Sped Institute IDEA Disabilities FINAL

Educational Planning for
IDEA Disabilities
Lisa Bilton, Exceptional Education Coordinator
Tanuel Ford, Speech/Language Pathologist
Kimberly Mountjoy, Vision Teacher
Objectives
1. To present the most common 13 areas of disability
recognized by the State of Tennessee.
2. To describe characteristics of these 13 disability
categories.
3. To discuss the assessment strategies utilized in
identifying eligibility for each.
4. To identify common areas impacting educational
performance for each disability area.
Format for Discussion
 Characteristics of the disabilities
 Assessing for the Disabilities
 Educational areas impacted by the Disabilities
Foundation: Assessment Basics
Primary Purpose of Assessment:
Primary Purpose of Assessment is Two-Fold:
1. Determine the needs of a particular student
2. Identify instructional strategies and methods
which will provide the most educational
benefit
Other Purposes of Assessment
 To identify the nature of the problem
 To target skills or identify content areas
 To determine progress or response to instruction
 To determine whether related services are needed
 To assist in determining which factors support
student learning
IDEA Mandates for Assessment
 Tests utilized must be free of bias and multi-
factored.
 Tests must be administered in the student’s native
language.
 Tests must be free of racial, cultural, or language
discrimination.
 Decisions relating to identification, placement,
and programming must not be based solely on
one test.
Standardized Tests
These tests are  Norm-Referenced

uniform in  Criterion-
content, Referenced
administration,
 Diagnostic
and scoring.
Uses of Standardized Tests
Standardized tests are useful in comparing
results across students, classrooms, schools,
school districts, and states. The key word is
standardized . Everyone who takes the
particular test takes it the same way with the
same content—thus comparisons can be
made.
Arguments for Standardized Testing
 Can be designed to  Allow following a
measure a variety student over time
of variables  Provide
 Can be developed information
to match state regarding
standards
whether
 Can help drive knowledge is
curricular
decisions being applied
 Can show which
 Can show how a
skills are lacking student is doing
Arguments Against Standardized
Testing
 Can narrow a  Can be culturally
student’s learning
biased
 Tend to focus on  Sometimes
what is easily
measure only what
measured
students know
 Do not always rather than what
match state they understand
standards  Students with poor
 Are better at test-taking skills
measuring rote may not do as well
learning than as “savvy” testers
Norm-Referenced Tests
Type of standardized  IQ Tests
test that compares
a student’s  Academic
performance to the Achievement Tests
performance of
same-age students
in a normative
 Behavioral Rating
group—scoring is Scales
based on
performance of
Intelligence Tests
 WISC-IV
 Stanford-Binet-V
 DAS-II
 CAS
 KABC-II
