AB – assembly bill (= state law)
ADL – activities for daily living
AMESLAN – American Sign Language
AFOs – ankle-foot orthotics
AUT – autism: a disability demonstrated by characteristics such as withdrawal, communication difficulties and behaviors such as ritualistic behaviors, hand flicking and/or compulsive need for sameness.
BIP – behavior intervention plan
BSP – behavior support plan
CCS – California Children’s Services
CLS – communication language & speech
COE – County Office of Education
CP – cerebral palsy
CSP – Consumer Service Plan: a service plan developed by families and professionals from the regional center
D – deafness
DB – deaf-blindness
DD – developmental disabilities
D/HH – deaf & hard of hearing
FBA – functional behavior assessment
HI – health impaired or hearing impaired
HOH – hard of hearing
IDEA – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 94-142)
IEP – Individualized Education Program: a written document for children ages 3 through 22 that states a child’s current level of education performance, specifies annual goals and objectives and identifies appropriate services needed to meet the goals.
LD – learning disability
LEA – local education area (= school district)
LRE – Legal requirement to educate children with disabilities in general education classrooms with children who are not disabled to the maximum extent appropriate.
MH – multiple disabilities
MR – mental retardation
OI – orthopedically impaired
OHI – other health impaired
O/M – orientation/mobility
OT – occupational therapy
PHN – public health nurse
PHP – Parents Helping Parents
PL – public law (= federal law)
PT – physical therapy
RSP – resource specialist
SARC – San Andreas Regional Center
SDC – special day class
SED – serious emotional disturbance
SEE – Signing Exact English
SELPA – special education local plan area
SLD – specific learning disability
SLI – speech or language disability
SPHC – specialized physical health care
SSI – supplemental security income
TBI – traumatic brain injury
TTD – telecommuncations device for the deaf
TTY – teletype
VI – visually impaired
Special Education “Plans/Programs”
Response to Intervention (RTI): A process used by educators to help students who are struggling with a skill or lesson. If a child does not respond to the initial interventions, more focused interventions are used to help the child master the skill. RTI strategies address both learning and behavior.
504 Plan: The 504 Plan is a plan developed to ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the Rehabilitation Act and is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives accommodations that will ensure their academic success and access to the learning environment. These accommodations and modifications must ensure that there is no discrimination because of the child’s disability.
Individualized Education Program (IEP): A legal document that defines special education services between the school district and the parents.
Funding Terms
Mandate
Congress has created several mandates, or legal directives, to protect disabled students, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Unfunded mandate
Section 504 and ADA are unfunded mandates. IDEA, despite what you may have heard, does provide funds for special education, albeit a paltry amount, much less than pledged when it was enacted.
Full funding
Confusion abounds over this term. Full funding does not mean 100% of the total cost of special education, and in fact, it does not even mean 40% of the total cost. The amount pledged by IDEA is 40% of the excess cost of special education.
Excess cost
Every child brings the same amount of money to the district from federal, state, and local sources. In PAUSD, this amount is over $10K per child. It is expected that a child’s special education will cost some amount in excess of the average for general education. Thus, if the cost of educating a special ed student is $14K, the excess cost is $4K.
Encroachment
Refers to the portion of funding that comes from the school district-about $4.4 million in 2001-02. Funds also come from federal, state, and county sources-about $6.4 million last year. It is the district’s share of the excess cost that is said to be an encroachment on the total budget, which exceeds $100 million.
Other Terms
Appropriate
Able to meet a need; suitable or fitting; in special education, it usually means the most normal setting possible.
Differentiated Instruction
When teachers attempt to understand what each student needs and provide students with multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas and expressing what they learn. When applied to the entire class, with everone doing different assignments or taking different types of tests, students are less likely to feel singled out because he is doing different work.