Acronyms
IEP
What is Individualized Education Program
The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a written statement of our plan to provide your child with a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).
The IEP must contain information about your child and the educational program designed to meet his or her unique needs. This information includes:
Present Levels of Performance
A description of how your child is currently doing in school. This includes:
These children need a CPSE/CSE evaluation
What is children may be eligible for special education services if they show delays in:
SETTS
What is a Special Educations Teacher Support Services.
Direct SETSS
A special education teacher provides specially designed instruction part-time to a group of up to eight children. This may be in the general education classroom or somewhere else in the school. (formally called resource room when located outside of the classroom)
Indirect SETSS
A special education teacher works with the general education classroom teacher to:
Describe 504 accommodations.
What is Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act(Open external link) requires public schools to offer services and accommodations for eligible students with disabilities. These services help students with special health needs fully take part in school.
Your child may be eligible for health services, educational accommodations, or both.
Examples: Medication administration, extended test time, paraprofessionals, transportation accommodations
The frequency an IEP is reviewed.
What is annually.
After your child has received special education services, an IEP meeting is held at least once each year to review your child’s progress. This is called an annual review. During the annual review the team will:
You may also request an IEP meeting. You should make that request in writing to your school, CPSE or CSE.
LRE
What is Least Restrictive Environment
Least Restrictive Environment
This means that your child will be in schools and classrooms with non-disabled peers for as much of the day as possible. This is important because more time with non-disabled peers results in
The way a CPSE/CSE referral is made.
What is the referral must be in writing and may be made by guardian or a DOE school official. The referral should:
Where to Send the Referral
Preschool-Age Children
Children may be eligible for preschool special education services during the year in which they turn three through the end of the school year in which they turn five.
To refer your preschool-age child, mail, fax or give the referral letter to your district Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE).
School-Age Students in Public School
Mail, fax, or give the written referral to the principal or a staff member in the school.
School-Age Students Enrolled in Private, Religious or Charter Schools, or Not Enrolled in School
Mail, fax or give the referral letter to your local District Committee on Special Education (CSE):
Schools Outside of NYC
If your child will attend a school outside of New York City, you will need to contact the school district where the school is located. This school district will work with you to develop an education program and provide any recommended services.
ICT
What is Integrated Co-Teaching Classrooms.
They include students with IEPs and students without IEPs. No more than 12 (or 40 percent) of the students in the class can have IEPs.
There are two teachers—a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The teachers work together to adapt materials and modify instruction to make sure the entire class can participate.
Examples of testing accommodations.
What is:
The frequency an IEP is re-evaluated.
What is every 3 years.
A reevaluation must be completed once every three years, unless you and the DOE agree in writing that it is not necessary. This is called a Mandated Three-Year Reevaluation (formerly called a Triennial).
If new assessments are needed, you will be asked to provide consent. Consent means you are giving your permission for an evaluation to determine continued eligibility.
All written reports will be shared with you when the reevaluation is completed. The IEP team will meet again to determine if any part of the IEP needs to be changed based on this new information/
A reevaluation can also be requested by you or school staff, but will not take place more than one time a year unless you and the DOE agree otherwise in writing.
CPSE and CPE
What is the Committees on Preschool Special Education and Committee on Special education
Committees on Preschool Special Education
The Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) is responsible for coordinating the special education process for preschool children ages three to five.
CPSEs work with families in the district where a family lives, regardless of where children receive services or go to preschool. To find your home district, search your address in Find a School.
There are 10 CPSEs in different areas of the city. Each CPSE is part of a larger Committee on Special Education (CSE) office. A chairperson oversees the office, including the CPSE in it.
Committees on Special Education
Committees on Special Education (CSEs) coordinate and carry out the special education process for students who both are enrolled in DOE schools and those not enrolled in DOE schools. This includes:
There are 10 CSEs. If your child is enrolled in school, your CSE is the one in the same geographical district as that school. To find that district, look up your school’s address in Find a School.