 Leiter
 Unit
 Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive
WISC-IV
 Mean score of 100  Verbal
 Standard Comprehension
deviation of 15
 Provides a general  Perceptual
measure of overall Reasoning
cognitive
functioning  Working Memory
 Another term used
for cognitive  Processing Speed
Stanford-Binet-V
 Mean score of 100  Fluid Reasoning
 Standard
deviation of 15  Knowledge
 Provides an
overall measure  Quantitative
of cognitive Reasoning
functioning
 An overall
measure of
 Working Memory
cognitive
functioning  Visual-Spatial
Nonverbal IQ Tests
 Tests are given by
pantomime—no verbal
communication
 Good for students with
language disorders or
hearing impairments
 Provide an estimate of
cognitive functioning
Academic Testing
 Mean score of 100  Basic Reading
 Standard deviation  Reading
of 15 Comprehension
 Norms for age and  Math Calculation
grade scores  Math Reasoning
 Provide a way to  Written Expression
determine how a  WIAT-II
child is functioning
in key academic
 WJ-TA-III
areas
Ranges
69 and Below Extremely Low
70 – 79 Borderline
80 – 89 Low Average
90 – 109 Average
110 – 119 High Average
120 – 129 Superior
130 and Above Very Superior
Low Scores
 Severe delays in
cognitive processing
academic
functioning
adaptive functioning
 Usually result in
certification of MR
Borderline Scores
 Limited cognitive
functioning
 Slower to learn than peers
 Global delays in
processing and reasoning
 May or may not have
delayed adaptive
functioning
 These students most often
“fall through the cracks”
Low Average
 Slightly slower cognitive
ability than average
 Generally can do grade
level work but require
MUCH assistance
 Will struggle in the
class for C’s
 Are often referred for
LD but may not qualify
Average
 Have the cognitive
capacity to succeed
in school
 A and B students,
depending on
motivation
 Most likely to
qualify for LD if
referred
 Students in the 90’s
may struggle for C’s
High Average to Very Superior
 Students are considered
“bright” by teachers
 Often work more
quickly than peers
 A and B students,
depending on
motivation
 May be seen as
“Gifted”
 Rarely are they referred
for LD
Types of Assessment Used for
Eligibility Determination
 Cognitive
 WISC-IV, SB-V, WJTCA-III
 Achievement
 WIAT-II, WJTA-III
 Behavior
 BASC-II, Connors-III, CARS-II, GARS-II, GADS
 Speech
 GFTA-2, PAT-3, AAPS-3
Types of Assessment Used for
Eligibility Determination
 Fluency
 SSI-4
 Language
CASL, CELF-4, TOLD-3, OWLS
IDEA Disabilities
Approved Disabilities in TN Regulations
Federal Disabilities State Disabilities
 Autism
 Deaf-Blindness  Functional Delay
 Deafness  Intellectually Gifted
 Developmental Delay
 Emotional Disturbance
 Hearing Impairment
 Mental Retardation
 Multiple Disabilities
 Orthopedic Impairment
 Other Health Impairment
 Specific Learning Disability
 Speech/Language
Impairment
 Traumatic Brain Injury
 Visual Impairment
Autism
Characteristics:
 Developmental Disability
 Significantly affects a child’s ability to communicate

