Family & Community Special Communities
Special Education

Administrative Advisory SPED 2001-5:
Updating of IEP Process Guide and IEP Form and Notices

During the first year of use of the new IEP Forms and Notices, we have found occasion to revise directions, guidance, and forms. Therefore, the two documents entitled IEP Process Guide and IEP Forms and Notices have been updated. The Department will be sending multiple copies of each of these documents to school districts. We request that these new copies replace the original documents provided in the Spring of 2000 in the 3-ring binder entitled "Special Education Reference Manual." Please discard previously disseminated copies of the IEP Process Guide [PDF] and IEP Forms and Notices dated April 2000 or June 2000. These documents or forms may also be downloaded from the Department's website http://www.doe.mass.edu/sped/iep/.

These two documents have been updated to clarify school district responsibilities and practices and to conform to changes in Massachusetts Special Education Law and Regulation. School districts have previously been made aware of the majority of the changes through earlier advisories and/or memos. The Department, however, is issuing this memorandum and reissuing these documents not only to capture previous changes and clarifications but also to highlight further explanations in regard to district implementation of the revised IEP process in compliance with current statute and regulation.

Clarification of School District Responsibilities and Practices:
Two important areas of practice that warrant revised information and forms are detailed below. Other areas where information or forms have been revised are reflected in the charts found at the end of this document. The Department recommends a thorough rereading of each document to ensure full understanding and accurate implementation of required practices.

1. Referral:
School districts must ensure a responsive school environment that meets the needs of all students and should implement and document the use of attempted instructional strategies on a case by case basis. A parent's right to refer for a special education evaluation, however, is not limited and should never be delayed because the school district has not fully explored and/or attempted some or all of the available instructional support programs or any other type of interventions. In any case where the parent or person making a referral has concerns about the student's development or a suspicion that the student may have a disability, school districts must promptly send notice and seek permission to conduct an initial evaluation to determine if the student is eligible for special education.

The Department has become aware that some school districts are routinely refusing to complete initial evaluations because they have not had the opportunity to fully implement instructional support strategies. This practice must stop immediately and has never complied with either the Department's directives or the law.

The Department emphasizes that the school district will rarely have occasion to refuse to conduct an initial evaluation and may do so only if the individual circumstances of the student make clear that there is no suspicion of a disability and that there is no concern about the student's development. Under all other circumstances, a referral must be considered as the first step in actually obtaining an initial evaluation. To ensure that the mandated forms are not used inadvertently to support incorrect practice, the Notice of School District Refusal to Act, N 2, has been revised to ensure that refusal to evaluate is not a "standard" practice. The line that read "Refusal to Evaluate" has been removed. School district personnel should carefully read page 6 of the IEP Process Guide, which reviews state statutory and regulatory language in this area, and download an updated copy of form N 2 for immediate use.

2. Educational Placement Determination and Specific Program Location(s):
Educational placement (e.g., the actual location where the student will receive the services on the IEP) is determined after the Team has fully developed the IEP. The Team makes a decision regarding educational placement after appropriate services are identified to ensure that Team members select an educational placement able to deliver the IEP services. The Team must ensure that the specific program location complies with the IEP, least restrictive environment requirements, and requirements related to giving preference to approved programs and programs in Massachusetts.

The school district then works cooperatively with the Team to implement the educational placement determination. We again emphasize that the IEP is developed by the Team to meet the needs of an individual student, that the placement identification follows the development of the IEP, and that it is absolutely inappropriate to write an IEP to fit a specific placement.

We have noted during the past year that confusions exist as to (a) whether the placement decisions of other entities (for example, the Department of Social Services) should be reflected on the placement form, and (b) how to use the form to reflect changes in schools or classrooms but not changes in programs or services during the period of the IEP. We have, therefore, revised the form for Team Determination of Educational Placement, PL 1, to emphasize that this form specifies the educational placement, that is, the placement that the Team has determined is most appropriate to deliver the services on the student's IEP.

In most cases where the student is making effective progress, the educational type of placement of a student will not change during the IEP period. In some cases, however, the specific program location may change. For instance, the Team, at a February annual review meeting, recommends the general education classroom as an educational placement for a fourth grader whose IEP period covers the remainder of the student's fourth grade year and a substantial portion of the student's fifth grade year, the first year in middle school. In this case, the IEP remains the same and the educational placement (e.g., general education classroom) remains the same but the specific program location (e.g., a classroom in the district elementary school to a classroom in the regional middle school) will change. Under these circumstances, the school district needs to indicate both specific program locations on the Team Determination of Educational Placement, PL 1, providing the expected dates for each specific program location, and should not rewrite the IEP to fit new specific program locations. PL 1 has been revised to allow additional space to record multiple specific program locations.

Another example arises for a student who is in the care and custody of the Department of Social Services (DSS) and DSS has placed the student in a residential school for care or custody reasons. The placement in a residential school by DSS should not be reflected as the educational placement on the PL 1 form because it is not an educational placement made by the Team. The PL 1 form should reflect the type of educational placement that the Team has identified as necessary to implement the student's IEP and which will then correspond to the Federal Child Count Settings on Administrative Placement Information form, PL 2. In cases like this, however, the Team must recognize that its authority to identify a specific program location is limited because the Team may not make determination of a specific location that results in a physical relocation of the residence of a student in the care or custody of DSS.

For additional clarification related to the relationship of an IEP, an IEP amendment, an educational placement and a specific program location, please read the following:
IEP Process Guide - pages 12 and 26
IEP Forms and Notices - pages 7 and 8

3. Other Revisions to Information or Forms:
School district personnel should pay specific attention to the following sections of the updated IEP Process Guide and IEP Forms and Notices. Wording changes have been made in response to multiple requests for further information from the Department.

Earlier Disseminated Materials:
School districts are also recommended to review these previously disseminated advisories and memorandums that discuss previous changes in Massachusetts Special Education Law and Regulation and earlier clarifications of the revised IEP process in conjunction with the updated IEP Process Guide and IEP Forms and Notices:

• Administrative Advisory SPED 2001 -1 (09/01/00): Changes to Massachusetts Special Education Law

• Memorandum (9/26/00): Changes in Extended Evaluation

• Administrative Advisory SPED 2001-4 (03/15/01): Finding of No Eligibility for Special Education

Changes in Forms and Notices:
Six of the fifteen forms found within IEP Forms and Notices have been changed since first being posted on the Department web site in June 2000. The following chart lists all of the forms and notices found within this document and indicates the most current version that school districts should be using.

If a form or notice was revised, the date of revision is found within the footer of the form or notice. If no revision was made, then the form or notice is not dated.

Revisions have been or will soon be made in the corresponding foreign language versions of these forms and notices. Please ensure that school district personnel are using updated English and foreign language forms and notices when communicating with parents.

In closing, this memorandum provides an outline of key changes within the IEP Process Guide and IEP Forms and Notices. School districts immediately should review their current practices and realign their district practices as needed. Staff and parent training are necessary and required components of ensuring correct district practice. Questions regarding the contents of these documents may be addressed to Program Quality Assurance Services at 781.338.3700.

All in all, the first year of implementation of the new IEP Forms and Notices has been very successful and we thank you for taking this important step seriously. We additionally thank you in advance for your careful reading, thorough dissemination, and effective training on the revisions and clarifications contained within these materials.