1. Faculty Meeting Resource
The purpose of this resource is to provide educators a short, sequential overview of topics in Special Education. The information provided in this module is based on federal law (IDEA) and the requirements of that law. It is very important for you to check with persons in your school district to more fully understand how federal policy is interpreted and implemented in your school district.

2. What is my role in designing and implementing my student's IEP?

3. You may play a role in designing the student's individual education plan (IEP) and you will have a role in implementing it. The two roles are:
You may be invited to be part of a team that writes an IEP for a student who has been identified as eligible for special education services.
You will use the IEP as a resource when you are teaching students who have disabilities.

4. We hear this term so often, what exactly is it?
The ARD Committee
We hear this term so often, what exactly is it?

5. The Admission Review and Dismissal Committee meets to determine if a student:
will receive special education services (Admission),
continues to meet eligibility for services (Review) and,
is no longer eligible to meet special education services (Dismissal)

6. OK, just a quick side note here: Most other states refer to the meeting where an Individualized Education Plan is designed and agreed upon as an IEP Meeting in reference to the plan that is created. In Texas, we refer to this meeting as an ARD Meeting in reference to the committee that conducts it, two different names for the exact same meeting.

7. If a student is receiving Special Education Services, it is the ARD Committee that is tasked with responsibility for certain educational decisions on the student’s behalf. In order to meet these responsibilities, the ARD Committee must gather data and develop and Individualized Education Plan based on each student’s specific needs.

8. The IEP is:
Written after a student has been identified as eligible for special education services. A decision about a child's educational placement is made after the IEP team decides the child's needs, functional and academic goals, and the instructional services and related services needed to meet those goals and progress in the general curriculum.
Ieps must be reviewed at least once each year. Members of the IEP team must agree to changes made in the IEP.

9. The IEP includes specific components:
Present levels of performance
Annual goals
Special education and related services
Participation with non-disabled children (placement)
Participation in state and district-wide tests
Accommodations and/or modifications
Transition planning
Educational progress

10. Data that should be reviewed can include many sources.
Data gathered by the LSSP in the evaluations
Testing the student has taken, Reading and Math Batteries, Benchmarks, Unit tests, STAAR tests,
Academic classroom data: accommodations that help the student, specific areas in which the student struggles, Areas of relative strength for the student.
Behavior: How often out of seat, talking, distracted or acting out inappropriately. Antecedents to inappropriate behavior should be noted.

11. How Do I Use the IEP?
When you have a student who has disabilities in your classroom, you will refer to the IEP on a regular basis when doing your lesson planning. You will need to know the accommodations and modifications the ARD committee has agreed to make available to the student.
While the IEP may be new to you, keep in mind that the special education teacher(s) in your school is your partner in implementing the IEP and in assuring that the needs of students who have disabilities are met. 

12. To learn more about how you will use the IEP in your planning, confer with another classroom teacher in your school who has a student with disabilities in his/her classroom.
Discuss how often he/she refers to the IEP, and how he/she connects it to his/her lesson planning.

13. The Individualized Education Plan is ultimately the way that the students who receive special education services are guaranteed access to a Free and Appropriate Public Education.
While it is a valuable source of information to general and special education teachers, it is primarily the Local Education Authority’s legal offer of FAPE to a child with a disability. Failure to provide the supports it defines can result in administrative penalties or legal action.