I don’t think I’ve taught a single year without at least one kid with an IEP or 504. I’m almost positive that I have not. Sometimes, I am the one who kicks off the testing for the IEP/504. Either way, I always have one.

Let’s back up and explain these lovely acronyms. So IEP stands for Individualized Education Program. It comes from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (usually referred to as IDEA). This gives students accommodations and modifications to ensure a free and appropriate education, as the law demands. Contrary to some parental belief, you can’t just “get” one, it is a whole process – and a long one – that the student needs to qualify for based on a few specific areas of disability – intellectual disabilities, specific learning disabilities (referred to as SLD), speech and language issues (called SLI for specific language impairment), autism, and other health impairment (referred to as OHI). There are more categories and a whole host of services that come along with this. For general education (hereafter referred to as gen-ed) teachers who find themselves face-to-face with an IEP, the important thing to remember is that this is a legal document and you are required to follow it. That is why a good IEP will have very clear, specific accommodations so that everyone can easily implement whatever it is.

Let’s hang out in IEP land for a bit. They can seem pretty overwhelming – they have acronyms even the most experienced teachers don’t have a clue what they mean, and test results from all sorts of tests that (thankfully) we don’t need to understand. Not really. I read every IEP I get. Carefully. But I don’t focus on the testing parts. This first part is referred to as the “plaafp” – basically, it summarizes where the kid is currently. While this information is important and helpful, when starting to work with an IEP student from the gen-ed side, it isn’t the most important.

There are extended school year questions, and transportation questions. Not anything you really need to worry about – other than to see if the student is on special transportation or not. And extended school year (ESY) is not the same as summer school.

So what is important? The goals are important – but also not really your responsibility. Data for goals will be collected by the SPED teacher or therapist assigned to collected it – occupational therapist for an OT goal, speech therapist for a speech goal, etc. You should know these as it will give you an idea of where the student is academically and behaviorally. But again, not the most important part.

The most important part of the IEP for the gen-ed teacher is the accommodations page. This tells you all the things you will need to do for your student. These are things like shortened assignments, more time, seating in a specific area, specialized paper or communication tools, read alouds for assignments and tests…there are hundreds of accommodations and which ones your student has are depending on that student. Hence the “individualized” part of IEP. These are not optional. If it says your student gets extra time on assignments, they get extra time. Some will be at teacher discretion – like shortened assignments to minimum number to show mastery at teacher discretion. That means if I have a 20 question math page, and I really only need to see if they can do #3, 6, 7, 9, 11, and 14 to show me that they understood all parts of what I was teaching, I can narrow that student’s work down to those questions. Another common accommodation is read aloud for non reading assignments and assessments. This means the student gets all math, science, and social studies activities and tests read aloud. This is an accommodation they must qualify for, and if they need it for reading as well, they must qualify again with a separate “worksheet” – a term used for the paperwork the team uses to determine if a student receives that. No matter what the accommodation is, you have to follow it.

Let’s talk the team. And the meetings. So when a student is first recommended for an IEP (which usually takes a meeting), there is a whole lot of testing. The testing has to be done in a specific amount of time, and may include educational testing, sociocultural testing, hearing, vision, psychiatric evaluations, speech evaluations, and so on. Once all testing is done, the teacher, parent, administrator, special education teacher, and some other specialists – AKA the IEP team – meet to go over the data and determine if the student qualifies or not. All the testing data is discussed and if the student fits the criteria for one of the categories for special education under IDEA, they are considered eligible for services and an IEP will be written. This is the eligibility meeting. Then, once the IEP is written, the whole group will get back together to hold an IEP meeting on the initial IEP, where it is presented to the parent and approved by them or not. There will be an IEP meeting annually for that student around the same time each year. This is the annual review. It goes over how well the student is meeting the goals and determines what the goals and accommodations will be going forward. An initial IEP is a LOT of meetings. If your student already has one coming in, you might only have to meet once in a year.

There is something called a triennial – this is the special three-year annual review. Often, additional testing will happen around this time. For the gen-ed teacher, it just means you might have more meetings.

The other things that will impact you as the gen-ed teacher are the minutes and the LRE. The minutes are how many minutes a student receives services and where. This might be that your student gets 30 minutes of speech 2 times a week, or goes to a special classroom for reading instruction for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. These will need to be accounted for in your schedule, as you would not want a student out of the room daily during the time you introduce and teach math concepts. The other, the LRE, stands for least restrictive environment. This boils down to this: what environment can the student best learn in with support that keeps them as close to their general education peers as possible. For many, many IEP students, this is the inclusion classroom. This is a gen-ed classroom where a special education teacher works inside the room along with the general education teacher. Students with IEPS can also be pulled out for short periods of time or long periods of time, depending on their minutes, or they could spend all or most of their day in a specialized classroom. The LRE will be discussed at the IEP meeting.

Now, 504s. The name for 504s comes from Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, a Civil Rights act passed in the 70s. The easiest way I have found in explaining the difference, is that 504 means reasonable accommodations that can be made in a classroom to help a kid function. So if you had a student with a wheelchair, you would need a specific desk and space for them to move, but you don’t need a special classroom for them to go to or a different teacher to work with. You’ve got an ADHD kiddo who moves slow on assignments because they get distracted? They can have more time to complete assignments, or take tests in small groups, or be seated away from distractions.

These are different from the accommodations in an IEP. There is some overlap (like small group testing), but the idea is that these can be done reasonably by the classroom teacher without additional help. Some common examples are: sitting in proximity to the teacher, more time to complete work, work presented in smaller chunks, or the student might need a checklist for packing their materials at the end of the day.

Like an IEP, students must qualify for a 504 based on specific criteria. They also need a documented medical issue, like ADHD, diabetes, or anxiety. A 504 is generally the sole responsibility of the classroom teacher, but should not impact them in any significant way. But like the IEP, if is on the 504, you have to do it.

This was a very brief overview and there is a whole lot that I skipped or glossed over, so do not take this as the only information you ever need. The point of this blog entry is to help you work with an IEP or 504 student when you’ve never had one before or don’t know what to do. I hope this makes you feel more comfortable with the topic and feel like you understand a little more when you go into one of those eligibility meetings.