verbally and nonverbally
 Difficulty relating to others and interacting in
socially appropriate manner
 Unusual/Inconsistent responses to sensory stimuli
 Repetitive body movements, persistent or unusual

preoccupations, and/or resistance to change
Note:
 Autism is a wide spectrum that includes the
following:
 Asperger’s Disorder
 Pervasive Developmental Disorder NOS
 Because of the wide range of the spectrum,
children with autism will have varying levels
of functioning.
Autism
Assessment:
 Cognitive Measure
 Academic Achievement
 Adaptive Measure
 Social/Emotional Measure
 i.e., CARS-II, GARS-II, or GADS
 Speech/Language/Communication Assessment
 Medical statement ruling out other disorders
Autism
Areas of Potential Educational Impact:
 Social/Emotional
 Social skills training, FBA/BIP, structured environment, controlled
transitions
 Academic
 Remedial services, support in grade level classes, modifications to
amount and type of work
 Adaptive
 Training in basic self-care areas
 Language/Communication
 Services to improve pragmatic, “social” language or training to
communicate needs
Developmental Delay
Characteristics:
 Children ages 3 through 9
 Significant delays in one or more of the
following areas: physical, cognitive,
communication, social or emotional, or
adaptive development
 Initial eligibility for this category must be
determined before the child’s 7th birthday
Developmental Delay
Assessment:
 Social/Emotional Measure
 Speech/Language Measure
 Both Receptive and Expressive
 Motor Measure
 Both Fine and Gross Motor
Developmental Delay
 Communication
 Language goals, remedial services with SLP, vocabulary
development
 Adaptive
 Training in basic self-care skills
 Social skills training, FBA/BIP, structured environment, controlled
transitions
 Motor
 PT and/or OT as related services
 Academic (depending on the age of the child)
 Remedial services, support in grade level classes, modifications to
type and length of assignments
Emotional Disturbance
Characteristics:
 Inability to learn which cannot be explained by limited school
experience, cultural differences, or intellectual, sensory, or
health factors;
 Inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal
relationships with peers and school personnel;
 Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings when no major or
unusual stressors are evident;
 General pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression;
 Tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated
with personal or school problems.
 Above must be present to a significant degree and over and
extended period of time.
Note:
 Term may include other mental health diagnoses.
 Term does not apply to children who are socially
maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have
an Emotional Disturbance.
 Social maladjustment includes, but is not limited to:
 substance abuse related behaviors,
 gang-related behaviors,
 oppositional defiant behaviors, and/or
 conduct behavior problems.
Assessment:
 Achievement Measure
 Behavioral/Personality Measures
 BASC-II, Devereaux, Brown’s ADD scales, SAED, CDI
 Specific Behavioral Data
 Previous Interventions Attempted
 Consideration of internal vs. external locus of control
 FBA/BIP, Safety Plan, Social Skills Training, counseling
in severe cases, structured environment
 Academic
 Needs may be due to emotional issues that interfere with
learning but will still need to be addressed on the IEP.
Some may require remedial services while others may
simply need supports in place in the general education
classroom along with modifications.
Functional Delay
Characteristics:
 Significant disability in intellectual functioning and
achievement
 IQ scores of 70 or below
 Academic achievement at or below 4th percentile in
two or more areas
 Adaptive/Self Help skills are generally age-
appropriate
 Scores on adaptive measures must be above 70
Functional Delay
Assessment:
Functional Delay
 Academic
 Remedial services, support in general education
classroom, modifications of length and type of
classwork assignments
Intellectual Disability (Formerly
Mental Retardation)
Characteristics:
 Significantly impaired intellectual functioning
 IQ of 70 or below
 Deficits in adaptive/self help behavior
 Adaptive scores 70 or below
 Significant impairments in academic functioning
 Students may show difficulty communicating and
processing spoken language
Intellectual Disability
Assessment:
 Cognitive
 Academic
 Adaptive
Intellectual Disability
 Academic
classroom, modification of length and type of classwork
 Adaptive
 Training in self-care activities
 Some may present with behavioral challenges
similar to autism. FBA/BIP, safety plans, structured
environment, controlled transitions
Intellectually Gifted
Characteristics:
 A child whose intellectual abilities and potential for
achievement are so outstanding the general
curriculum alone is inadequate to appropriately meet
the student’s educational needs
 Looks at three areas of performance:
 Cognition
 Educational Performance
 Creativity/Characteristics of Gifted
Assessment:
 Cognitive
 Achievement
 Creativity
 Academic
 Pre-testing/compacting curriculum, advancement
of courses, acceleration, small-group instruction
with gifted peers, extending lessons in general
education classroom, Advanced Placement
courses, dual enrollment, early college entry
Multiple Disabilities
Characteristics:
 More than one category of disabilities
 Intellectual Disability-Deafness
 Intellectual Disability-Orthopedic Impairment
 Other Health Impaired-Orthopedic Impairment-Deafness
 The combination of disabilities causes such severe
educational needs that they cannot be accommodated by
addressing only one of the impairments
 Often students who are medically fragile
 Some may be in wheelchairs
 Many may have medical plans

