Driving Special Education Law: The Gears of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act

Special educators are responsible for developing and delivering individualized education programs to students with disabilities that meet procedural and substantive requirements of the individuals with disabilities education act (IDEA). Although the six major provisions of IDEA are often taught in isolation, this article reimagines free appropriate public education (FAPE), nondiscriminatory evaluations, individualized education programs (IEPs), the least restrictive environment (LRE), family participation, and procedural safeguards as interconnected gears. Each gear collectively contributes to the definition of FAPE for individual students in special education. A framework for holistically approaching special education law is discussed and a checklist for evaluating the meaningfulness and legal defensibility of IEPs is presented.