This reference list is designed to accompany CPIR’s Brief for Parent Centers on Free Appropriate Public Education and the Dear Colleague Letter on FAPE issued by OSEP on November 16, 2015. You can use the reference list in staff or board training, to refresh or deepen your understanding of what key terms in IDEA mean, and to find easy-to-read summaries about these terms on CPIR’s site in English and Spanish.
The online version of the reference list presents one term or acronym at a time. This page focuses on the acronym IEP and what it means. (Note: To print out or share the ENTIRE reference list as one Word or PDF file, use the links at the very top of this page.)
Acronym stands for… | Individualized Education Program
Importance of IEP to FAPE | As OSEP’s Dear Colleague Letter on FAPE states, “Under the IDEA, the primary vehicle for providing FAPE is through an appropriately developed IEP that is based on the individual needs of the child.”
Defined in IDEA at | 34 CFR §300.22, as follows:
Individualized education program or IEP means a written statement for a child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with §§300.320 through 300.324.
Unofficial Definition of IEP in Spanish
For IDEA’s full description of IEP | See our separate page in this reference list, Defining and Understanding the Individualized Education Program, for how IDEA describes what an “Individualized Education Program” must contain and how it’s developed, reviewed, and revised.
For more information about the IEP | CPIR offers a suite of information about the IEP, including a short overview and much more detailed summaries of what the IEP must contain, who develops it, and what happens at typical IEP meetings. The IEP suite begins at:
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