Acronym Alias Definition ImplicationsSection 504 Rehabilitation Act

504 Plan504

Falls under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) 504 plans are developed by school teams and parents to support the educational needs of a K–12 student with a disability that “substantially limits one or more major life activity” such as: learning, speaking, listening, reading, writing, concentrating, caring for oneself, etc. A 504 plan is often selected as an option for a K–12 student if:

The child has an identified learning disability (LD) or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) but does not meet the requirements of IDEA for special education services and supports

The child is currently receiving informal accommodations or ongoing support at school.

The child’s disability does not meet the criteria for any of the 13 disability classifications.

AIS Academic Intervention Services Academic Intervention Services (AIS) are available to students in all schools. A team of school-based educational professionals determine the academic intervention needs of students in the school, develop targeted strategies for assessing students, and determine methods for dealing with academic problems. Schools' educators monitor on an ongoing basis whether these methods are resulting in increased learning and achievement.

APE Adapted Physical Education Adapted Physical Education is

physical education which has been adapted or modified, so that it is as appropriate for the person with a disability as it is for a person without a disability.

ASP AutismA developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, which adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.

Autism does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disability.

Most practitioners and educators believe autism is a “spectrum” disorder, a group of disorders with similar features, which can range from mild to severe:   referred to as “Autism Spectrum Disorder” (ASD).

Defense: Question any causation analysis linking lead to cognitive deficits or impairment of executive functioning. There is no study associating lead with autism.

Plaintiff: There are cases involving aspects of autism which have been successfully settled with very good settlement amounts. There are recent studies available linking autism and autistic symptoms to lead poisoning. (See Lidsky & Schneider, 2005)

AT Assistive Technology devices are mechanical aids which substitute for or enhance the function of some physical or mental ability that is impaired. Assistive technology can be anything homemade, purchased off the shelf, modified, or commercially available which is used to help an individual perform some task of daily living.

BOCES Vo-TechCTE - Career and Technical Education

BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) Students can attend BOCES for a variety of general and/or educational programs. Alternative Education and Career and Technical Education (formerly Vo-tech) are general education programs. Students typically are sent to Alternative Education due to behavioral or academic issues that cannot be remediated at the home school. Career and technical Education is available for students in their Junior year. Students attending CTE do not have to take Math or Science at their home school. Additionally English is provided for their Senior year. A career based Math and Science are offered for Juniors and Seniors and Senior English is provided for students as well.

BOCES offers a variety of special class programs and is not considered a special education school. They provide specialized self-contained classrooms for students that Districts could not otherwise provide.

CT ICT –Indirect Consultant Teacher

DCT – Direct Consultant Teacher

Consultant Teacher CT services are defined as direct and/or indirect services provided to a school-age student with a disability in the student's general education classes, including career and technical education classes, and/or to such student’s general education teachers.

Direct CT services mean specially designed instruction provided to an individual student with a disability or to a group of students with disabilities by a certified special education teacher to aid the student(s) to benefit from the general education class instruction.  Direct CT can be combined with indirect CT services.

Indirect CT services mean consultation provided by a certified special education teacher to a general education teacher to assist the general education teacher in adjusting the learning environment and/or modifying his/her instructional methods to meet the individual needs of a student with a disability who attends the general education class.  Indirect CT can be combined with direct CT services.  

DD Developmental Delay For children from birth to age three (under IDEA Part C) and children from ages three through nine (under IDEA Part B), the term developmental delay, as defined by each State, means a delay in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication, social or emotional development, or adaptive (behavioral) development. 

Defense: Red flag; look for psychological testing confirming such diagnoses. Did this diagnosis follow the student through high school or highest grade completed? If not, are there any additional psychological tests that would warrant removal of diagnosis?(See MD DD Guidance Document)

Plaintiff: Make sure that the developmental delays do not pre-date your exposure. Highlight the diagnoses through- out the school records to support your allegations of injuries. Look specifically within the records for a reference in the child’s medical history for exposure to lead. It will often be there!

BIP BIS -Behavior A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) takes the observations made

Intervention Support

in a Functional Behavioral Assessment and turns them into a concrete plan of action for managing a student's behavior. A BIP may include ways to change the environment to keep behavior from starting in the first place, provide positive reinforcement to promote good behavior, employ planned ignoring to avoid reinforcing bad behavior, and provide supports needed so that the student will not be driven to act out due to frustration or fatigue. When a behavior plan is agreed to, the school and staff are legally obligated to follow it, and consequences of not following it should not be inflicted on the student.

ED EBD -Emotional and Behavioral DisorderED - Emotional Disability

Emotional DisturbanceA condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time, and to a marked degree, that adversely affects a child's educational performance:

An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors;

An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;

Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;

A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression;

A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

Emotional disability includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disability

Defense: Red flag for obtaining DSS records. Look for criminal history in immediate family. Consider obtaining psychiatric evaluation by Forensic Psychiatrist.

Plaintiff: Use study literature that links emotional behavior to lead. Make sure your expert is well aware of any potential circumstances referenced within the school records as potential factors for emotional disturbance. At trial, redact any hearsay statements.

ESY Extended School Year (ESY) services are provided beyond the Defense: Note the difference between

regular school year to eligible students receiving special education services. ESY services are designed to meet specific objectives in a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). ESY is not simply the extension of the school year, an automatic summer school placement, or a summer enrichment program; nor does every student with a disability require ESY. In fact, ESY may be appropriate for a relatively small number of students with disabilities. However, the IEP team is legally obligated to consider and evaluate the appropriateness of ESY eligibility at the annual review meeting for any student receiving special education services. ESY services vary in type, intensity, location, inclusion of related services, and length of time, depending on the student’s needs. Some data used to determine ESY include: regression, recoupment, long term illness, life skill necessity.

summer school an ESY. Solely because a plaintiff has ESY does not mean that she failed certain classes during the main school year.

