The Arc of Western Wayne County: Serving people with disabilities

The Take Charge Helpline

Important Special Education Definitions

For your convenience, The Take Charge Helpline has included some definitions related to Special Education.  You may want to grab a pencil and piece of paper to write down some notes.

IDEA:  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or Public Law 94-142

ISD/RESA:  Intermediate School District/ Regional Educational Service Agency. A regional body which provides support and oversight to school districts and investigates compliance complaints.

LSD / LEA:  Local School District/ Local Education Agency.  Entity responsible for education of children who reside within their boundaries.

Related Services:  Any transportation and any developmental, corrective, and supportive services required to help a student benefit from special education.

Public Special Education:  Specially designed instruction at no cost to parents.

Appropriate: means that the IEP was designed using the state and federally mandated IEP process; developed to confer educational benefit; offers specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of the student; designed to help the student attain self-sufficiency; program offers meaningful benefit gauged in relation to a student’s potential; the program has specific, measurable goals and is periodically reevaluated. Appropriate is often not the “best possible education”, but rather what the student must have in order to educationally benefit.

Section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973:  No person with a disability can be discriminated against or denied benefits from any program or activity receiving Federal funds.

Maximum Potential:  Program must work toward helping the student to be everything he or she can be.

IEP ( Individualized Education Program).  The document that records the decisions made during an IEPT, or Individualized Education Planning Team meeting. It is the document that holds the identified goals for the individual student and identifies what programs and services need to be implemented by the educational team.

Due Process Hearing:  A hearing with an impartial hearing officer to ensure that the law is fairly applied when disputes arise between a family and the school district.

The laws relating to Special Education mean that:

• Public schools must provide special education programs and services for all students with a disability who are eligible from birth through age 26.
• Public schools must provide special education and related services to students with a disability if deemed necessary at no cost to families.
• Public schools must inform parents and ask parents to participate in making decisions and in developing the education programs for their child with a disability.
• Parents have the right to request that their child’s educational needs be met by the public school.
• Parents have the right to inspect and review all education records maintained by the school pertaining to their child, and
• Parents have the right to challenge the school’s decision in regard to the education of their child with a disability.  They can request a hearing and other special procedures if they feel their child’s current educational needs are not being fully met by the public   school.

Phone code: 1605