If the team agrees that the child is eligible to receive special education and related services, it will begin the process of developing an Individualized Education Program (IEP) designed to meet the child’s specific needs. The development of the IEP gives parents the opportunity to work as equal partners with educators. The team will identify the child’s strengths and needs, and discuss and determine what will be provided to teach to the strengths and meet the needs. It will further discuss what the anticipated goals and outcomes may be.
The process of collaborative goal setting allows both parents and educators to combine their separate areas of expertise to plan for the individual needs of the child.
The IEP is a written document— a description of the individualized program developed for the child. The IEP document will be written at the PPT meeting. A proposed IEP, labeled DRAFT, may be presented at the meeting, but changes can and should be made as the team works together to develop the program further. Additional PPT meetings may take place in order to request new evaluations, update the IEP, continue with the existing program, or determine that special services are no longer required.
If a child is found not to be eligible to receive special services, the child may be eligible for a Section 504 plan. This possibility, as well as any other options for appropriate programming and interventions, should be discussed at the meeting
It All Begins With
A Free Appropriate Public Education
(FAPE)
in the
Least Restrictive Environment
(LRE)
Students are Entitled to Special Education and Related Services if they:
WHAT IS SPECIAL EDUCATION?
Specially designed instruction that is:
THE
PRE-REFERRAL
PROCESS
Beginning
the Partnership
The purpose of the site-based intervention/teacher assistance teams known as the Pupil Study Team (PST) is to support general education teachers who have concerns regarding an individual student’s learning. These teams are a general education initiative to ensure that the student has access to appropriate general education interventions and programs before a referral to special education is considered. Typically, this is an internal staff process. The school team should primarily be comprised of general education teachers, but a special education teacher may be part of this team, if needed. Parents are made aware of the process before it is initiated. This intervention process is a framework for general education teachers to collaborate, in a cooperative atmosphere, and brainstorm ideas that might address a student’s learning concerns.