Special Education Foundations and Professional Practices
Special Education Foundations and Professional Practices
This domain tests the legal and ethical framework of special education: FAPE, least restrictive environment (LRE), procedural safeguards, collaboration, and professional conduct. Scenario items ask what a teacher must do next.
Core rules
- IDEA Part B guarantees FAPE for eligible students ages 3–21 through an IEP in the LRE, with parent participation and procedural safeguards; Part C covers ages 0–3.
- Section 504 and ADA Title II prohibit disability discrimination. A 504 plan provides accommodations but is not an IEP and does not require specialized instruction.
- Rowley (1982): FAPE means 'some educational benefit,' not the best possible program. Endrew F. (2017): progress must be 'appropriately ambitious' given the student's circumstances.
- Honig v. Doe: stay-put protects a student from exclusion for disability-related behavior during disputes.
- Initial evaluation generally within 60 days of consent (states vary); annual IEP review; reevaluation at least every three years; transition planning by 16 (earlier in some states).
LRE and the continuum
Options run from general education with supplementary aids and services to resource rooms, self-contained classes, specialized schools, home/hospital instruction, and residential settings. LRE is individualized and anchored to the IEP, with a presumption toward general education.
Worked example
A team proposes self-contained placement for a fifth grader with dyslexia who reads two years below grade level but succeeds in grade-level math and science. First test whether supplementary aids-co-teaching, structured literacy, audiobooks-allow ambitious progress in general education. The label does not determine placement, and the decision is reviewed annually.
Traps
Equating LRE with full inclusion; treating a 504 plan as an IEP; assuming Rowley demands the maximum; believing one method is legally required.