IEP meeting terms

These terms are common in Individualized Education Program eligibility, development, review, amendment, transition, and implementation meetings. They are intended to support clear communication and accurate spoken-language interpretation.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): A federal law that provides special education and related services to eligible children with disabilities and establishes requirements for IEPs, evaluations, parent participation, and procedural safeguards.
Individualized Education Program (IEP): A written plan for a child with a disability that describes the child’s present levels, measurable goals, special education, related services, accommodations, supports, placement, progress reporting, and other required information.
IEP Team: The group responsible for developing, reviewing, and revising the IEP. The team generally includes the parent or guardian, at least one general education teacher, at least one special education teacher or provider, a public agency representative, someone who can interpret evaluation results, and the student when appropriate.
Parent or guardian: A person who has rights and responsibilities under IDEA, which may include a biological or adoptive parent, foster parent, guardian, or another person recognized under applicable law.
Student participation: The student’s involvement in decisions about their education. Students must be invited to participate when transition services or postsecondary goals will be discussed and may participate in other meetings when appropriate.
Local educational agency (LEA): A public school district or other public agency responsible for providing or arranging educational services.
Public agency representative: An IEP Team member who is qualified to provide or supervise specially designed instruction, understands the general education curriculum, and knows the resources of the public agency.
Special education: Specially designed instruction provided at no cost to parents to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability.
Related services: Developmental, corrective, or supportive services needed to help a child with a disability benefit from special education. Examples may include speech-language services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, transportation, or school health services.
Supplementary aids and services: Supports provided in general education classes or other education settings to help a student learn and participate with nondisabled peers as much as appropriate.
Assistive technology device: Any item, equipment, or product system used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional abilities of a child with a disability.
Assistive technology service: A service that helps a child select, obtain, use, maintain, or repair an assistive technology device.
Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance (PLAAFP): A description of what the student currently knows and can do academically and functionally, including how the disability affects participation and progress in the general education curriculum.
Academic achievement: A student’s performance in areas such as reading, writing, mathematics, science, and other academic subjects.
Functional performance: Skills and behaviors that are not academic but affect participation in school, such as communication, mobility, organization, behavior, social skills, self-care, or executive functioning.
Strengths: The student’s abilities, interests, preferences, successful strategies, and areas of progress that inform the IEP.
Needs: The academic, functional, communication, behavioral, physical, or developmental areas in which the student requires specially designed instruction, services, accommodations, or supports.
Disability category: The IDEA category under which a student is eligible for special education, such as specific learning disability, autism, emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, speech or language impairment, or another recognized category. A disability category does not by itself determine the content of an IEP.
Eligibility: The determination that a student meets the legal and educational requirements for special education and related services under IDEA.
Initial evaluation: The first comprehensive evaluation used to determine whether a student has a disability and needs special education and related services.
Reevaluation: A later evaluation used to determine whether a student continues to have a disability and continues to need special education and related services, or whether changes are needed.
Evaluation data: Information used to make educational decisions, which may include assessments, classroom work, observations, progress reports, medical information, family input, student input, and reports from service providers.
Measurable annual goals: Academic and functional goals that describe what the student is expected to achieve within the IEP period and that can be measured using identified criteria.
Short-term objectives or benchmarks: Intermediate steps or targets used for some students, including students who take alternate assessments aligned with alternate academic achievement standards.
Progress monitoring: Collecting and reviewing information to determine how the student is progressing toward IEP goals and whether instruction or supports should change.
Progress report: A periodic report describing the student’s progress toward annual goals. The schedule may be coordinated with report cards or established by the IEP Team.
Specially designed instruction (SDI): Adapting the content, method, or delivery of instruction to address the unique needs of a student with a disability and ensure access to the general education curriculum.
Accommodation: A change in how a student learns, demonstrates knowledge, accesses materials, or participates. An accommodation does not necessarily change the learning standard or what the student is expected to learn.
Modification: A change in what a student is expected to learn or demonstrate, such as a different academic standard, assignment expectation, or performance requirement.
Program modification: A change to the educational program or approach that helps the student advance toward IEP goals or participate in the general education curriculum.
Supports for school personnel: Training, consultation, materials, or other assistance provided to educators or staff so they can implement the IEP and support the student.
Testing accommodation: A change in the way a student takes a classroom, district, or state assessment, such as extended time, breaks, a separate setting, read-aloud support, or an alternate response method.
Alternate assessment: An assessment designed for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who meet the state’s criteria for participating in an alternate assessment.
Participation with nondisabled peers: The extent to which a student learns and participates with students without disabilities in academic, extracurricular, and nonacademic activities.
Least restrictive environment (LRE): The requirement that, to the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities are educated with students without disabilities. Removal from the general education environment occurs only when education there cannot be achieved satisfactorily with supplementary aids and services.
Placement: The educational setting in which the IEP will be implemented. Placement is based on the IEP and is determined by a group that includes the parents and other knowledgeable individuals.
Continuum of alternative placements: The range of possible educational settings, such as general education classes, resource support, separate classes, special schools, home instruction, or instruction in hospitals and institutions.
Inclusive education: An approach in which students with disabilities learn and participate with their peers in general education and other school activities with appropriate supports.
Annual IEP meeting: A meeting held at least once each year to review the student’s progress and revise the IEP as needed.
IEP amendment: A written change to an existing IEP made after the annual meeting. An amendment may be used when the parent and public agency agree to revise the IEP without convening a full meeting, when permitted by applicable rules.
Transition services: A coordinated set of activities designed to help a student move from school to postsecondary education, employment, independent living, or other adult-life goals.
Postsecondary goals: Goals describing what the student hopes or plans to do after leaving high school in areas such as education, training, employment, and independent living.
Age of majority: The age at which educational decision-making rights may transfer from the parent or guardian to the student under state law. Schools must provide notice about this transfer before it occurs.
Extended school year (ESY) services: Special education and related services provided beyond the normal school year when the IEP Team determines they are necessary for the provision of FAPE.
Functional behavioral assessment (FBA): A process for collecting information about the circumstances, purpose, and effects of a student’s behavior to help design appropriate supports.
Behavior intervention plan (BIP): A plan that describes positive behavioral supports, strategies, teaching approaches, and responses to behavior. A BIP may be included in or connected to the IEP.
Manifestation determination review (MDR): A review to determine whether a student’s conduct was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the student’s disability or was the direct result of the school’s failure to implement the IEP.
Prior written notice (PWN): Written notice from the public agency explaining a proposed or refused action concerning identification, evaluation, educational placement, or FAPE. It must describe the action, reasons, information considered, and other relevant procedural information.
Procedural safeguards notice: A document explaining the rights and protections available to parents and students under IDEA, including records access, consent, independent evaluation, mediation, complaints, due process, and appeals.
Parental consent: Voluntary, informed, and written permission for an evaluation or service when consent is required. Consent for an evaluation is different from agreement with every proposed service or placement decision.
Independent educational evaluation (IEE): An evaluation conducted by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the public agency responsible for the student’s education.
Due process complaint: A formal written complaint requesting a due process hearing about the identification, evaluation, educational placement, or provision of FAPE to a student with a disability.
Due process hearing: A formal legal proceeding conducted by an impartial hearing officer to resolve a dispute under IDEA.
Mediation: A voluntary process in which a trained, impartial mediator helps the parent and public agency try to resolve a disagreement.
State complaint: A written allegation that a public agency or other public entity has violated a requirement of IDEA. The state educational agency investigates the complaint under applicable procedures.
Compensatory education: Educational services or other remedies provided to make up for services that were missed or not appropriately delivered. The amount and form depend on the individual circumstances and applicable decision.
FAPE under IDEA: Special education and related services provided at public expense, meeting state standards, and provided in conformity with an IEP that meets IDEA requirements.
IEP implementation: Carrying out the services, supports, accommodations, modifications, goals, and other requirements written in the IEP.
Service minutes: The amount and frequency of time a student receives a special education or related service. The IEP should identify the service, frequency, location, and duration when required.
Service provider: A professional who delivers a service listed in the IEP, such as a special education teacher, speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, counselor, or school nurse.
Case manager or IEP coordinator: A staff member who helps organize the IEP process, coordinate services, communicate with the team, and monitor implementation. Titles and responsibilities vary by school or district.
Transition of records: The transfer of relevant educational information when a student changes schools, districts, programs, or levels of education, subject to applicable privacy and consent requirements.