Assessment:
Evaluation procedures for each disability category
under consideration must be followed.
Typically:
 Cognitive
 Achievement
 Adaptive
 Motor (OT/PT)
 Medical Statement
Can vary widely but usually:
 Medical
 Medical plan, health needs at school
 Motor
 Lifts, mobility issues, OT/PT
 Academic
 Remedial services, support in general ed classroom, modifications
 Sensory
 For students with deafness and visual impairments, may need support
from vision and hearing specialists
Orthopedic Impairments
Characteristics:
 Severe orthopedic impairment
 Impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g. club foot,
absence of some member)
 impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone
tuberculosis)
 Impairments from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy,
amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures)
 Ability to move around will be affected
 Some may be in wheelchairs
 May require physical assistance
Orthopedic Impairment
Assessment:
 Medical evaluation
 Social
 Physical
 OT/PT
Orthopedic Impairment
 Mobility
 OT/PT services, modifications to classroom
environment for accessibility, physical assistance,
lifts may be necessary
 Adaptive
 Training in self-care skills may be necessary
Other Health Impairment
Characteristics:
 Limited strength, vitality or alertness (including a heightened
alertness to environmental stimuli that results in limited
alertness with respect to the educational environment) that is
due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma,
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a
heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia,
nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia; and Tourette’s
Syndrome
 Students may have medical plans that need to be
implemented
 Some may require behavior plans or safety plans
Characteristics, continued:
 Chronic or acute health problems that require
specially designed instruction due to:
(1) impaired organizational or work skills;
(2) inability to manage or complete tasks;
(3) excessive health related absenteeism; or
(4) medications that affect cognitive
functioning.
Assessment:
 An evaluation from a licensed health services provider that includes:
 medical assessment and documentation of the student’s health;
 any diagnoses and prognoses of the child’s health impairments;
 information, as applicable, regarding medications; and
 special health care procedures, special diet and/or activity
restrictions.
 Motor Evaluation
 Social-Emotional Measure
 Communication Measure
 Academic
 Remedial services, support in general education classroom,
modifications of length and type of assignments
 Medical
 Medical plan, medication given at school
 Social-Emotional
 FBA/BIP, Safety Plan, structured environment, controlled transitions
 Adaptive
 Training in self-care needs
 Motor
 OT/PT services, accommodations for access to environment
Specific Learning Disabilities
Characteristics:
 A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in using
language, spoken or written, which may manifest
itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak,
read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations
 Areas include basic reading, reading comprehension,
math calculation, math reasoning, written
expression, listening comprehension, oral expression
Assessment:
Discrepancy Method:
 Evidence that prior to, or as a part of, the referral process, the child was
provided appropriate instruction in general education settings
 Evidence that instruction was delivered by appropriately trained
personnel
 Data-based documentation of repeated formal assessment of student
progress during instruction (progress monitoring data) that has been
collected and recorded frequently (a minimum of one data point per week
in each area of academic concern)
 Evidence that progress monitoring data was provided to the child’s
parents at a minimum of once every four and one-half (4.5) weeks
 Evidence that when provided with appropriate general education
interventions, students are not progressing in accordance with grade-level
expectations in one or more of the areas of SLD
 Academic Measure
Assessment:
Response to Intervention (RTI)
 State-approved plan for best-practice RTI model
 A State-approved RTI Method of Identification must include:
 high-quality instruction and positive behavioral supports provided by appropriately
trained personnel;
 scientifically-validated interventions appropriate for suspected area of disability;
 frequent, ongoing progress monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions
and inform instruction that includes:
 data-based documentation to illustrate the student’s response to the intervention(s);
 data-based documentation of intervention integrity, fidelity to design, and intensity; and
 periodic collaborative student support team review of student outcome data taking into
account Local Education Agency-determined decision points.
 data demonstrating the student’s non-responsiveness to scientifically-validated
interventions supported by comprehensive, curriculum-based data;
 Psychoeducational evaluation to rule out exclusionary factors and other disability
areas (i.e. academic achievement, cognitive measure, social-emotional measures if
appropriate, adaptive measures if appropriate)
Specific Learning Disability
 Academic
