Individual Education Programs (IEPs) in Oregon

All children have the right to a free, appropriate education. For students with disabilities, this right extends to the accommodations and services they require to benefit from that education.

Recognizing the importance of supporting students with disabilities, Oregon expands on federal law to provide more options to assist all students. The state has regional offices that provide support to students and schools and a tax code that acknowledges the financial burden a disability places on a family.

Individual Education Programs (IEPs) are a crucial part of this system, and what's in an IEP and how it is implemented can have an enormous impact on a student's education. If and when disagreements arise, families should contact the Lento Law Firm to find a resolution that will protect their student's right to an education.

What is an IEP?

An IEP is an instructional guide detailing what services, support, and accommodations a student requires to access their education. Recognizing that children are more than their disabilities, IEPs should be tailored to the individual student and include a student's goals and strengths.

Federal law

Three federal laws establish the foundation of disability rights in the United States. They are the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA, which establishes IEPs, will be the most frequently used for most K-12 students.

Although the majority of K-12 students who have a disability will have an IEP, some students may benefit from protection under other federal laws. Lake Oswego School District has flowcharts about qualifying for services under both IDEA and Section 504. Ashland School District provides information on how students can qualify for support under both Section 504 and the ADA.

Key Terms

Special education has no shortage of terms and acronyms. Acronyms, such as OT, for occupational therapy, can be easy to remember but may make the initial IEP meeting or other conversations with school staff overwhelming for families.

North Clackamas Schools has a list of acronyms frequently used in special education. Even with these resources, parents and guardians should not hesitate to ask for clarification. School staff who use these terms regularly may not always remember that not everyone has the terms memorized.

Three common terms are not necessarily obvious in their meaning and need additional context to understand. They are free appropriate public education (FAPE), reasonable accommodations, and least restrictive environment (LRE).

FAPE

All children have the right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the United States. FAPE applies to K-12 public schools and includes the services and support students with disabilities require to access that education.

Reasonable Accommodations

Federal law requires only that schools provide reasonable or effective accommodations to students with disabilities. In other words, districts have no legal obligation to provide all possible accommodations, the most expensive or newest accommodations, or even the most effective accommodations. Accommodations must be reasonable to comply with federal law.

Accommodations must also not place an undue burden on a school or members of the school community. An expensive accommodation or one that requires significant additional work from a staff member may not be considered reasonable.

Least Restrictive Environment

Oregon emphasizes the importance of least restrictive environment (LRE) as part of supporting students with disabilities. LRE is the shorthand term for ensuring that students with disabilities are part of the general school community and in general education classrooms as much as is beneficial for them and their educational goals and needs.

The majority of students with disabilities will spend all or the majority of their school day in general education classrooms. For some students, however, placement in a general education classroom will not be the best option. They may not be able to receive effective accommodations. Staff members or other students may be unduly burdened because of a student's presence.

One thing to keep in mind with LRE determinations: One student's right to a free, appropriate public education does not take precedence over another student's. Even if parents or a student would prefer placement in a general education classroom, schools can refuse the placement if they believe it would disadvantage other student's right to an education.

On the flip side, parents and students do not have to accept a placement in a general education classroom. They can request more placement in more specialized programs.

Oregon provides a decision tree for LRE placement. This flowchart emphasizes that LRE is not a static decision. A student's placement, like any other part of the IEP, can change.

To see an example of LRE in practice, Beaverton School District has specialized programs for students who require a higher level of support. Students in these district-wide programs may still spend part of their day in general education classrooms, but only as much as it is beneficial for them and aligns with their IEP. As part of IEP meetings, Beaverton suggests that parents may expect to discuss how LRE will factor into their child's placement.

Qualifying for an IEP

To qualify for IEP services, a student must have a disability. In Oregon, the following disabilities qualify for a student for an IEP:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Blindness
• Deaf or Hard of Hearing
• Developmental Delay
• Emotional Disturbance
• Intellectual Disability
• Orthopedic Impairment
• Other Health Impairment
• Specific Learning Disability
• Speech and Language Impairment
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Visual Impairment

Corvallis School District highlights that simply having a disability does not automatically qualify a student for an IEP or special education services. Students must meet three criteria:

• The student has a disability
• That disability affects the student's educational performance
• A general education classroom alone cannot meet the student's needs

A student's disability must relate to their need for accommodations.

Put another way: Does a student's disability affect their ability to receive a free public education? If the answer is yes, the student is more likely to qualify for an IEP.

That a disability must affect a student's school performance is one reason why assessment is so crucial for IEPs. The results of assessment and evaluation can determine what resources and accommodations a student can access.