Plaintiff: Highlight ESY placement as it depicts a serious need for additional school placement.

FAPE Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) is an educational right of children with disabilities which is guaranteed by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and IDEA.  Under the IDEA, FAPE is defined as an educational program that is individualized to a specific child, designed to meet that child's unique needs, provides access to the general curriculum, meets the grade-level standards established by the state, and from which the child receives educational benefit.  To provide FAPE to a child with a disability, schools must provide students with an education, including specialized instruction and related services that prepares the child for further education, employment, and independent living.

FBA Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is an attempt to look

beyond the obvious interpretation of behavior as "bad" and determine what function it may be serving for a child. Truly understanding why a child behaves the way he or she does is the first, best step to developing strategies to stop the behavior. Schools are required by law to use FBA when dealing with challenging behavior in students with special needs, although you may need to specifically push for it. The process usually involves documenting the antecedent (what comes before the behavior), behavior, and consequence (what happens after the behavior) over a number of weeks; interviewing teachers, parents, and others who work with the child; evaluating how the child's disability may affect behavior; and manipulating the environment to see if a way can be found to avoid the behavior. 

HI Hearing ImpairmentAn impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this section.

ICT Integrated Co-Teaching Integrated co-teaching services, as defined in regulation, means the provision of specially designed instruction and academic instruction provided to a group of students with disabilities and non-disabled students.

ID Formerly MR -Mental Retardation

Intellectual Disability Significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

IFSP An Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) documents and

guides the early intervention process for young children with disabilities and their families before they enter Kindergarten.  It contains information about the services necessary to facilitate a child's development and enhance the family's capacity to support the child's development. Through the IFSP process, family members and service providers work as a team to plan, implement, and evaluate services specific to the family's concerns, priorities, and available resources.  A service coordinator then helps the family by coordinating the services outlined in the IFSP.

IST SST -Student Support Team

Instructional Support Team The Instructional Support Team (IST) is an innovative program whose goals are to maximize individual student success in the regular classroom, while at the same time serving as a screening process for students who may be in a need of special education services. IST is a positive, success-oriented program which uses specific assessment and intervention techniques to help remove educational, behavioral, or affective stumbling blocks for all students in the regular classroom.

LRE Least Restrictive Environment: Implementing the IDEA provision of Least Restrictive Environment means that, to the maximum extent appropriate, school districts must educate students with disabilities in the regular classroom with appropriate aids and supports, referred to as "supplementary aids and services, " along with their nondisabled peers in the school they would attend if not disabled, unless a student's IEP requires some other arrangement. 

The regular classroom in the school the student would attend if not disabled is the first placement option considered for each student with disabilities before a more restrictive placement is considered.

MD Multiple Disabilities Concomitant impairments (such as

intellectual disability-blindness or intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.

MOD-HSA Modified High School Assessment (Maryland Only). Students receiving special education services and meets specified criteria take this form of alternative assessment. MD has four types of assessments including the MSA (Maryland School Assessment; Grades 3-8) the HAS (High School Assessment) the MOD-HAS (described above) and the ALT-MSA for students receiving special education services. Students taking the Mod-HSA or the ALT-MSA would indicate a more severe cognitive disability.

NYSAA Alt. Assessment

The NYSAA (New York State Alternative Assessment) is a datafolio-style assessment in which students with severe cognitive disabilities demonstrate their performance toward achieving the New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards in English language arts and mathematics. In addition, this assessment measures the New York State Learning Standards and Core Curriculum in science and social studies.

OHI Other Health ImpairmentHaving limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment. Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome.

OI  Orthopedic ImpairmentA severe orthopedic impairment that

adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).

RR LS -Learning Support ClassroomES-Emotional Support Classroom

Resource Room is a special education program for a student with a disability registered in either a special class or general education class who is in need of specialized supplementary instruction in an individual or small group setting for a portion of the school day.  Resource room programs are for the purpose of supplementing the general education or special education classroom instruction of students with disabilities who are in need of such supplemental programs.  This means that instruction is not provided in place of the student's regular academic instruction.

RtI Response to Intervention Response to intervention integrates assessment and intervention within a multi-level prevention system to maximize student achievement and to reduce behavior problems. With RTI, schools identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence-based interventions and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student’s responsiveness, and identify students with learning disabilities.

SLD LD- Learning Disability

Specific Learning DisabilityA disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.  It includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.

Special Class Self- Special class means a class consisting of students with disabilities

Contained Class6:1:18:1:112:1:115:1

who have been grouped together because of similarity of individual needs (see question #6) for the purpose of receiving specially designed instruction in a self-contained setting, meaning that such students are receiving their primary instruction separate from their non-disabled peers. 

6:1:1 6:1+11:6:1

The maximum class size for special classes containing students whose management needs are determined to be highly intensive, and requiring a high degree of individualized attention and intervention, cannot exceed six students, with one or more supplementary school personnel assigned to each class during periods of instruction.

8:1:1 8:1+11:8:1

The maximum class size for special classes containing students whose management needs are determined to be intensive, and requiring a significant degree of individualized attention and intervention, cannot exceed eight students, with one or more supplementary school personnel assigned to each class during periods of instruction

SPL SI- Speech Impairment

Speech or Language ImpairmentA communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

TA IA -Instructional AssistantTA -Teaching AssistantPA -Personal

Teacher Aide Perform non-instructional duties under supervision determined by the local school district in accordance with Civil Service Law. Students often receive this support due to behavioral or medical needs that cannot be supported by classroom teacher.

Assistant1:1 Aide3:1- Aide – 3 students to one Aide

TBI Traumatic Brain InjuryAn acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem-solving, sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, information processing, and speech.

Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.