Foundations and Professional Knowledge
What to know
Foundations questions test whether you can connect law, ethics, development, and professional role. Know IDEA (free appropriate public education, least restrictive environment, procedural safeguards, IEP), Section 504 (disability plus major life activity, accommodations, no requirement for specially designed instruction), FERPA (education records, parent access, consent for disclosure), and local policies. Know developmental milestones and major frameworks: Piaget (stages, assimilation/accommodation), Vygotsky (ZPD, scaffolding), Bronfenbrenner (ecological systems), attachment, and behavior theory. Know scope of practice: what you may do independently versus under supervision; confidentiality and its limits (safety, court order, abuse reporting); cultural responsiveness and bias.
Traps
- Confusing IDEA and 504: 504 does not require specialized instruction; it requires a disability that substantially limits a major life activity and accommodations.
- Treating a diagnosis as automatically an eligibility category.
- Overgeneralizing stage theory (for example, assuming all 7-year-olds are concrete operational).
- Ignoring timelines, consent, and documentation.
- Assuming confidentiality is absolute.
Worked example / rule of thumb
A student with ADHD is struggling. Ask: Does the disability adversely affect educational performance, and does the student need specially designed instruction? If yes, consider IDEA. If the student needs accommodations to access the general curriculum but not specialized instruction, consider 504. Rule: diagnosis is not eligibility; impact and need drive the decision.