Interpreting reminders for an IEP meeting

Interpret the full message: Interpret questions, answers, disagreement, uncertainty, emotion, and technical terms without summarizing or omitting information.
Use first person: Interpret “I,” “you,” and “we” as spoken so the family, student, and IEP Team communicate directly with one another.
Preserve distinctions: Keep terms such as accommodation, modification, service, support, goal, placement, eligibility, consent, and agreement distinct.
Do not give legal or educational advice: Interpret the discussion accurately without deciding whether a student qualifies, recommending an IEP service, or explaining what the school must do.
Request clarification: If a speaker uses an unfamiliar acronym, unclear reference, incomplete sentence, or ambiguous term, briefly identify the issue and request clarification.
Prepare for documents: Ask in advance whether the meeting includes evaluations, draft goals, reports, consent forms, procedural safeguards, or other documents requiring translation or sight translation.
Support direct communication: Educators should speak directly to the family or student, use plain language, define acronyms, pause regularly, and check the family’s understanding.
Maintain confidentiality and role boundaries: Do not advocate for a particular service, coach a participant’s response, make decisions, or act as a teacher, counselor, or family member while interpreting.
Clarify local terminology: Schools may use different names for teams, forms, programs, services, and procedures. Interpret the term used and ask the school to clarify local meaning when necessary.

IEP meeting terms

A glossary of common terms used in Individualized Education Program meetings for families, educators, and spoken-language interpreters.

Interpreting reminders for an IEP meeting

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