IEP Question We heard from our EI team that an IEP cannot include a specific methodology- ie: ABA, and would say something like "child needs a behavior approach" instead. But, in all the reading we have done, we can't find anything to support this statement. In fact, part of what we found in the book "Advocating for your Special Needs Child" suggests that you indicate a specific methodology. Can anyone clarify this? Thanks in advance. That would be great, Teacherintx- we live in Orange County, New York. The school we are considering is the Keller School in Palisades, NY - which is Rockland County. We have heard that there are other student from OC who go to Keller, so I know it is an "approved" school for us to consider.    Any help is greatly appreciated- thank you!OK, I am guessing that Tzoya is going to chime in here, because she is very knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff, especially since you are in NY. However, I did find this information in my cyber-sleuthing efforts: The 1997 reauthorization of IDEA and the 1999 regulations eliminated the schools' misinterpretation by specifically including methodology as part of the instruction individualized for the student. The 1997 act defines "Special Education" as "Specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with disabilities." 20 U.S.C. sec. 1401 (25). The 1999 regulations further defined instruction as follows: “Sec. 300.26 Special education.     (a) General. (1) As used in this part, the term special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including--     (i) Instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings;     (3) Specially-designed instruction means adapting, as appropriate to the needs of an eligible child under this part, the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction--     (i) To address the unique needs of the child that result from the child's disability; and     (ii) To ensure access of the child to the general curriculum, so that he or she can meet the educational standards within the jurisdiction of the public agency that apply to all children.” This section is one of the most important clarifications of the law. It means parents can discuss the content, methodology and delivery of the education, and not leave the details to the school to work out 6 months into a 9-month school year. Methodology may be more important to children with autism and language disorders than any other facet of their program. (Note, however, the definition of “Specially designed instruction” was conspicuously omitted from the August 2000 Illinois regulations. Beware of school districts which cling to the old evasions and will not discuss methodology at the IEP meeting on the basis that the Illinois regulations are silent on the issue. Under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, State regulations cannot take away a Federal right. Insist the IEP team discuss methodology and state their reasons in writing.) To enable the definition of methodology, the 1999 Federal regulations specify: “Sec. 300.347 Content of IEP.     (a) General. The IEP for each child with a disability must include--...     (3) A statement of the special education and related services and supplementary aids and services to be provided to the child, or on behalf of the child, and a statement of the program, modifications or supports for school personnel that will be provided for the child--     (i) To advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals;     (ii) To be involved and progress in the general curriculum in accordance with paragraph (a)(1) of this section and to participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities; and     (iii) To be educated and participate with other children with disabilities and nondisabled children in the activities described in this section.” Here's another helpful link: http://www .fape.org/idea/what_idea_is/methodology.htmI think it depends on your state, the laws of your state and school district etc.  I know where we live they don't offer ABA, Floortime, etc.  in the classroom.  In fact it is hard to find privately here.  So my oldests reads support needed in the social language skills including emotions.  It states that he gets speech and OT but not until the reason is given.  I would definetly ask Tyoza on this one.   I know that in our district, we do not do this for a reason. We might write "behavioral strategies" or "Compliance training" or something like that, but never ABA. This is because if we change our programming or staff, we do not want to be out of compliance with the kids. We can still provide compliance training for a child if they are not receiving ABA therapy. We can still incorporate behavior training/strategies into that child's day if they are not necessarily ABA strategies. A lot of times, this is actually HELPFUL to the child and classroom because they can receive strategies and benefits that aren't under one single umbrella. I know that my classroom is a TEACCH classroom, but we do not call it this for the exact reason that at any moment I could quit, or die, or be ill, and they would be required to find a TEACCH certified teacher (few and far between) to replace me. It is a "Structured Learning Classroom" -- something that any teacher would be able to implement with the proper training. It's funny because I have a parent who is die hard about getting her kid ABA and we had an ABA consultant come to our classroom to make a Consultation Report on her observations, and we are incorporating many ABA strategies into our daily routine, but we don't call it ABA. Most districts do not want to be bound to one single thing, so that they are able to meet the child's needs on a broad basis - incorporating many methods into that child's education. I think you could try to get the actual wording "ABA" into your child's IEP, but for the reasons listed above, it is tough. Also, I think it's good to be specific if they think and know that this is what is best for their child. We have ongoing data collection and evaluations of our students and their progress. We target their defecits and behaviors daily. We are able to determine if our classroom interventions are successful for that individual child and are constantly changing our program to fit the needs of the kids. I probably should have mentioned a pretty important part- our son is just 2.5 years old- so this is his very first IEP. Since he just started ABA 6 months ago and it is working, we want to continue with the ABA. In our county, there are no schools that do ABA completely and not all of the preschools in our county have staff trained to do this. However, we recently viewed a CABAS ABA preschool which is out of county, and caters to children on the spectrum. We feel that to just give him 10 months of ABA in Early Intervention and then to put him in a preschool that uses a different methodology would be counter productive, if that makes sense.. I hope this additonal info is helpful.. momdadtojake -- Very important part to mention! That definitely changes my thoughts, then. I was mentioning that there are other things out there that help a child, and ABA doesn't necessarily need to be written into a goal or skill. However, if you are doing a full ABA program and it has been successful with your child, and he would potentially lose these services after having received them for six months, it would probably be important to get ABA actually written into the IEP. This would be your grounds for sending him to an out of district placement. What state are you in? I can check into whether the district in your state is allowed to tell you "no specific methodology" or not.
	Copyright Autism-PDD.net