Special education acronyms and a key you can print

Choose the acronyms for your key

• IEP defined in the regulation Individualized education program 34 CFR §300.22 A written statement, not a meeting and not a placement — the regulation defines the document.
• IDEA defined in the regulation Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 34 CFR §300.4 Part 300 calls it simply “the Act”.
• PLAAFP defined in the regulation Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance 34 CFR §300.320(a)(1) The six-letter abbreviation is staffroom usage; the regulation writes the phrase out in full.
• PLOP / PLP school and district usage Present levels of performance Older and shorter forms of PLAAFP, still in wide district use. The federal phrase adds “academic achievement and functional”.
• IFSP defined in the regulation Individualized family service plan 34 CFR §300.24 The early-intervention document. For a child aged three to five it may serve as the IEP where State policy allows and the parents agree (§300.323(b)).
• IEP Team defined in the regulation Individualized education program team 34 CFR §300.23 Capital T in the regulation: it is a defined group, not a description of whoever is in the room.
• FAPE defined in the regulation Free appropriate public education 34 CFR §300.17
• LRE defined in the regulation Least restrictive environment 34 CFR §300.114 A requirement about how much time is spent with nondisabled peers — not the name of a room.
• SDI defined in the regulation Specially designed instruction 34 CFR §300.39(b)(3) Adapting the content, methodology or delivery of instruction. It is what makes something special education rather than good teaching.
• SAS defined in the regulation Supplementary aids and services 34 CFR §300.42 Supports provided in the regular class and in nonacademic settings, so that removal from them is not necessary.
• ESY defined in the regulation Extended school year services 34 CFR §300.106 Decided child by child by the IEP Team. An agency may not limit it to particular disability categories.
• AT defined in the regulation Assistive technology (device or service) 34 CFR §§300.5, 300.6 Two definitions, not one: the device, and the service that helps a child choose and use it.
• OT defined in the regulation Occupational therapy 34 CFR §300.34 A related service, listed in §300.34(a).
• PT defined in the regulation Physical therapy 34 CFR §300.34 A related service, listed in §300.34(a).
• SLP defined in the regulation Speech-language pathology (services or pathologist) 34 CFR §300.34 Usually a related service; under State standards it can instead count as special education itself (§300.39(a)(2)(i)).
• O&M defined in the regulation Orientation and mobility services 34 CFR §300.34
• LEA defined in the regulation Local educational agency 34 CFR §300.28 The district. A public charter school established as an LEA under State law is one too.
• SEA defined in the regulation State educational agency 34 CFR §300.41 The State department of education.
• ESA defined in the regulation Educational service agency 34 CFR §300.12 A regional multiservice agency between the State and the district — a co-op, BOCES, intermediate unit, ESC, depending on the State.
• LEP defined in the regulation Limited English proficient 34 CFR §300.27 Part 300 now takes its meaning from “English learner” in section 8101 of the ESEA, which is why most districts say EL or ELL.
• EL / ELL school and district usage English learner / English language learner The current term. Part 300 still carries the older heading at §300.27 and points at the newer definition.
• SPED school and district usage Special education The regulation defines the service (§300.39); the four-letter form is entirely staffroom.
• Para school and district usage Paraprofessional / paraeducator Not a term part 300 defines, though the regulation does address paraprofessional qualifications.
• Gen ed school and district usage General education The regulation says “regular education” — for instance in §300.323(d)(1), where the IEP must be accessible to each regular education teacher.
• ASD / AU defined in the regulation Autism 34 CFR §300.8(c)(1) The eligibility category is “autism”; the regulation does not use “spectrum disorder”, which is a clinical term.
• DB defined in the regulation Deaf-blindness 34 CFR §300.8(c)(2)
• DD defined in the regulation Developmental delay 34 CFR §300.8(b) Optional and State-defined, and only for children in a limited age range — which is why some States have it and some do not.
• ED / EBD defined in the regulation Emotional disturbance 34 CFR §300.8(c)(4) “Behavioral” is not in the federal category name; EBD is a State or district label.
• HI defined in the regulation Hearing impairment 34 CFR §300.8(c)(5) Separate from deafness, which is its own category at §300.8(c)(3).
• ID defined in the regulation Intellectual disability 34 CFR §300.8(c)(6) The regulation records that the term was formerly “mental retardation”. Old paperwork may still carry MR.
• MD defined in the regulation Multiple disabilities 34 CFR §300.8(c)(7) Explicitly does not include deaf-blindness, which has its own category.
• OHI defined in the regulation Other health impairment 34 CFR §300.8(c)(9) The category most ADHD eligibilities are written under. ADHD is not itself a category in §300.8.
• OI defined in the regulation Orthopedic impairment 34 CFR §300.8(c)(8)
• SLD defined in the regulation Specific learning disability 34 CFR §300.8(c)(10) Written out in full in the regulation; “LD” alone is shorthand for shorthand.
• SLI defined in the regulation Speech or language impairment 34 CFR §300.8(c)(11) Note the “or”: it is one category covering both.
• TBI defined in the regulation Traumatic brain injury 34 CFR §300.8(c)(12) Acquired and external. The category does not reach congenital or degenerative brain injury, or birth trauma.
• VI defined in the regulation Visual impairment including blindness 34 CFR §300.8(c)(13) The category name carries “including blindness” — it is not a separate one.
• PBIS defined in the regulation Positive behavioral interventions and supports 34 CFR §300.324(a)(2)(i) The phrase is in the regulation — the IEP Team must consider it where behavior impedes learning. The school-wide framework of the same initials is a separate thing.
• MTSS school and district usage Multi-tiered system of supports A school-wide framework, not a federal requirement and not a route that has to be finished before an evaluation is requested.
• RTI school and district usage Response to intervention Usually the academic tier structure inside MTSS.
• FBA school and district usage Functional behavioral assessment Part 300 does not define it in its definitions subpart; what an FBA contains is set by State and district practice.
• BIP / BSP school and district usage Behavior intervention plan / behavior support plan The document that usually follows an FBA. Names and required contents vary by State.
• ABA school and district usage Applied behavior analysis
• DTT school and district usage Discrete trial training Trial-by-trial teaching. Its data sheet is the trials × sessions grid.
• CBM school and district usage Curriculum-based measurement Short, repeated, equivalent probes — the measurement method most fluency goals name.
• ORF school and district usage Oral reading fluency
• WCPM school and district usage Words correct per minute Words read minus errors. Plain “WPM” does not subtract the errors, and the two are not interchangeable in a goal.
• AAC school and district usage Augmentative and alternative communication The devices and systems themselves are assistive technology under §300.5.
• BOY / MOY / EOY school and district usage Beginning, middle and end of year (benchmark windows) Screening windows, set by the district. They are not the progress-reporting interval, which the IEP itself states.
• 504 school and district usage A plan under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 A different statute from IDEA, with its own rules. Nothing on this site describes it; it is here so the letters are not mistaken for part of an IEP.

Why a key is worth printing at all

The obligation is the district's, and it is about responsibilities and supports rather than vocabulary. But a colleague who cannot read the document cannot be informed by it, which is the practical reason a key ends up stapled inside the front of so many substitute folders.

The rest of the paperwork

The same folder usually wants three more pages: the snapshot the key is stapled to, a sheet for whichever goal is being tracked, and a blank for the data behind it.