Oregon Screening Project

For babies and toddlers, parents and guardians may sometimes have difficulty knowing when a development delay indicates a disability. To help parents determine when their child may require additional support, the University of Oregon offers the Oregon Screening Project. This online tool can be a useful first step for families when they're deciding whether to refer their child for testing and evaluation.

IEP Process

Just as each IEP should be unique, how students qualify for an IEP can vary depending on their disability and what they and their families already know or have documented about their disability.

Silver Falls School District provides a good summary of the general steps a student will go through to qualify for an IEP:

1. Referral: Someone (often a parent, guardian, or teacher) refers a student to a school
2. Assessment and evaluation: If a school district believes a student may have a disability, they will refer the student for assessment. What tests and evaluations a student will participate in depends on their potential disability. Parents or guardians must first consent to these evaluations.
1. If a school district declines to evaluate a student for a disability, or if parents or guardians believe the assessment was incomplete or otherwise failed to properly evaluate the student, parents and guardians may appeal or pay for independent testing.
3. If the evaluation indicates a student has a disability, the school will notify parents to schedule an IEP meeting.
4. At the IEP meeting, school staff and parents or guardians will discuss what services, support, and accommodations a student requires to effectively access a free, appropriate public education. Depending on the student, students may also participate in these meetings.
5. Revision: Once a student has an IEP, families must meet with the school at least once a year to review and revise a student's IEP. Meetings may be needed more often if an IEP is not properly supporting a student or if an IEP is not being implemented.
6. Reevaluation: IDEA requires that students be re-evaluated every three years. This requirement can be waived if either families or the school believe it is not necessary.

Focus on Your Student

The Philomath School District's Special Education page points out that how a student qualifies for an IEP often depends on the child and their disability. Students with vision or hearing impairments may not need to go through an assessment as they may already possess medical records that establish their disability. Other children may need to go through multiple assessments to determine the exact nature of their disability.

Some students may not need reevaluation. Others may benefit from updated assessments and evaluations when revising their IEPs.

Parents and guardians should focus on their student throughout the IEP process. Their student is not just their disability or unchanging. Two students with the same disability may require different services and support. Early intervention or placement in a specialized program may result in a student benefitting from more time in a general education classroom during another school year.

IEP Meeting

Information on Oregon's IEP process can be found on the Department of Education's Inclusive Services page. These resources include a list of questions and topics that should be part of IEP meetings. These questions do not need to be followed exactly but should be used as a guide. They cover four main points:

• Present levels
• What is the student's current educational level?
• How does that level compare to other students at that grade level?
• If the student already had an IEP and educational goals, are they meeting those benchmarks?
• Goals
• Goals are not standards. Standards are for all students, while goals are individual to a student.
• Goals should be realistic and consider a student's present level as well as both a student's weaknesses and strengths.
• Support
• What accommodations, services, and support will a student need?
• Placement
• Even if not explicitly stated in the IEP, every IEP meeting should include a discussion of the optimal Least Restrictive Environment for a student

These types of questions can help focus a meeting and may result in a stronger IEP for your student.

Schools may also have policies and procedures above and beyond what federal or Oregon law requires. Portland Public Schools has Forward Together: A Special Education Programming Plan. Sherwood School District uses Multi-Tiered Instruction (MTI). Under MTI, Sherwood reviews all elementary-aged students three times a year and encourages parent and family involvement as an essential component of a child's education.

Age and IEPs

IEPs and special education support are not static and should change along with a child. What resources and support a five-year-old requires often and usually differs from what will best benefit a 17-year-old. This is one reason why parents and guardians should take advantage of the annual review meeting to revise a student's IEP, even if the changes are minor.

Recognizing how support and services alter with age, the West Linn-Wilsonville School District divides its special education department into three areas:

• Early Childhood
• School Age
• Adult Transition Services

While IDEA does require that districts provide these options, families should ask about how a district puts these requirements into practice. For toddlers, early intervention can affect what services and support they may require later on. For high school students, the type of transition services and support they receive can impact their careers.

Regional Inclusive Services

Oregon has regional offices for inclusive or educational services districts (ESD). The purpose of the ESDs is to provide training, support, and services to all school districts, regardless of a district's size or location. ESDs focus on low-incidence disabilities. These are disabilities that occur at such a low rate that school districts may not have the resources or specialized staff needed to provide support and services to that student. The ESDs tend to be more cost-effective while helping all students access the accommodations and services they require.

Services through ESDs begin with early intervention and pre-K. They continue through a student's K-12 years.

