Educators and parents should collaborate to document any challenges a child is facing in school, try classroom interventions to resolve issues, and consider evaluating the child if interventions are not working. If evaluations determine the child needs special education services, an Individualized Education Program (IEP) team including the child, parents, teachers, and other professionals will create an IEP outlining goals and services. The school will then provide services to support the child based on the IEP.

1. Educators, school staff, and/or caretakers
express concerns about a child’s progress.
At this point, teachers and parents should
collaborate to document the challenges
exhibited by the child, try to resolve any issues
informally within the classroom, and examine the
possibilities for classroom-based interventions.
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The Individualized
Education Program
(IEP) Process
Pre-Referral Intervention
If pre-referral interventions aren’t
resolving the issue, the child is
evaluated for a formal evaluation
through use of a referral. The referral
request can be made by caretakers,
teachers, or other school staff. The
child’s legal guardian must provide
written, informed consent to allow
their child to be evaluated.
Evaluations must be conducted,
eligibility determined, and for an
eligible child, the IEP developed, and
placement completed within 90 days
of receipt of a written referral.
Referral
An initial individualized,
comprehensive evaluation of the
child is conducted by qualified
school district personnel to
determine if he/she needs special
education services. The assessment
is conducted in every area of
concern, including functional and
academic performance.
Evaluation
Once the evaluation is completed,
the caretakers meet with school
personnel to discuss the child’s
needs and review results. If the child
qualifies, the IEP Team will explore
what services he/she should receive
and determine goals for the
following year. An Individualized
Education Program (IEP) is
completed by an IEP Team.
IEP Meeting
Who is
on an IEP
team?
Student
(if old enough)
Counselors
School
administrators
Parent(s)
General
education
teacher
Special
education
teacher
Other who
are familiar
with the
case
After the IEP is completed and
signed, the child will begin receiving
the services that are described.
Commonly, IEP progress is formally
documented every five weeks unless
a parent conference takes place, in
which case results will be reported
verbally during the meeting.
Implementation
The federal government requires that
the IEP team reviews each special
education student's IEP at least once
per year. This is referred to as an
annual IEP review. These IEP reviews
generally take place during the
regular academic school year.
Revisions