Praxis SpEd Foundational key terms

A legal right under IDEA requiring public schools to provide every eligible student with a disability an individualized program of meaningful educational benefit at public expense, aligned to state standards, from ages three through twenty-one.

The IDEA principle that students with disabilities are educated alongside nondisabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate, with removal to separate settings only when supplementary aids and services cannot support satisfactory progress in general education.

The IDEA duty of states and districts to actively identify, locate, and evaluate all children suspected of having a disability who need special education, including those who are homeless, in private schools, or wards of the state.

The IDEA principle that no child may be denied a public education because of a disability, no matter how severe, and that all eligible students must receive special education and related services.

The IDEA protections giving parents the right to written notice, access to records, participation in meetings, independent evaluations, mediation, and impartial due process hearings when they disagree with school decisions about their child.

A written statement schools must give parents before proposing or refusing to begin or change a child's identification, evaluation, placement, or services, describing the action, the reasons, and alternatives considered.

A required IEP team review when a student with a disability faces removal for more than ten school days, deciding whether the misconduct was caused by, or directly related to, the disability or the school's failure to implement the IEP.

A federal civil rights law barring disability discrimination in programs that receive federal funds; schools must provide accommodations and services so eligible students with disabilities have equal access to learning and activities.

The overrepresentation or underrepresentation of a racial or ethnic group in special education identification, placement, or discipline relative to that group's share of enrollment; IDEA requires states to monitor and address significant disproportionality.

A disorder in one or more basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, shown by unexpected difficulty in reading, writing, listening, speaking, or mathematics that is not primarily caused by other disabilities or disadvantage.

A neurobiologically based specific learning disability marked by inaccurate or slow word reading, poor spelling, and weak decoding, usually rooted in phonological processing deficits and occurring despite adequate intelligence and effective instruction.

A developmental disability affecting social communication and interaction plus restricted, repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities; symptoms appear early in life, vary widely in severity, and require individualized supports across school and community settings.

An IDEA category for a condition with one or more lasting characteristics, such as inability to learn, poor relationships, inappropriate behavior, depression, or physical symptoms, that adversely affects educational performance and cannot be explained by other factors.

A disability defined by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, expressed in conceptual, social, and practical skills, with onset before age eighteen, affecting performance in school, home, and community.

A neurodevelopmental condition involving persistent inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interferes with school functioning; students often receive services under other health impairment or Section 504 rather than a separate IDEA category.

Mental processes that govern planning, organization, task initiation, sustained attention, emotional control, and self-monitoring; weaknesses in these skills commonly accompany ADHD, learning disabilities, and brain injury and undermine independent academic performance.

The conceptual, social, and practical skills a person needs for everyday life, including communication, self-care, safety, and money management; it is measured with rating scales and interviews when evaluating intellectual disability.

A legally required written plan developed by a team for each eligible student, stating present levels, measurable annual goals, special education and related services, accommodations, placement, and how progress will be reported.

The IEP section summarizing a student's current strengths, needs, and baseline performance, drawn from assessments, observations, and family input, which anchors the annual goals, services, and accommodations that follow.

Frequent, systematic collection and graphing of student performance on targeted skills, often using brief probes, to judge whether instruction is working and to adjust teaching or intervention in real time.

Standardized, brief fluency measures drawn from local curriculum content and administered repeatedly to screen students and track academic growth in reading, mathematics, spelling, or writing; results are graphed and compared to goals.

The extent to which an assessment measures the construct it claims to measure and supports the specific inferences and decisions, such as eligibility or placement, made from its scores for a given population.

The consistency of an assessment's scores across occasions, forms, or raters; it is necessary but not sufficient for validity, since a test can yield stable scores while measuring the wrong skill.

A statistic estimating the average amount of error in an individual's observed score, reported in score points and used to build confidence intervals so small differences are not overinterpreted during eligibility decisions.

A tiered prevention framework using universal screening, evidence-based instruction, and repeated progress monitoring to meet struggling learners' needs and to decide whether a referral for special education evaluation is warranted.

The IDEA requirement that tests and procedures be selected and administered in the child's native language or usual communication mode, so results reflect true abilities rather than cultural, linguistic, or sensory differences.

A structured process using observation, interviews, and record review to identify what triggers a challenging behavior, what consequences maintain it, and what function it serves, providing the data needed to build an effective behavior plan.

An individualized written plan derived from functional assessment data that lists prevention strategies, replacement skills to teach, responses to problem behavior, and ways to monitor whether the plan is working.

A schoolwide tiered framework that defines and teaches expected behaviors, reinforces them consistently, and uses discipline data to deliver increasingly intensive supports matched to student need.

A planning framework that builds in multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression from the start, so diverse learners, including students with disabilities, can access content and show what they know.

A teacher-directed approach that breaks skills into small steps, models them clearly, guides practice with frequent feedback and correction, and monitors mastery; it is well supported for students with learning and behavioral difficulties.

Breaking a complex skill into ordered component steps that can be taught, practiced, and monitored individually, often used for self-care, vocational, or academic routines and to pinpoint where performance breaks down.

Any device, item, or software, from pencil grips and calculators to speech-generating apps, that maintains or improves a student's functional performance; assistive technology must be considered at every IEP meeting.

Changes in how a student accesses instruction or testing, such as extended time, preferential seating, or read-aloud, that do not alter content standards or expected learning outcomes; unlike modifications, they preserve grade-level expectations.

A service delivery arrangement in which a general educator and a special educator share planning, instruction, and assessment for a diverse classroom, using models such as station, parallel, alternative, or team teaching.

The coordinated set of IEP activities, starting by age sixteen, based on age-appropriate assessments and student preferences, that prepares a student for postsecondary education, employment, and independent living.

The abilities and attitudes, including choice making, goal setting, problem solving, and self-advocacy, that let a person act as the main agent in their own life; a central transition outcome.

The legal age, eighteen in most states, when a student gains the right to make educational decisions; schools must inform the student and family at least one year before rights transfer.

A document schools must provide when a student exits with a regular diploma or exceeds the age of eligibility, summarizing academic achievement, functional performance, and recommendations for reaching postsecondary goals.

A practice in which educators examine their own cultural assumptions, learn the family's values and beliefs, and adapt school practices accordingly, rather than expecting the family to change to fit school culture.