The state has eight regions based on geographic location. Oregon publishes a map of each ESD's service area. The eight ESD regions are:

• Region 1 Eastern Oregon (Intermountain ESD)
• Region 2 Central Oregon (High Desert ESD)
• Region 3 Southern Oregon (Southern Oregon ESD)
• Region 4 Cascade (Linn Benton Lincoln ESD)
• Region 4 Cascade (South Coast ESD)
• Region 5 Willamette (Willamette ESD)
• Region 6 Columbia (Portland Public Schools)
• Region 7 Lane (Lane ESD)
• Region 8 Northwest (Northwest ESD)

Families can also contact their local school to determine their ESD. Some school districts may include a link to their regional education service district on their website. Sherwood School District, part of the Northwest Region ESD, provides a link.

CBIRT

Students with traumatic brain injuries can benefit from proximity to the University of Oregon's Center for Brain Injury Research and Training. (CBIRT). As the name suggests, CBIRT's two main goals are conducting research into brain injuries and providing resources and workshops for individuals who suffer from training brain injury and their families.

Tax Exemption

One unique feature in Oregon is that the state offers tax breaks to families who have children with disabilities. Known as the Disabled Child Exemption Credit, the state allows families to take an additional personal exemption for children who are disabled on the last day of the tax year.

Families can qualify for this exemption by meeting the following criteria:

• A child must be certified as having a disability annually by a state department of education for early intervention services OR a child must have an IEP
• Upon request and for each year the exemption is claimed, families must provide the first page of their student's IEP or Individualized Family Service plan for that year, and the page document must include:
• The child's name
• Disability
• Education eligibility

The state publishes a memo for each tax year on the subject. The memo is generally available on the Department of Education's website, and school districts should also have access to the document. Bend-La Pine Schools includes a link about the tax exemption on the district's special education page.

Youth Transition Program

To help ease the move between school and the working world, Oregon has the Youth Transition Program (YTP). The purpose of YTP is to give students with disabilities the resources they need to find a job or receive additional education or training once they finish their K-12 education. Students will work with their local school district to join YTP programs, which are offered year-round. Creswell School District directs people to Oregon's main YTP page, which includes a map of YTP locations throughout the state.

Dispute Resolution

Given the high stakes of a child's education, disagreements between school districts and families are not uncommon. Even when both sides are well-meaning, they may disagree about the best course of action for a student.

When a disagreement arises, families should first schedule a meeting with a member of the school staff. The purpose of this meeting should be to try and find a solution by working to understand each side's reasons behind their opinion or decision. In some cases, knowing the 'why' can help people arrive at a solution.

When these meetings fail to reach common ground, IDEA requires states to provide families with avenues for dispute resolution. Oregon's three major resolution options are:

• Mediation
• Complaint Resolution
• Due Process Hearing

A fourth option, facilitated IEPs, can also be useful depending on the circumstances.

The Lento Law Team can help families determine which dispute resolution option is best for their situation and their students. When disputes arise, families should keep in mind that the central goal is their child's education and well-being.

Facilitated IEP

A facilitated IEP is an optional process where a neutral third party works with families and schools to craft an IEP. Free to all participants, facilitated IEPs can be for any meeting relating to IEPs, whether during the initial consultation or an annual review.

Mediation

Similar to facilitated IEPs, meditation involves a neutral third party provided at no cost to both the school and the family. Either party can request mediation with the goal of finding a workable solution to their disagreement. If parties do reach a written agreement, that agreement is enforceable in court.

Oregon provides a pamphlet on mediation in special education, which provides a brief overview. Families may also access a mediation request form and a more detailed handbook on mediation through the State of Oregon website.

Complaint Resolution

Any individual can file a written complaint with the Oregon Department of Education alleging a school is violating IDEA. These complaints tend to be less about an individual student, and the resolution process does not automatically require that a district provide different services to a specific student.

A neutral investigator will compile a report based on the complaint. This written report will include their conclusion as to whether or not a school violated the law and a timeline for any needed corrective action. Parts of a report on a complaint may be appealed in court.

Due Process Hearing

Similar to a traditional court hearing, in a due process hearing, each side will present evidence to a neutral administrative law judge. Either party may request a due process hearing, and each party will be responsible for their legal fees. Families should note that the judges in due process hearings do have the power to order one side to pay the other side's legal fees.

The judge will issue their decision, a written Final Order. Either party may appeal the Final Order to state or federal court.

Protect Your Student's Right to a Free Appropriate Public Education

If and when a disagreement arises about your student's IEP or any related services and support, determining the best way to resolve the dispute can be overwhelming. Families want to do what's best for their child, and parents and guardians may worry about what a wrong choice could mean for their child's education.

The Lento Law Firm helps families nationwide navigate this process. We focus on what's in a student's best interests and collaborative resolutions. Contact us online or at (888) 535-3686.