IDEA emphasizes access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, and ESEA requires that all students, including students with disabilities, be included in statewide accountability systems; therefore, they must have access to the general education curriculum that is tested using this system. 

Students with disabilities can access and make progress on challenging standards aligned to the general education curriculum at the enrolled grade level with adaptations and supports.  Special Education is not seen as a separate and special place for learning but as a set of services and supports that are individually designed to help students access the general education program.  Students may be accessing the curriculum at different levels of complexity, at different paces, and/or in different ways, but they should all be working toward challenging goals. 

This module introduces the three critical components of the IEP process; FIE, PLAAFP, and Goals

Curriculum is essential to learning.  Curriculum has the purpose of directing classroom instruction and is linked to desired outcomes.  Curriculum is the road map for teachers.  IEPs must be aligned with curriculum and special education must support the curriculum.

The focus of special education needs to be on children learning important and challenging knowledge, skills and process.  Special Education is a curriculum support, not a curriculum replacement.  All students, including those with the most significant disabilities, are required to have access to the enrolled grade-level curriculum.

This module focuses on understanding the content standards in Texas and being able to answer the following questions: 

To develop an Individualized Education Program that outlines the students' Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) allowing the student to access the general curriculum. 

A multidisciplinary team evaluates a child who is suspected of having a disability under IDEA.  This evaluation is used in making two determinations:

The FIE includes four types of data:

1. Informal data
2. Criterion-referenced data
3. Curriculum-based data
4. Norm-referenced data

IDEA 2004 tells us that an IEP must contain a PLAAFP statement.  This statement includes how the child's disability affects the child's involvement and progress in the general education curriculum.

The PLAAFP statement is the basis for generating annual goals and short-term objectives or benchmarks that are specifically individualized to the student's needs and it serves as the standard against which to measure performance or progress.

This module focuses on the essential elements of PLAAFP statements and includes a rubric for evaluation of our practices.   

To ensure that all components of the PLAAFP statement are comprehensive and well organized, spring ISD uses the acronym ELEPHANT.

Federal law (34 CFR 300.320 (a)(2)(i) states that all IEPs must contain measurable annual goals (academic/functional) designed to 

1. Meet the child's needs that result from the child's disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum; and
2. Meet each of the child's other educational needs that result from the child's disability.

This module focuses on developing annual IEP goals & objectives that are aligned to the student's disability and critical areas of need (as outlined in the FIE and PLAAFP) and to the state standards.  Module 5 includes the following resources to support teachers in developing appropriate goals and objectives: