The document discusses provisions in IDEA 2004 that aim to improve educational opportunities for students with disabilities. It notes that the law emphasizes inclusion and preparing students for further education and independent living. Parents must understand the law and advocate for their children by ensuring Individualized Education Programs are comprehensive and monitored. Educators must also utilize assistive technologies and supplemental services to support inclusion of students with special needs in extracurricular activities.

1. lightspeed-tek.com

2.  10 Tips: How to Use IDEA 2004 to Improve Your Child’s
Special Education
 Steedman Esq., Wayne (2008, September 15) 10 Tips: How to Use IDEA 2004 to Improve Your Child’s
Special Education. Wrightslaw.com. Retrieved August 6, 2010 from
 http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/art/10.tips.steedman.htm
 Boosting Inclusion in After School Activities with AT and
Supplemental Services
 National Center for Technology Innovation and Center for Implementing Technology in Education (2006)
Boosting inclusion in After School Activities with AT and Supplemental Services. LD Online. Retrieved
August 6, 2010 from
 http://www.ldonline.org/article/Boosting_Inclusion_in_After_School_Activities_with_AT_and_Supplemen
tal_Services
 Goal Setting for Children with Learning Disabilities: Your
Role is Important
 Brown, Dale S. (January 2008) Goal Setting for Children with Learning Disabilities: Your Role is
Important. LD Online. Retrieved August 6, 2010 from
 http://www.ldonline.org/article/Goal_Setting_for_Children_with_Learning_Disabilities%3A_Your_Role_i
s_Important

3.  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of
2004 (IDEA 2004) expands the purposes of the
original law to “ensure that all children with
disabilities have available to them a free
appropriate public education that emphasizes
special education and related services designed to
meet their unique needs and prepare them for
further education, employment and independent
living.” (Section 1400(d)(1)(A))
http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/art/10.tips.steedman.htm

4. 1. Use the Findings and Purposes in IDEA 2004 to Establish a Higher Standard for
a Free, Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).
2. Use IDEA 2004 to Obtain a Better Individualized Education Program (IEP).
3. Include Research Based Methodology in the IEP.
4. Ensure That Annual Goals are Comprehensive, Specific and Measurable.
5. Use New Evaluation Procedures to Monitor Academic Progress and Progress on
IEP Goals.
6. Give Consent Only for Evaluations or Portions of the IEP to Which You Agree.
7. Insist that the Child’s Regular Education Teacher(s) Participate in IEP Meetings.
8. Avoid Three-Year IEPs Like the Plague.
9. Challenge Suspension or Expulsion if the Child’s Behavior was a Manifestation
of the Disability, or if the Alternate Placement does Not Provide FAPE.
10. Avoid Due Process Hearings if Possible.

5.  Parents must be familiar with IDEA 2004; they
must know the law.
 Parents have control over their child’s Individual
Education Program (IEP).
 Parents must do their homework by locating
advocacy groups and other resources that can
empower them.
 Parents must not assume that educators are doing
what is best for their child, or that educators have
a familiarity with their child’s disability.

6.  IDEA 2004 provides for supplemental services and
assistive technologies to students who receive special
education services. Supplemental services may include
assistance with extracurricular activities.
 Extracurricular activities provide valuable social benefits to
those with special needs.
 Participation of students with learning differences in
extracurricular activities is increasing.
 Educators must be vigilant in pinpointing special needs
students’ interests in extracurricular activities, and make
adaptive technologies available in those areas.
 Students’ interests rather than their needs should inform
their selection of extracurricular activities, wherever
possible.

7.  Theater
 Some students with learning differences can use audible tapes or screen readers to memorize
their lines.
 Music
 Music print notation can be converted into Braille for sight-impaired students.
 Modified instruments can be obtained at the district level if the local school cannot provide
them.
 Book Clubs
 Alternative format books can be made available to blind or dyslexic students.
 Academic Games
 Students with difficulties with print materials can used readers or other assistive tools.
 Athletics
 There are organized events for wheelchair users such a basketball and cycling.
 Visually impaired students may participate in distance running with the help of a guide.
 Students with other disabilities may participate in the Special Olympics.

8.  Many student-to-student bonds are made
during extracurricular activities after school.
 If non-impaired students benefit from these
activities, it stands to reason that students with
learning differences do as well.
 Extracurricular activities boost confidence,
foster leadership skills, and develop talents in
learning impaired students just as they do the
non-impaired.

9.  Children need guidance in setting their goals and
achieving them.
 Many learning impaired children have greater
challenges in this area.
 Students with learning differences are more likely
to become discouraged and lose confidence when
they do no receive proper assistance, and fail to
meet their goals.
 Goal-setting was listed by The Frostig Center as
one of six essential attributes in making students
with learning disabilities into successful adults.

10.  Ask them about their dreams
 Encourage them to set goals related to
their dreams
 Help them to work around their
disabilities
 Teach perseverance by example
 Teach them to handle setbacks
 Inspire them to overcome their
disabilities

11.  Many children have difficulties in setting
goals for their future. However, children with
learning differences such as Attention Deficit
Disorder may have difficulty scheduling
homework, making good choices, self
monitoring or even planning a weekend
activity. Schools can set goals for them, such
as good grades, but parents must be involved
in their long-term focus and goal-setting.

12.  There is a law.
 IDEA 2004 says that disabled children should be given the opportunity to meet
the “challenging expectations that have been established for all children.”
(Section 1400(c)(5)(E))
 There are educators.
 They use provisions in the law to provide Assistive Technologies to
students with learning differences both in the classroom and beyond.
 There are parents.
 They monitor both the educators and their learning-disabled children in
order to tailor and manage their educations.
 There are students.
 They rely on the law, the educators, and their parents to navigate them into
a future in which they can prosper.
 Alone, they accomplish little.
 But together, teachers, parents, and students can build a community of
learning that is worthy of our highest ideals.