Welcome to Acronym Hell 101

You'll notice many, many acronyms throughout this blog. Some you may be familiar with, others you may never have heard of. If you are brand new to your journey to advocating for your child, these can seem overwhelming and complicate anything you try to look up or understand in communications from the school.

I'm going to provide a short list of the most commonly used acronyms. A cheat sheet, if you will! This list is by no means complete - but hopefully it will be enough for everyone to understand my blog. I'm also going to link to what they refer to, if applicable.

• FAPE - Free and Appropriate Public Education
• IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
• LRE - Least Restrictive Environment 
• BIP - Behavior Intervention Plan
• 504 Plan - Covers learning problems, allergies, physical issues accomodations in a school, for individuals who do not meet the criteria for an IEP.
• IEP -  Individualized Education Plan. Accomodations for a child found to be Special Needs.
• RTI - Response To Intervention. Used by many schools districts now before referring for a special education evaluation.
• OT - Occupational Therapist
• PT - Physical Therapist
• LSSP - Licensed Specialist in School Psychology
• AT - Assistive Technology
• EBD/ED - Emotional Behavior Disorder/Emotional Disturbance
• AU - Autism
• FBA - Functional Behavioral Assessment
• IEE - Independent Educational Evaluation