classroom, modification of amount and type of
class assignments
Traumatic Brain Injury
Characteristics:
 An acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force,
resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial
impairment, or both
 Open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more
areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract
thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor
abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information
processing; and speech
 Students may be aggressive and impulsive and require behavior plans or
safety plans
 Some may have medical plans
 Others may have communication difficulties
Characteristics, continued:
 The insult to the brain induces a partial or total functional disability and results in one or more of the
following:
 Physical impairments such as, but not limited to:
 i. speech, vision, hearing, and other sensory impairments, ii. headaches, iii. fatigue, iv. lack
of coordination, v. spasticity of muscles, vi. paralysis of one or both sides, vii. seizure
disorder.
 Cognitive impairments such as, but not limited to:
 i. attention or concentration, ii. ability to initiate, organize, or complete tasks, iii. ability to
sequence, generalize, or plan, iv. flexibility in thinking, reasoning or problem solving, v.
abstract thinking, vi. judgment or perception, vii. long-term or short term memory, including
confabulation, viii. ability to acquire or retain new information, ix. ability to process
information/processing speed.
 Psychosocial impairments such as, but not limited to:
 i. impaired ability to perceive, evaluate, or use social cues or context appropriately that
affect peer or adult relationships, ii. impaired ability to cope with over-stimulation
environments and low frustration tolerance, iii. mood swings or emotional lability, iv.
impaired ability to establish or maintain self-esteem, v. lack of awareness of deficits
affecting performance, vi. difficulties with emotional adjustment to injury (anxiety,
depression, anger, withdrawal, egocentricity, or dependence), vii. impaired ability to
demonstrate age-appropriate behavior, viii. difficulty in relating to others, ix. impaired self-
control (verbal or physical aggression, impulsivity), x. inappropriate sexual behavior or
disinhibition, xi. restlessness, limited motivation and initiation, xii. intensification of pre-
existing maladaptive behaviors or disabilities.
Assessment:
 Medical Statement documenting brain injury
 Communication Measure
 Social
 Physical
 Social-Emotional Measures if appropriate
 Academic
 Remedial services, support in general education classroom,
modifications to amount and type of classroom assignments
 Medical
 Medical Plan
 Social-Emotional
 FBA/BIP, safety plan, structured environment, controlled transitions
 Physical/Motor
 OT/PT services, modifications to allow access to general education
classroom
 Adaptive
 Training in independent self-care may be needed
Sensory and Communication
Disabilities
Speech or Language Impairment
 A communication disorder, such as stuttering,
impaired articulation, a language impairment,
or voice impairment
 Can exist along with other disabilities
 Students may have difficulty expressing
themselves and also may have difficulty
following oral directions
Speech Sound Production Impairment Characteristics:
 Abnormal speech sound production resulting from
substitution, omission, distortion, and/or addition of
developmentally appropriate sounds
 Students may demonstrate errors with specific
sounds or speaking patterns.
 Speech may appear oversimplified or extremely
difficult to understand.
Speech Fluency Impairment Characteristics:
 Smooth forward flow of speech is interrupted by
sound repetitions, prolongations, interjections,
and/or struggle behaviors.
 Often times students with dysfluent speech
demonstrate secondary behaviors such as eye
blinking, rocking, facial grimacing, or twitching.
 Students with dysfluent speech may avoid pressure
filled situations as they commonly onset dysfluent
behaviors.
Voice Impairment Characteristics:
 Abnormal vocal pitch, intensity, and/or quality that
results from pathological conditions or inappropriate
use of the vocal mechanism.
 Students with voice impairments may demonstrate
harsh, breathy, or hoarse vocal presentation.
 Voice may appear unusual for age, sex, or gender.
Language Impairment Characteristics:
 Significant deficiency in expressive or receptive
language components based on a student’s
chronological age.
 Poor auditory processing abilities
 Students may experience difficulty interpreting
spoken language or in formulating meaningful
expression.
 Students may have a hard time following complex
commands and with using context clues to derive
meaning.
Speech Sound Production Assessment:
 Formal or informal diagnostic measure whose results
reveal:
 Sound errors 1 year past the age of normal development
 Persistent presence of phonological processes that rate in
the moderate to severe range
 Stimulability probe
 Oral mechanism exam
 Conversational speech sample analysis
 Evidence of adverse academic affect
Speech Fluency Assessment:
 Measure to obtain description of dysfluent
behaviors
 Hearing screening
 Parent/teacher/student input via interview or
checklist
Voice Impairment Assessment:
 Measure to assess vocal quality

