Special Education Law
This acronym stands for the federal law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Clue: This is the practice of teaching students with and without disabilities together in the same classroom.
Answer: What is inclusion?
Clue: If you think a student might have a learning problem, the first thing you should do is this—before making any referrals.
Answer: What is document observations and talk to the campus intervention or support team (RTI team)?
Clue: Failing to implement this for a student with an IEP when grading their work could violate federal law and result in a denial of FAPE.
Answer: What are accommodations or modifications?
Clue: This person must attend the ARD meeting to share how the student is performing in the general curriculum and to help develop appropriate goals and accommodations.
Answer: Who is the general education teacher?
Under IDEA, every eligible child is entitled to this type of education that must be provided at no cost to the family.
Free Appropriate Public Education
Clue: When students without disabilities learn alongside peers with higher needs, they often gain these important skills beyond academics.
Answer: What are empathy, patience, acceptance, and social awareness?
Clue: If a parent doesn't speak English, the school is required to do this so the parent can fully participate in meetings like ARDs or LPACs.
Answer: What is provide interpretation or translated documents in the parent’s native language?
Clue: For students with moderate disabilities on a modified curriculum, participation and effort can be included in grading to support motivation, but grades must primarily reflect this.
Answer: What is progress toward individualized learning goals or mastery of modified standards?
Clue: This team member helps interpret evaluation data, drafts IEP goals, and ensures services align with the student's identified needs.
Answer: Who is the special education teacher?
Clue: Even if a student hasn't been formally identified, schools have this ongoing legal responsibility under IDEA to identify, locate, and evaluate all children who may need special education services.
Answer: What is Child Find?
Clue: This person is responsible for providing accommodations listed in a student's IEP.
Answer: Who is the classroom teacher (or general education teacher)?
Clue: You notice a student has significant needs but haven’t received any special education paperwork or information. The best first step is to do this.
Notify the campus coordinator/case manager ASAP
Clue: This term refers to when curriculum expectations are altered (not just supported), and grading must reflect progress toward these alternate standards.
Answer: What are modified TEKS or curriculum modifications?
Clue: If you are running late for an ARD meeting, the best thing to do is this to show respect for the student, family, and team.
Answer: What is notify the case manager or ARD facilitator as soon as possible?
Clue: If a teacher fails to follow a student’s IEP, including not providing required accommodations or services, they can be held legally responsible for violating this federal law.
Hint: F O U R letter Acronym
Answer: What is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)?
Clue: In a 9th-grade Algebra class, some students use graphing calculators to explore quadratic functions, while others work with visual aids and step-by-step guides. This approach to teaching different students based on their needs is called this.
Answer: What is differentiated instruction?
Clue: A student who doesn't qualify for an IEP may qualify for a _____________ if they have an eligible disability.
504 Plan
Clue: Allowing a student to use audiobooks or text-to-speech technology during assignments is an example of this accommodation.
Answer: What is assistive technology?
Clue: According to federal and Texas law, these team members must be present at every ARD meeting, including a parent, a general education teacher, a special education teacher, and this person who can approve services and resources.
Answer: Who is the LEA representative (Local Education Agency rep or administrator)?
Clue: A student with an IEP requires text-to-speech accommodations for reading assignments, but the teacher forgets to provide it during a major test. The student struggles and fails the test. What should the teacher do next?
Answer: What is notify the special education team, provide a makeup test with accommodations, and document the issue?
Clue: These are the three main ways teachers can differentiate instruction to meet diverse student needs: adjusting what students learn, how they learn it, and how they demonstrate their knowledge.
Answer: What are content, process, and product?
Clue: To qualify for special education services in Texas, a student must meet criteria under one of these 13 categories, which include Autism, Deaf-Blindness, and Specific Learning Disability, among others. Name at least five.
Answer: What are the 13 eligibility categories under IDEA?
Autism
Deaf-Blindness
Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Emotional Disturbance
Intellectual Disability
Multiple Disabilities
Orthopedic Impairment
Other Health Impairment (OHI)
Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
Speech or Language Impairment
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Visual Impairment (including blindness)
Non-Categorical Early Childhood (NCEC) (only for ages 3–5 in Texas)
Clue: Even when receiving instruction in a general education classroom, a student with an intellectual disability who has modified TEKS cannot be graded using the same expectations as their peers. For this reason, this outcome should not occur.
Answer: What is failing the class?
Clue: A meeting held with staff and service providers to offer input on service options-
Answer: What is a staffing