Section 7: Special Education and Related Services

Special Education Services

A special education service, sometimes referred to as “specially designed instruction,” is an instructional service (for example, language arts instruction or math instruction) delivered by a certified teacher or someone under the direction of a certified teacher (for example, an instructional aide or paraprofessional). Special Education Services can be delivered through a variety of methods and settings.

Related Services

Although a Related Service need not have its own annual goal, each related service needs to support one of the annual goals. The federal special education regulations define related services as:

Related services means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education, and includes speech-language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. Related services also include school health services and school nurse services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training. Related services do not include a medical device that is surgically implanted, the optimization of that device’s functioning (for example, mapping), maintenance of that device, or the replacement of that device.

Transportation as a Related Service

If special transportation is necessary for the student to be able to access special education and related services, it will need to be included in the IEP as a related service. Since the information for transportation services is different than other related services, specialized transportation details are recorded in a separate section of the IEP. Specific information about any needed supports, specialized equipment, and/or vehicle requirements (for example, bus monitor, car seat, small van) should be provided.

Duration and Frequency

The duration (measured in minutes) and the frequency of each special education and related service must be recorded on the IEP. For example, 45 minutes 5 times per week, 30 minutes 2 times per month, 60 minutes 3 times per 6-day cycle.

Responsible Staff and Service Implementer

Although Responsible Staff and Service Implementer are two separate fields, they may or may not be the same person. Only provider roles or titles (for example, Special Education Teacher, Speech and Language Pathologist, etc.) are necessary, not the persons’ name. The use of the generic phrase “special education staff” is not acceptable. Responsible staff is the professional(s) responsible for designing specially designed instruction, monitoring the implementation of the IEP and reporting progress towards achievement of the annual goals. Service Implementers are the school staff responsible for direct instruction and implementation of the IEP goals and objectives.

If a paraprofessional is being assigned to support the Service Implementer, the title of the certified or licensed staff member who is supervising the provision of these services must be included in the Staff Responsible field. The Service Implementer field would be the certified staff person and the paraprofessional (for example, Special Education Teacher/Paraprofessional). The amount of time each implementer will work directly with the child could be described under “Instructional Service Delivery.”

Start and End Date

The start date is the date that the services related to a specific goal and objective in the IEP will begin. Specific special education and related services may begin at different times. The end date is the date that a service related to a specific IEP goal will end. Generally, but not always, the end date for IEP services is the last day the IEP will be in effect.

Instructional Site

The Instructional Site is not the program or the placement and should not be confused with program location (for example, out-of-district placement, magnet school, etc.), rather it is the setting at which the services will take place. Only one instructional site can be selected for the instructional site column. If a student receives some specialized instruction (for example, addressing math goals 1 and 2) in the general education classroom and some specialized instruction (for example, also addressing math goals 1 and 2) in the resource room, the two special education mathematics services should be recorded separately. Available site codes for the IEP special education and related services are listed below. It is important that the PPT use care when selecting between codes 1a and 1b as well as 3a and 3b as it will affect the automated percentage calculation of the student’s time with non-disabled peers (TWNDP). Codes 1a and 3a should be selected if at the time of the PPT meeting, the setting for the service has (or, for an IEP that will start at a future date, is planned to have) more students without IEPs (in other words, greater than or equal to 50%) than students with IEPs.

Instructional Site Codes:

1a. General Education Setting 50% or more non-disabled peers

1b. General Education Setting less than 50% non-disabled peers

2a. Resource Setting

2b. Separate Setting/Program

2c. Related Service Setting

3a. Community-Based Setting 50% or more non-disabled peers

3b. Community-Based Setting less than 50% non-disabled peers

Instructional Service Delivery

This optional section should be used as needed to describe delivery of instructional services that require further clarification. For example, if this is a co-taught class and the student is receiving services from both a general education and an additional teacher, such as a special education teacher or related services professional, it may be helpful to designate “co-taught class.” It may also be helpful to use this field to record specific information about grouping arrangements, particularly with reference to related services, such as 1:1 or small group instruction. Finally, remote delivery of services (for example, teletherapy) could be indicated here.