 Otolaryngologist exam report

Language Impairment Assessment:
 Standardized comprehensive language assessment whose
results suggest language skills to be greater than 1.5 SD from
the mean
 Expressive language
 Receptive language
 Auditory perception
 Supplemental assessment
 Functional communication assessment
 Language sample
 Criterion or norm-referenced assessment
 Academic
classroom, modifications of length and type of
assignments
 Communication
 Language goals, remedial services with SLP,
vocabulary development
Deaf-Blindness
 Hearing and visual impairments
 Severe communication and other
developmental and educational needs
 Cannot be accommodated in special
education programs by addressing any one of
the impairments
 Students may need assistance on and off the
bus
Visual Impairment
 Impairment in vision that, even with
correction, adversely affects a child’s
educational performance
 Term includes both partial sight and blindness
 Students may require assistance with mobility
Visual Impairment
State Eligibility Standard:
Student must meet at least one eligibility standard AND
the definition of visual impairment.
 Legal Blindness: Visual acuity in better eye with best possible correction
is 20/200 or less at distance and/or near. OR Visual field restriction in
both eyes of 20 degrees or less.
 Visual Impairments: visual acuity in better eye with best possible
correction is 20/50 or less at distance and/or near. OR Visual field
restriction in both eyes of 60 degrees or less.
 A medical and educational documentation of progressive loss of vision,
which may in the future, affect the student’s ability to learn visually.
 Other visual impairment, not perceptual in nature, resulting from a
medically documented condition.
Visual Impairment
Characteristics:
 Limited ability to learn incidentally and independently
through observation of peers and adults and environment.
 Wide variety of abilities, behaviors, and instructional needs
based on wide variety of eye conditions and implications of
those conditions. Two students with same eye condition may
have completely different instructional needs.
 Sometimes, apparent high level of skills in one area but
apparent, inconsistent delays in another. For example, a
student with blindness may have very developed language
skills but may not have concrete experiences to fully
understand vocabulary being used in grade-level reading
Visual Impairment
Assessment:
 Medical Eye Report
 Functional Vision Assessment
 Appearance of Eyes
 Visual Behavioral Abnormalities
 Peripheral Field
 Color Discrimination
 Light Sensitivity and Preference Learning Media
Assessment
 Near and Distant Acuity and Discrimination
Visual Impairment
Assessment:
 Learning Media Assessment
 Current print functioning
 Oral and silent reading speeds in print, large print
and/or Braille
 Near reading and writing
 Distant reading and writing
 Listening comprehension
Visual Impairment
Assessment
 Expanded Core Curriculum Screening and
Assessment
 Visual Efficiency
 Compensatory Skills (tactile skills, organization, etc)
 Technology (keyboarding, computer access, digital books, etc)
 Orientation and Mobility
 Social Interaction Skills
 Independent Living Skills
 Recreation and Leisure Skills
 Career Education
 Self-Determination
Visual Impairment
 Academic
 Direct instruction or pre-teaching of skills needed in general education
classroom
 Accommodations for length of assignments or format of assignments
 Social
 Social Skills training
 Mobility
 Direct instruction and pre-teaching to travel safely and independently in
buildings, on school grounds, in community, and on and off bus
 Cane use
 Adaptive
 Training in independent self-care may be needed
 Pre-vocational/Career Education
Visual Impairment
Areas of Potential Educational Impact
 Technology
 Low vision devices such as hand-held magnifiers, hand-held
telescopes, video magnifiers
 Computer software applications such as screen readers, screen
enlargement software or audio graphic calculators
 PDA with refreshable Braille and speech, use of printer or Braille
embosser
 Digital books and book players
 Braille writers, Braille paper, Braille graph paper
 Large print texts, enlarged/bold-line graph paper
 Talking scientific calculators
Deafness
 A hearing impairment that is so severe that
the child is impaired in processing linguistic
information through hearing, with or without
amplification
 An inability to communicate effectively
 Delayed speech and/or language development
 May require sign language interpreter
Hearing Impairment
 An impairment in hearing, whether permanent
or fluctuating
 Does not include Deafness
 Inability to communicate effectively
 Delayed speech and/or language development
 Students may not hear verbal
communication if they are not looking at
the speaker and may need oral information
repeated.
For more information on
Hearing/Deafness…
Nancy McKinney, Compliance Facilitator, is
offering a session on the academic needs of
students who are deaf and hard of hearing.
In addition to these areas:
 Don’t forget about prevocational skills!!
 All disability areas can be affected by poor
skills in prevocational issues.
 For some students, prevocational skills can
adversely impact other areas associated with
each disability and should be addressed on the
IEP.
Educational Planning for Disability
Areas
First and Foremost…
Decisions regarding educational placement on

