It was passed by Congress in the mid-1970s. One of the driving forces behind the law was that historically, students with disabilities were segregated or separated from their peers.
And a lot of them were receiving a sub-standard education. Consequently, Congress decided to fix that inequality. Congress wanted to give children with special needs an education that was appropriate so they could be employed, self-sufficient and independent to whatever degree possible.
Therefore, Congress created this law which has as its cornerstone, the IEP or individual education program. The IEP outlines all of the programming for the student’s education.
There are basically three components to the IDEA and the IEP. The first is the planning. Planning involves developing this IEP program for the student through assessments and other data.
As we learned from a previous video, assessments are formal or informal tests or data that show a student’s performance. It shows their weaknesses, their strengths, how they learn, their processing skills, their behavior, etc. These assessments are the starting point for the IEP and are critical for developing the plan.
Secondly, is the procedure surrounding the IEP process. These are rules that are designed to protect the planning process.
For example, the parent notices of meetings, the timelines to get things done like the assessments and holding IEP meetings, the consent of the parent that required before implementation of the plan, etc.
So we not only have the planning stage, i.e. putting this plan together, but there are also procedures that are designed to protect the parent’s rights in this process so they can be involved and be active participants in this process.
And then finally, there is implementation. Assuming we do good planning and the procedures have been followed, the IEP team creates an appropriate IEP. And once it is created, it has to be implemented or carried out. It’s not enough to just create an appropriate plan, but the plan has to be followed.
Therefore, there is an obligation on behalf of the school district to carry out all of the services and programming contained in the IEP.
0 Comments