Next steps after the CPSE/CSE referral is made.
What is:
ifyour child is preschool-age, you will receive a referral packet from the CPSE, which includes
If your child is school-age, you will be sent a "Notice of Referral Letter," which:
Consent
If your child has never received special education services, you will be asked to sign a "Consent for Initial Evaluation" form in your preferred language. Even if you made the referral yourself, you must still give consent for the process to begin. If you choose not to give consent your child will not be evaluated.
Describe District 75
What is District 75 provides highly specialized instructional support for students with significant challenges, such as:
District 75 provides instructional support in a wide variety of settings and locations around NYC, including:
District 75 provides special classes with ratios of 12:1:1, 8:1:1, 6:1:1, and 12:1:4 as well as other ratios for students in full inclusion. If your child has significant hearing and vision impairments, District 75 also has self-contained classes with specialized equipment and services. Students whose vision and hearing concerns do not require that type of intensive programming will receive these support services in a District 1-32 school.
District 75 classes are held in community schools and in self-contained school buildings throughout the city. You can tell where a District 75 class is held by the name of the program. For example, P169M@P102M means that the program, P169M, is a District 75 program in Manhattan, and it is held at P.S. M102 in Manhattan.
Also, each borough is notated by a letter:
Examples of related services.
What is:
-Assistive Technology Services
Helps students use their school materials and allows them to communicate.
Counseling
Helps students improve their social, emotional, and coping skills. Goals may address appropriate school behavior and self-control, peer relationships, conflict resolution, and low self-esteem.
Hearing Education Services
Helps students who are deaf or have hearing impairments improve their communication skills. Goals may focus on speech-reading (also known as lip-reading), auditory training, and language development
Occupational Therapy
Helps students develop eye and hand control and use information from the senses and attention to improve life skills such as eating, self-care, problem solving, and social skills.
Orientation and Mobility Services
Helps students with visual impairments improve their ability to be aware of and move safely in their environments.
Physical Therapy
Gives students independence in classrooms, the gym, the playground, bathrooms, hallways and staircases. Therapists will help students develop physical skills, such as:
School Nurse Services
Helps students who have health-related needs stay safe and participate in school.
Speech/Language Therapy
Helps students develop listening and speaking skills. Goals may address:
Vision Education Services
Helps students who are blind or have visual impairments to use braille.
The parts included in an IEP.
What is the following:
Social History
An interview with you to get information about your child’s development and family history.
Psychoeducational
A test that looks at what your child knows and how he or she learns.
Observation
A study of your child in his or her classroom.
Physical Examination
A recent report of your child's vision, hearing, and general health from your doctor. If you have trouble getting this, ask the IEP team, CSE or CPSE to help you get an examination at no cost.
Other Assessments, When Needed
IDEA
What is Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a four-part (A-D) piece of American legislation that ensures students with a disability are provided with Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) that is tailored to their individual needs. IDEA was previously known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) from 1975 to 1990. In 1990, the United States Congress reauthorized EHA and changed the title to IDEA (Public Law No. 94-142). Overall, the goal of IDEA is to provide children with disabilities the same opportunity for education as those students who do not have a
These disabilities are eligible for services under IDEA law.
What is: 13 classifications: Autism, Deafness, Deaf-Blindness, Emotional Disturbance, Hearing Impairment, Intellectual Disability, Learning Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Speech/Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury and Visual Impairment.
13 disability classifications as defined by the New York State Education Department’s Regulations of the Commissioner of Education: Part 200(Open external link).
Autism
A developmental disability, significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction that adversely affects educational performance. It is generally evident before age three. Other characteristics associated with autism are:
Deafness
A student with a hearing impairment that is so severe that the student is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects the student’s educational performance.
Deaf-Blindness
A student with both hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that cannot be accommodated in special education programs only for students with deafness or students with blindness.
