure!
IEP: Individual Education Plan is developed for children who qualify as a child with a disability under IDEA. If your child is needing academic goals or classroom modifications then your child will need an IEP versus a 504.

LRE: This stands for Least Restrictive Environment. This is another great term to know REALLY well! A child with a disability should be taught in the least restrictive environment. Often people will discuss inclusion but do not realize that IDEA does not mention ONE word about inclusion. It DOES discuss LRE!
(2)Assurance. If the State does not have policies and procedures to ensure compliance with paragraph (b)(1) of this section, the State must provide the Secretary an assurance that the State will revise the funding mechanism as soon as feasible to ensure that the mechanism does not result in placements that violate that paragraph.
Manifestation Hearing: Hopefully you will never have to face a Manifestation Hearing. When a child is placed on suspension for 10 days or more in a school year the law considers this to be a change in placement so a Manifestation Determination hearing must be conducted. The hearing will be used to determine if the child’s behavior issues are related to their disability or not. If it is determined that the child’s behavior IS the cause of the disciple issue then the school should be prompted to develop an FBA if they have not previously.
Modifications: The term “modification” may be used to describe a change in the curriculum. Modifications are made for students with disabilities who are unable to comprehend all of the content an instructor is teaching. For example, assignments might be reduced in number and modified significantly for an elementary school student with cognitive impairments that limit his/her ability to understand the content in general education class in which they are included.
OCR: The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is where you would file a complaint about discrimination or retaliation. As people oppose the discriminatory practices and participate in the OCR investigations as it is critical to make sure there is the right to an equal education opportunity in accordance with federal law. This is why recipients of federal funds are not allowed to intimidate, threaten, coerce, or discriminate against any individual for the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by federal civil rights law. Once a student, parent, teacher, coach, or other individual complains formally or informally to a school about a potential civil rights violation or participates in an OCR investigation or proceeding, the recipient is prohibited from retaliating (including intimidating, threatening, coercing, or in any way discriminating against the individual) because of the individual’s complaint or participation.
Due to their expertise in activity and environmental analysis, practitioners are particularly skilled in facilitating student access to curricular and extracurricular activities. They focus on the students’ strengths and can design and implement programming to improve inclusion and accessibility, such as Universal Design for Learning. Additionally, they play a critical role in educating parents, educators, administrators and other staff members. They offer services along a continuum of prevention, promotion, and interventions and serve individual students, groups of students, whole classrooms, and whole school initiatives. They collaborate with the education team to support student success. In this way, occupational therapy practitioners can contribute to both general and special education. Occupational therapy practitioners have specific knowledge and expertise to increase participation in school routines throughout the day. Interventions include:
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Conducting activity and environmental analysis and making recommendations to improve the fit for greater access, progress, and participation
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Reducing barriers that limit student participation within the school environment
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Providing assistive technology to support student success • Supporting the needs of students with significant challenges, such as by helping to determine methods for alternate educational assessment and learning
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Helping to identify long-term goals for appropriate post-school outcomes
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Helping to plan relevant instructional activities for ongoing implementation in the classroom
Please take the time to click on the links in the post as it contains the reference material used to write this post. As always, you are welcome to join us for more discussion on the jargon of special education at our FB group, IEP/504 Assistance for parents of public school students from all over the United States.
AESA also runs a special needs homeschool group, Homeschooling Special (Needs) Kids, and we also have a group for all parents and caregivers of special needs children called Special Needs Parenting Advice and Support where we discuss ALL things related to special needs care and Educating Gifted Children is where we discuss topics concerning gifted children and those that are twice exceptional (2e). I hope to see you there!
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