Information about IEP's
by Erica Schoen
IEP
Students must have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to receive special education services. An IEP is a written document that describes a plan to meet the unique educational needs of a student with a disability.
Disabilities that may qualify a child for special education services include:
o Autism: a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction. Characteristics often associated with autism are: engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.
o Deaf-Blindness: the coexistence of hearing and visual impairments.
o Emotional Disturbance: is a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics, over a long period of time, and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:
o An ability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
o An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers or teachers.
o In appropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
o A general pervasive mood of anxiety, unhappiness, or depression.
o A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
o Hearing Impairment: impairments in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
o Mental Retardation: significantly below average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior, manifesting during the developmental period, and adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
o Orthopedic Impairment: are bone and muscle impairments that adversely affect a child’s educational performance.
o Other Health Impaired: a medically diagnosed physical or physiological condition that causes educationally related problems. Other health impairments include, but are not limited to: a seizure disorder, asthma, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and (ADHD), and diabetes.
o Specific Learning Disability: a disorder in one or more of the processes needed to receive, understand, or express information (psychological processing). Children with learning disabilities show a significant difference between ability and achievement. They may have difficulty in one or more of the following:
o Basic reading skills
o Reading comprehension
o Written expression
o Mathematics calculations
o Listening comprehension
o Oral expression
o Speech and/or Language Impairment: a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or voice impairment, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
o Traumatic Brain Injury: an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force. The term applies to open or closed head injuries.
o Visual Impairment and Blindness: an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
