The acronyms, and what to ask about each.
Every one of these will be said out loud in your meeting, usually without being explained. Each term comes with a plain-English meaning and one question you can ask at the table.
- FAPE Free Appropriate Public Education
- The core promise of IDEA: an education designed around your child’s needs, at no cost to you.
-
Ask at the table
“What in this plan is designed specifically for my child, rather than what the school offers everyone?”
- LRE Least Restrictive Environment
- The requirement to educate your child alongside non-disabled peers as much as is appropriate.
-
Ask at the table
“What data shows my child can’t make progress in the general classroom with more support first?”
- IEP Individualized Education Program
- The written plan describing goals, services, minutes and accommodations — and the document the team is bound to follow.
-
Ask at the table
“Can we walk through what changed in this document since last year?”
- PWN Prior Written Notice
- The written explanation a school must give before it changes, or refuses to change, identification, evaluation, placement or services. It has to say why.
-
Ask at the table
“Will I receive prior written notice for this decision, and can it include the reason and the data behind it?”
- IEE Independent Educational Evaluation
- An evaluation by someone outside the district. If you disagree with the school’s evaluation, you can ask about one at public expense.
-
Ask at the table
“If I disagree with these results, what is the process for requesting an independent evaluation?”
- PLAAFP Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance
- The section describing where your child is right now. Every goal should trace back to something written here.
-
Ask at the table
“Which part of the present levels does this goal come from?”
- SDI Specially Designed Instruction
- The adapted teaching itself — content, method or delivery changed to meet your child’s needs. Not the same as an accommodation.
-
Ask at the table
“What specially designed instruction is being provided, and who delivers it?”
- ESY Extended School Year
- Services continuing over breaks when stopping would cost your child skills they can’t quickly regain.
-
Ask at the table
“What data are we using to decide whether extended school year services are needed?”
- FBA Functional Behavior Assessment
- A study of what a behaviour is communicating and what sets it off, done before a behaviour plan is written.
-
Ask at the table
“Has a functional behavior assessment been done, and can I see it?”
- BIP Behavior Intervention Plan
- The plan of supports and responses that follows an FBA. It should describe what adults do, not only what the child must stop doing.
-
Ask at the table
“What does this plan ask the adults in the room to do differently?”
- MDR Manifestation Determination Review
- The meeting held after certain disciplinary removals, to decide whether the behaviour was caused by the disability or by the IEP not being followed.
-
Ask at the table
“Was the IEP being followed as written on the day this happened?”
- LEA Local Education Agency
- Your school district. The LEA representative at the table is the person who can commit district resources.
-
Ask at the table
“Who at this table can approve additional services if we decide they’re needed?”
- RTI / MTSS Response to Intervention / Multi-Tiered System of Supports
- General-education support tiers used before or alongside special education. It can’t be used to delay an evaluation you’ve requested in writing.
-
Ask at the table
“How long will we stay in intervention before evaluating, and what result would trigger one?”
- 504 Plan Section 504 Accommodation Plan
- A different law from IDEA. It provides accommodations but not specially designed instruction or IEP goals.
-
Ask at the table
“Why is a 504 plan being proposed instead of an IEP in this case?”
- Accommodation A change in how, not what
- Changes the way your child accesses the same material — extra time, seating, audio. The expectation stays the same.
-
Ask at the table
“How will we know each accommodation is actually being used day to day?”
- Modification A change in what is expected
- Changes the material or standard itself. Important to understand, because it can affect diploma track over time.
-
Ask at the table
“Does this modification change what my child is working toward long term?”
No match yet. Try the letters exactly as they appear in the document.
The IEP Jargon Pocket Cheat Sheet
Don’t flip through tabs while school staff are talking. Fifty acronyms and phrases on one page, each with its meeting-room question, printed clean in black and white to lie flat on the table.