GACE Special Education General Curriculum (P-12) (735) key terms

A legal right under IDEA requiring public schools to provide each eligible student with a disability an education program that is individually designed to confer meaningful educational benefit, at no cost to the family.

The requirement that students with disabilities be educated alongside peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate, with removal occurring only when supports in the general classroom cannot meet the student's needs satisfactorily.

A state and district obligation to actively locate, identify, and evaluate all children from birth through age 21 who may have a disability and need special education, including children not yet enrolled in school.

A disorder in one or more basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language that may show up as difficulty in listening, thinking, reading, writing, spelling, or mathematics, and is not primarily caused by other disabilities or environmental factors.

A condition lasting over time and to a marked degree that adversely affects educational performance, shown by inability to learn unexplained by other factors, poor peer or teacher relationships, inappropriate behavior, unhappiness, or physical symptoms tied to school problems.

A developmental disability affecting communication and social interaction, often accompanied by repetitive behaviors or restricted interests, that generally appears before age three and adversely affects educational performance.

Describes a student who is both gifted and has a disability, so that strengths may mask the disability and the disability may mask the giftedness, often causing either need to go unidentified.

A written, legally binding plan developed by a team that describes a student's present performance, annual goals, special education and related services, accommodations, and placement needed to make progress in the general curriculum.

The IEP section summarizing how the student currently performs academically and functionally, using evaluation data, classroom work, and parent and teacher input to establish the starting point from which goals are written.

Statements in an IEP describing what a student can reasonably be expected to achieve in one year, written so progress can be observed and counted, and linked to the needs identified in the present levels.

Changes in how a student receives information or shows learning, such as extended time, preferential seating, or a read-aloud, that remove barriers without altering what is being taught or the expected content standard.

Changes to what a student is expected to learn or demonstrate, such as reduced content, simplified text, or different grading standards, which do alter the curriculum and may affect diploma options.

Supportive services required for a student to benefit from special education, such as speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, school counseling, and transportation, listed on the IEP.

A coordinated set of activities based on age-appropriate assessment and student preferences, designed to move a student from school to postsecondary education, employment, and independent living; planning must begin by age 16.

A required written explanation given to parents before the school proposes or refuses to change a student's identification, evaluation, placement, or services, describing the action, the reasons, and the information relied upon.

A repeated full individual evaluation of a student receiving special education, required at least every three years unless parents and school agree otherwise, to determine whether the student remains eligible and what services are needed.

A schoolwide, tiered framework that teaches and reinforces expected behavior, uses data to identify where problems occur, and provides increasingly intensive supports for students who need them.

A structured process of gathering information through observation, interviews, and records to identify the purpose or function a problem behavior serves for a student, which then guides the design of an intervention plan.

A written plan, usually built from a functional behavioral assessment, that specifies prevention strategies, replacement skills to teach, and responses to challenging behavior, along with how staff will track the student's progress.

A review, required within ten school days of a disciplinary change of placement, deciding whether a student's misconduct was substantially caused by the disability or by the school's failure to implement the IEP.

A service delivery arrangement in which a general educator and a special educator share responsibility for planning, teaching, and assessing the same group of students in one classroom, often using models such as station teaching or parallel teaching.

A reinforcement system in which students earn points, chips, or tokens for meeting specified behavioral expectations and later exchange them for preferred items, activities, or privileges.

A teacher-directed approach that presents skills in small steps, models the process clearly, provides guided practice with feedback, and moves students toward independent application through structured review.

Temporary supports a teacher provides, such as models, prompts, or cues, that allow a student to complete a task successfully and are gradually withdrawn as the student becomes more capable.

Breaking a complex skill into its smaller sequential component steps so the student can be taught one piece at a time and staff can identify exactly where performance breaks down.

Planning instruction so that content, process, products, or learning environment are adjusted to students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles while the core standard remains the same for everyone.

A proactive approach to designing lessons that offers multiple means of representing information, multiple ways for students to show what they know, and multiple options for engagement from the outset.

A teaching procedure that begins with the least assistance possible and adds more intrusive prompts only as needed, preserving student independence while ensuring the learner eventually completes the response.

Frequent, brief measurement of a student's performance toward a specific goal, graphed over time so teachers can judge whether an intervention is working and adjust instruction when it is not.

A strategy in which a student records or rates their own behavior or work completion against a set criterion, teaching awareness and reducing dependence on adult supervision.

A set of brief, standard, timed probes drawn from the curriculum, such as reading aloud or math computation, given repeatedly to index growth and compare a student's rate of progress with expectations.

An assessment in which a student's score is interpreted by comparison with the scores of a representative peer sample, typically reported as percentiles or standard scores.

An assessment interpreted by comparing performance with a predetermined standard or set of skills rather than with other students, showing specifically which skills have and have not been mastered.

An estimate of the typical amount of error in a test score, indicating the range within which a student's true score likely falls; larger values mean less precise scores.

The percentage of students in the norm group who scored at or below a given score, so that a percentile of 35 means the student performed as well as or better than 35 percent of the reference sample.

Reliability refers to consistency of scores across occasions or items; validity refers to whether a test measures what it claims to measure; both are needed before interpreting results for eligibility decisions.

A state or district test used instead of the general achievement test for students with significant cognitive disabilities, based on alternate achievement standards and described in the student's IEP.

A federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on disability in programs receiving federal funds, requiring schools to provide reasonable accommodations to students with a qualifying physical or mental impairment.

A broad federal civil rights statute prohibiting disability discrimination in employment, public services, and public accommodations, extending protections beyond schools to most areas of public life.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which gives parents and eligible students the right to inspect education records, request corrections, and control disclosure of personally identifiable information.

The professional and legal duty to protect student records and information, sharing them only with those who have a legitimate educational need to know or when written parental consent authorizes release.

A formal, impartial administrative proceeding where parents and the school district present evidence and testimony to resolve disagreements about identification, evaluation, placement, or the services provided to a student.

The ability to recognize one's own cultural assumptions and to communicate and make decisions respectfully across different languages, values, family structures, and backgrounds, including when interpreting behavior and planning services.

Instructional or behavioral strategies supported by credible research showing positive results for students, which schools are expected to select rather than relying on tradition, anecdote, or vendor claims.

The professional standards adopted by organizations such as the Council for Exceptional Children, addressing respect for students, non-discrimination, confidentiality, accurate representation of qualifications, and advocacy for learners.

The skill of understanding one's own strengths and needs and speaking up for appropriate supports, a key transition outcome taught so students can participate meaningfully in IEP meetings and adult settings.

Supports, adaptations, and personnel provided in general education settings to enable a student with a disability to participate with peers, considered when determining placement in the least restrictive environment.

Any device, software, or service that increases, maintains, or improves the functional capabilities of a student with a disability, ranging from low-tech tools like pencil grips to speech-generating devices.