Emotional Disturbance
A student who exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a degree that adversely affects the student’s educational performance:
Hearing Impairment
An impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects the student’s educational performance but is not included under the definition of deafness in this section.
Intellectual Disability
A student with significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects that student’s educational performance.
Learning Disability
A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which manifests itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities; of intellectual disability; of emotional disturbance or of environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage. The term does include such conditions as:
Multiple Disabilities
A student with concurrent impairments (such as intellectual disability–blindness, intellectual disability–orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes educational needs that cannot be accommodated in a special education program solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.
Orthopedic Impairment
A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a student’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by:
Other Health Impairment
A student with 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, including but not limited to a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, diabetes, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or Tourette syndrome, which adversely affects that student’s educational performance.
Speech or Language Impairment
A student with a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment or a voice impairment that adversely affects that student’s educational performance.
Traumatic Brain Injury
A student with an injury to the brain caused by an external physical force or by certain medical conditions such as stroke, encephalitis, aneurysm, and anoxia or brain tumors with resulting impairments that adversely affect that student’s educational performance. The term includes open or closed head injuries or brain injuries from certain medical conditions resulting in mild, moderate or severe impairments in one or more areas, including cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem solving, sensory, perceptual and motor abilities, psycho-social behavior, physical functions, information processing and speech. The term does not include injuries that are congenital or caused by birth trauma.
Visual Impairment
An impairment in vision including blindness that, even with correction, adversely affects that student’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
Describe a 12:1:1 classroom.
What is a classroom for students with academic and/or behavioral management needs that interfere with the instructional process and require additional adult support and specialized instruction.
Two types of paraprofesionals.
What is a health paraprofessional and a behavior paraprofessional (sometimes referred to as a safety paraprofessional)
The protocol when a family doesn't agree agree with the Department of Education Assessment.
What is: if you disagree with an assessment conducted by the DOE, you can request that the DOE pay for an independent assessment.
You must make this request in writing and give it to the IEP team, CSE, or CPSE. We will either agree to pay for an independent assessment or begin an impartial hearing.
If we agree to pay, you must:
If we begin an impartial hearing, and the impartial hearing officer finds that the assessment conducted by the DOE is appropriate, you still have the right to get and share an independent assessment with the IEP team, CSE, or CPSE. However, we will not pay for the independent assessment.
FAPE
What is Free and Appropriate Public education
This maximum amount of time between consent to evaluation. The maximum amount of time from evaluation to when IEP services should be implemented.
What is 60 calendar days. What is 60 school days.
(on average takes 3 months)
ASD Nest and ASD Horizon.
What are two different special education programs in District 1-32 schools that serve some students with autism.
Each program works to strengthen academic and social skills, but they have different eligibility criteria and serve students in different types of classes. The same application process is used for both ASD Nest and ASD Horizon Programs.
The ASD Nest Program is a partnership between the NYCDOE and New York University’s (NYU) ASD Nest Support Project. The ASD Nest program serves students with autism in a classroom with general education students. This class is a small Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) class, with one special education teacher and one general education teacher. As students get older, the class size increases. There is no classroom paraprofessional in this model.
The ASD Horizon Program was developed by the NYCDOE. The ASD Horizon program serves a maximum of eight (8) students with autism in a Special Class (SC). This class is taught by one special education teacher and one classroom paraprofessional (8:1+1). Opportunities for inclusion with general education students are encouraged.
Examples of assistive technology.
What are:
-Low-tech devices include slant boards, paper communication boards/cards and text highlighting.
-Mid-tech devices include calculators, single switches and word-processors.
-High-tech devices include dynamic-display augmentative communication devices, speech-to-text programs or computers and eye-gaze devices.
RTI
Response to Intervention is an approach to provide early, systematic, and appropriately intensive assistance to children who are at risk for or already underperforming as compared to appropriate grade- or age-level standards. It is done prior to an IEP to try to catch up students and prevent them from failing