IEP Accommodations and Modifications –
Help your child access general curriculum:

One required section in your child’s IEP is the accommodations and modifications section. IEP accommodations provide your child equal access to the curriculum.

For example, if your child can’t yet read, having audiobooks for all textbooks is a great IEP accommodation. The audio books let your child listen to the textbooks, so he has equal access to the information.

Other accommodations can include help with note-taking, extended-time for testing, the ability to provide answers orally, etc. The accommodations your child gets depends on your child’s disability and educational needs.

This section of the tutorial will help you understand the IEP accommodations and modifications section of your child’s IEP. The Objectives for this unit include the following:

By the end of this “IEP Accommodations and Modifications” unit, you will be able to:

– Explain the difference between accommodations and modifications.

– List five examples of IEP accommodations that don’t help your child progress in the general curriculum.

– Provide five examples of IEP modifications.

– Explain why modifications should be avoided when possible.

IEP accommodations are one of the easiest ways to support your child in the general classroom. Accommodations give your child full participation and access in school. They allow that without affecting the quality of your child’s education.

Additionally, accommodations are a key for insuring your child is included in the regular classroom as much as possible.

IDEA wants to be sure that children with disabilities are educated in the regular classroom as much as possible. The kids are supposed to be taught with their typical peers.

Sometimes a child’s disabilities do not permit him to learn the same content, on grade-level, with typical peers. In those cases, modifications to the general curriculum may be necessary.

You’ll need to stay involved in your child’s education to insure modifications are not used if IEP accommodations would work.

To begin with, list your child’s areas of disability. Use the resource sites listed later in this unit to research IEP accommodations that might help your child learn better.