Teleconference 2:
January 28, 2002

Useful Terminology When Talking About Students with Disabilities

Bilingual Special Education
There are four basic types of Bilingual Special Education Instructional Delivery Models:
Bilingual Support Model: Bilingual paraprofessionals are teamed with monolingual English-speaking special educators and assist with the IEP implementation. The teacher assistant provides native language instruction in areas specified in the IEP as requiring L1 instruction.
Coordinated Services Model: LEP students with disabilities are served by a team consisting of a monolingual English speaking special education teacher and a bilingual educator.
Integrated Bilingual Special Education: This model is used when a district has teachers who are trained in both bilingual education and special education. These dually certified teachers provide special education instruction in the native language, provide ESL-English as a second language training, and assist in the transition into English language instruction as the child develops adequate proficiency. This model was used in this research study.
Bilingual Special Education Model: is an integrated model in which the entire personnel and school focus on bilingual special education instruction and services. All professionals have been previously trained in bilingual special education. The LEP students receive all services needed to accomplish their goals and objectives established in the IEP.

[paragraphs taken from Maldonado, J. (1994).  Bilingual special education: specific learning disabilities in language and reading.  The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, v14 p. 127-148, Winter 1994]

Disability
The term “child with a disability” means a child with mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities who needs special education and related services.

[http://www.ideapractices.org/law/IDEAMAIN.HTM]

FAPE – Free Appropriate Public Education
Special education and related services that are provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction and without charge, that meet the standards of the State education agency, and include appropriate preschool, elementary, or secondary school education.  These are provided in conformity with the students IEP (Individualized Education Program).   FAPE is available to all children with disabilities between ages 3 and 21, including children with disabilities who have been suspended or expelled from school. 

[http://www.ideapractices.org/law/IDEAMAIN.HTM]

IEP – Individualized Education Program
The term “individualized education program” means a written statement for each children with a disabilitiy that is developed, reviewed, and revised and includes statements about present levels of educational performance, measurable annual goals, special education and related services and supplementary aids and services to be provided, etc.  Related to assessments, the IEP must include a statement of any individual modifications in the administration of State or districtwide assessments of student achievement that are needed in order for the child to participate in such assessment, or if the IEP team determines that the child will not participate in a particular State or districtwide assessment, a statement of why that assessment is not appropriate for the child, and how the child will be assessed.

[http://www.ideapractices.org/law/IDEAMAIN.HTM]

IEP Team
The IEP team is a group of individuals composed of (a) the parents of a child with a disabilitiy, (b) at least one regular education teacher of such child (if the child is, or may be, participating in the regular education environment), (c) at least one special education teacher or provider, (d) a representative of the local educational agency qualified to provide or supervise the provision of instruction to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities and is knowledgeable about the general curriculum and the resources of the local educational agency, (e) an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results, (f) other knowledgable individuals, at the discretion of the parent or agency, and (g) when appropriate, the child with a disability.

[http://www.ideapractices.org/law/IDEAMAIN.HTM]

IEP Team Consideration of Special Factors

The IEP team is to consider several factors, including behavior that impedes learning or that of others, the need for Braille for those with visual impairments, communication needs for those with hearing impairments, and whether the child requires assistive technology devices and services.  Specifically related to the child with limited English proficiency, the IEP team is to “consider the language needs of the child as such needs relate to the child’s IEP.”

[http://www.ideapractices.org/law/IDEAMAIN.HTM]

Native Language
The term native language, when used with reference to an individual of limtied English proficiency, means the language normally used by the individual, or in the case of a child, the language normally used by the parents of the child.

[http://www.ideapractices.org/law/IDEAMAIN.HTM]