IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) for Better Success

What is an IEP? (Individualized Education Plan)

Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are written plans for children who have an identified disability. IEPs are legal documents, written by schools. They’re used to specify what educational supports and services a child will receive.

If you’re interesting in creating an idea IEP for your child, you can learn how to create a Highly Individualized Education Plan for your child. Just go through our Individualized Instructional Design Process.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires an IEP to be written for a child with any of these disabilities:

  • Autism,
  • Deaf-blindness,
  • Deafness,
  • Emotional disturbance (EBD),
  • Hearing impairment (HI),
  • Mental retardation or intellectual disability (MR),
  • Multiple disabilities,
  • Orthopedic impairment,
  • Other health impairment (OHI),
  • Specific learning disability (SLD),
  • Speech-language impairment,
  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI), or
  • Visual impairment including blindness.

IDEA regulates steps for identifying children with disabilities. It establishes the child’s rights, the parent’s rights, and it regulates the entirety of the IEP development and implementation process.

There are specific requirements for information to included in an IEP. The regulations also specify including the parent in the IEP process is mandatory and the parent is an equal member of the IEP Team. Seldom do schools actually treat parental input with equal consideration to the educators’ opinions.

If your child is in public school, it’s a good educate yourself about IEPs. Thus, I highly recommend going through the Learning Abled Kids’ IEP Training program here. It will help you understand, in detail, what an IEP is, your rights and your role in developing your child’s IEP.

ADA 504 Plans

Under the Americans with Disbilities Act, some children can have what is called a “504 Plan.”   From the Office of Civil Rights:

“Section 504 requires recipients to provide to students with disabilities appropriate educational services designed to meet the individual needs of such students to the same extent as the needs of students without disabilities are met. An appropriate education for a student with a disability under the Section 504 regulations could consist of education in regular classrooms, education in regular classes with supplementary services, and/or special education and related services.”  (Ref: www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/504faq.html#interrelationship)

“If a student is eligible under IDEA, he or she must have an IEP.  Under the Section 504 regulations, one way to meet Section 504 requirements for a free appropriate public education is to implement an IEP.”

However, an IEP is not required if a 504 plan is sufficient to provide equal educational access. And the child is not eligible for services under the IDEA rules.

Would you like to understand more about the similarities and differences between 504 Plans and IEPs? The National Center for Learning Disabilities has a nice chart on their website: Access their 504 and IDEA comparison chart.

If you are the parent of a child in public school, it will be helpful for you to explore these additional topics:

Homeschooling and IEPs

IEPS are required for children with disabilities who are in public school. However, IEPs are generally not required if a student is being homeschooled, unless the child is being provided services by the public school.

Regulations regarding requirements for homeschooling children with disabilities vary by state. Thus, it is essential you research and understand homeschooling requirements designated by your state’s regulations.

You can find your State Department of Education Website by visiting my listing of: State Departments of Education then search for “homeschool” on their website.  Be sure to check to see if there are any special hoops you must jump through because your child has a learning disability. Read the homeschooling laws carefully to learn your actual state requirements. Some departments of education will ask parents for documents or actions that the law does not require.

Another good resource for information about legally homeschooling a child with special needs is the “Homeschool Legal Defense Association” website’s state-by-state listing. It’s located at: www.hslda.org/strugglinglearner/sn_states.asp.  They have information regarding regulations for homeschooling children with special education needs in each state. You can see what your state requires there. But you’ll want to check your actual state laws too just in case anything has changed since the HSLDA website was last updated.

Most states don’t require IEPs for homeschoolers. So you probably don’t have to have one for your child if you are homeschooling. You might like to create one for your own use though. Going through the process of deciding exactly what your child needs and having a plan to follow will help you focus your teaching efforts. You can learn how to create a Highly Individualized Education Plan by going through our Individualized Instructional Design Process.

BEST WISHES in creating the best Individualized Education Plan or 504 Plan for your child.