Special Education Operating Guidelines
Page Navigation
- Home
- Accessible Instructional Materials
- Accommodations, Modifications, Supplementary Aids and Services
- Adapted Physical Education
- Adaptive Equipment
- ARD-IEP Committee
- Assistive Technology
- Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
- Autism
- Commensurate School Day
- Conducting the Evaluation
- Counseling and Psychological Services
- Deaf or Hard of Hearing
- Development of the IEP
- Disability Categories
- Discipline
- Discontinuing Special Education Services
- Dyslexia
- Early Childhood
- Eligibility Determination and Documentation
- Extended School Year Services
- Field Trips
- Full and Individual Initial Evaluation
- Glossary of Terms
- Grade Placement Committee and Graduation
- Health and Medical Services
- Homebound Services
- Identification
- In Home Community Based Training
- Independent Educational Evaluation
- LIFE Skills
- Mainstream (In-Class Support Services)
- Music Therapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Out of District Programs
- Parent Concerns
- Performance Based Monitoring Analysis System
- Physical Therapy
- Private, Religious, and Home Schools
- Programs and Placement
- Re-evaluations
- Referral Process and Initial Evaluations
- Residential Facilities Monitoring
- Resource
- Response to Intervention
- Section 504 and Americans with Disabilities Act
- Special Education Rules and Regulations
- Speech-Language Services
- SPP Data Collection
- State Assessment
- State Performance Plan
- Student Records
- Therapeutic Intervention Program
- Transition Policies and Procedures
- Translation and Interpretation
- Transportation
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
- Visual Impairment
-
Accommodations, Modifications, Supplementary Aids and Services
What's Required
Supplementary aids and services, special education, and related services must be based on peer-reviewed research to the extent practicable. The admission, review, and dismissal (ARD) committee must determine the needed supplementary aids and services to be provided to the child, or on behalf of the child (34 CFR 300.320(a)(4), 20 USC 1414(d)(1)(A)(i)(IV)19, TAC 89.1050(a)(1)).
The term "supplementary aids and services " means aids, services, and other support that are provided in general education classes, other education-related settings, and in extracurricular and nonacademic settings, to enable the child with a disability to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate (34 CFR 300.42 and 20 USC 1401(33)).
The ARD committee must determine needed program modifications or supports for school personnel that will be provided to the child to enable the child to: advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals; be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum, and be afforded an equal opportunity to participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities including meals, recess periods, counseling services, athletics, transportation, health services, recreational activities; special interest groups or clubs sponsored by the local educational agency (LEA), referrals to other agencies that provide assistance to individuals with disabilities, and employment of children, including both employment by the LEA and assistance in making outside employment available (34 CFR 300.117, 34 CFR 300.107, 20 USC 1414(d)(1)(A)(i)(IV).
The LEA is required to provide training to an educator who works primarily outside the area of special education only if the educator does not possess the knowledge and skills necessary to implement the IEP developed for the child receiving instruction from the educator (TEC 21.451(e) and TEC 21.451(d)(2)).
What We Do
Accommodations/Modifications:
Accommodations
An accommodation is a change in the teaching or testing procedures in order to provide students access to information and to create an equal opportunity to demonstrate content knowledge and skills.
Instructional accommodation does not change what the student is expected to master; therefore, curriculum content remains intact.
In Texas, accommodation is defined as practices and procedures that are "intended to reduce or even eliminate the effects of a student's disability, but do not reduce learning expectations".
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Modifications
A modification is a change in what the student is expected to learn and/or demonstrate.
An instructional modification indicates what is being taught-the curriculum content is altered.
As an example, students may not be required to learn all of the course objectives but only targeted objectives.
A curriculum modification reduces content and skills the student is required to learn.
In Texas, a modification is defined as "practices and procedures that change the nature of the task or target skill".
Accommodations and modifications should be individualized and routinely used during classroom instruction and testing. Data regarding the use of accommodations and modifications, such as observational reports and/or assignment/test scores with/without the use of accommodations should be collected and analyzed on a regular basis to determine (a) if the accommodations are being implemented as specified by the student's ARD Committee and (b) if the student is benefitting from the use of the accommodations and modifications.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Supplementary Aids and Services:
Supplementary aids and services are provided in general education classes, other education-related settings, and in extracurricular and nonacademic settings, to enable children with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate.Frequency, Duration, and Location of Services:
The student's IEP must include information about the amount of services that will be provided so that the level of KISD's commitment of resources will be clear to parents and other ARD Committee members. The ARD Committee is responsible for documenting in the student's IEP the projected date for the beginning of services and the anticipated frequency, location, and duration of those services. Requirements for documenting the provision of related services include:
- Frequency: Describes how often the child will receive the service(s), e.g., number of times per day or week. If the services is provided less than daily then the conditions for the provision of services must be clearly specified within the ARD documents using a weekly reference (ex: 1 hour per week, 30 minutes every two weeks)
- Duration: Describes how long each "session" will last (number of minutes) and when the services will begin and end (starting and ending dates)
- Location: Describes where the services will be provided (in the general education classroom or another setting such as a special education resource room
Additional information regarding frequency, duration and location is available at:
TEA Frequency, Duration, and Location
Students with disabilities must have available an instructional day commensurate with that of students without disabilities. The ARD Committee will determine the appropriate instructional setting and length of day for each student.
Consideration of Special Factors:
The IEP should document consideration of special factors including:
- The communication needs of the student,
- In the case of a student with limited English proficiency, the language needs of the student as those needs relate to the student's IEP, and
- In the case of a student whose behavior impedes his/her learning or that of others, consideration of positive behavioral interventions, strategies, and supports to address that behavior.
