Special Education (ORELA NT602)
What the domain tests
The Special Education domain samples Oregon's special education teacher standards: legal foundations (IDEA, Section 504, ADA), referral and evaluation, IEP development, least restrictive environment, instructional design, behavior support, and collaboration. Expect scenario items that ask for the most appropriate next step, not a definition.
Core rules to hold
- Child find and evaluation: A referral triggers a full initial evaluation only with parental consent; the team must complete it within 60 days and determine eligibility by three criteria: a disability, adverse educational impact, and need for specially designed instruction.
- IEP essentials: present levels, measurable annual goals, progress measurement, services, least restrictive environment justification, accommodations, and transition planning by age 16.
- Accommodations change access; modifications change content or performance expectations. A read-aloud accommodation is not a modification unless it changes what is measured.
- Behavior: conduct an FBA when behavior impedes learning; build a BIP from its function. Suspensions beyond 10 cumulative days trigger services and a manifestation determination.
- Instruction: explicit instruction, systematic review, and progress monitoring with curriculum-based measurement. Use student data to adjust intensity, not just to report.
Worked example
A fourth grader with dyslexia reads 35 words correct per minute; the class median is 90. The team proposes a 30-minute pull-out intervention. Reasoning: the gap is severe, so the IEP should specify a measurable goal, a research-based intervention, and weekly CBM probes; the LRE statement should justify pull-out because the student needs intensive code-based instruction that the general classroom cannot deliver at that intensity. The annual goal should be written as a rate or level, e.g., 70 WCPM by year end, not as 'improve reading.'
Traps that cost marks
Do not treat a 504 plan as an IEP; do not predetermine placement before writing goals; do not confuse eligibility with a medical diagnosis; and do not write goals that lack baseline data or a measurement method.