the IEP are NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER
made based on a child’s disability category.
Step 1: What are the areas of concern?
 First, we must identify which areas are
exceptional and in need of support through
exceptional education services.
 To do this, we summarize the child’s current
performance levels under Present Levels of
Performance on the IEP.
 From there, we identify which of the areas are
exceptional.
Step 2: Setting Annual Goals
 From the Present Levels of Performance, we
determine what the student’s needs are.
 Next, we determine where we want the child
to be within a year’s time on his/her
weaknesses or areas of exceptionality.
 We then write Annual Goals for each area of
exceptionality.
Step 3: Determining Placement
 Once we have developed our Annual Goals
from the Present Levels of Performance, we
must decide how to best implement those
goals to insure success.
 When considering placement, we must take
into account providing support in the Least
Restrictive Environment (LRE).
Least Restrictive Environment
 IDEA states:
To the maximum extent appropriate, children with
disabilities, including children in public or private
institutions or other care facilities, are educated with
children who are not disabled and that special classes,
separate schooling, or other removal of children with
disabilities from the regular education environment
occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is
such that education in regular classes with the use of
supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved
satisfactorily.
(IDEA, 20 U.S.C. § 1412)
Of Critical Importance:
Other placement options on the continuum of
placement possibilities can be explored only
when success in the LRE cannot be achieved
without making significant and substantial
alterations to that setting using supplementary
aids and services.
Supplementary Aids and Services
 Interventions
 Consultation
 Behavior management plans
 Paraprofessionals
 Itinerant teachers
 Resource rooms
 These are to be utilized to modify the general
education classroom to allow for participation by
students with disabilities.
Note:
 Terms such as “inclusion” or “mainstreaming” are narrower
in scope than the intent of LRE.
 They are NOT synonymous with LRE.
 Placement within the general education classroom may be the
least restrictive environment for some students with
disabilities, but not all.
 IDEA requires participation in the general classroom ONLY
when such placement can provide an appropriate education.
 Thus while IDEA promotes integration of students with
disabilities in the general classroom, it recognizes that some
students may require a more restrictive or segregated setting
for FAPE provision.
Before a More Restrictive
Environment is Considered…
 Schools must make a good faith effort to
educate students with disabilities in the LRE.
 Before moving a student to a more restrictive
placement, schools must be able to
demonstrate that they have made every
reasonable effort to educate students in less
restrictive setting with the use of
supplementary aids and services.
Continuum of Services
 IDEA requires a continuum of services of
alternative placement options to meet the
needs of students with disabilities.
 This continuum represents a spectrum of
placements where a student’s unique special
education program can be implemented.
 The purpose of this continuum is to allow IEP
Teams to choose from a number of options
when determining LRE appropriate to each
student.
IDEA Regulations:
a) Each [school district] shall ensure that a continuum of
alternative placements is available to meet the needs of
children with disabilities for special education and related
services.
b) The continuum required…must:
1) Include the alternative placements … (instruction in
regular classes, special classes, special schools, home
instruction, and instruction in hospitals and institutions);
and
2) Make provision for supplementary services (such as
resource room or itinerant instruction) to be provided in
conjunction with regular class placement.
(IDEA Regulations, 34 C.F.R. § 300.551)
Continuum of Services
Residential One-on-
Placements One Aid
Murrell
Johnson
Cora Howe
Consultation? MIS Life

One on One Aid? Skills
Life Skills?
MIS? Inclusion
Special Day Programs? Resource/
Residential? Pull Out
Inclusion?
Resource?
following:
Where are the
Consultation
LRE Determination Standards
 Must be individualized based on unique student
needs
 Must examine which setting will offer maximum
educational benefits to students
 May consider effect of student’s disability on peer
learning (i.e. behavior) ONLY after good faith effort
has been made in LRE
 Must provide FAPE
 Must integrate within general education to the
maximum extent possible
In Conclusion:
 Each IDEA disability has characteristics that will
lead to educational needs.
 The unique needs of each student must be
considered in describing the Present Levels of
Performance and, from there, identifying the areas of
exceptionality.
 Annual Goals are developed based on each student’s
needs.
 Placement is determined by the IEP Team to give the
best support to enable the student to achieve
educational benefit in the LRE.
We are here to support you!
 For tough cases, your Compliance Facilitator
is there to assist you.
 Don’t hesitate to contact him/her if you have
questions.
Thank you for your attention!!
For More Information on IDEA
Disabilities:
Visit the Tennessee Department of Education
website at
http://www.state.tn.us/education/speced/assessment.shtml

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Educational Planning for

These tests are  Norm-Referenced

 Significantly affects a child’s ability to communicate

 Repetitive body movements, persistent or unusual

 Many may have medical plans

 Oral mechanism exam

 Evidence of adverse academic affect

Decisions regarding educational placement on

Consultation? MIS Life

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