When is an IEP, not an IEP?

 When is an IEP, not an IEP?

 

There are these documents called Section 504 Plans.  These plans are developed under the 1973 Vocational Rehabilitation Act.  Essentially Section 504 of the Act requires schools that receive federal funding (almost every public school does) to create plans for individual students so they are not discriminated against because of their disability.  These plans are sometimes called IEP Light.  These plans are instigated by a child’s family.  The plans describe ways in which accommodations will be made for a student with disabilities short of providing special education services.

Here is the good news and bad news about the plans.  The good news is that a child does not need to be formally assessed as a child with a disability as defined by IDEA.  Services provided by 504 plans are generally considered less likely to identify the child as having learning issues.  So, some of the accommodations might include, longer time for test taking, having a reader for some standardized tests, being able to do work or take tests in a separate, more quiet place.  School systems strongly encourage families to go with the 504 plan rather than seek an IEP by saying the student will be less known as a child with a disability by his/her peers.

However, there are some strong drawbacks to a 504 Plan compared to an IEP.  The most prominent is that the 504 Plan is an agreement between the family and the school.   It is not a contract for service.   Therefore, a school district can fail to deliver the agreed upon services because they are short of staff, don’t have the funds, or it is just not a priority.

Whereas, and IEP is a contract for service and is federally and state guaranteed once it is entered into between the family and the school district.  The IEP team must include a staff member who has the authority to commit the services of the school district.  If the IEP calls for 30 minutes of speech therapy each week, then the district is required to deliver that service. Failure to do so puts the district in jeopardy of losing its federal funding.  Most recently the Los Angeles Unified School District was forced to enter into an agreement with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for its failure to deliver a free and appropriate education (FAPE) to students with special needs during the COVID pandemic.  The OCR made it clear that students learn best in person and that the additional federal funding during the pandemic needed to be used for that purpose.

The IEP is the gold standard for the delivery of special education services.  Section 504 Plans are nice but they don’t begin to offer the services of an IEP and there are no guarantees.