Individual Education Plan

Overview

Only four states require IEPs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and West Virginia. Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, [Page 457]and Pennsylvania require IEPs for gifted students under each state's disability in education law. The IEP is a familiar document to most educators because of federal regulations for special education and the IDEA. Educators are accustomed to the IEP for disabled students but do not always view the IEP as applicable for gifted students.

Since 1980, gifted education in Kansas has operated under a state mandate that requires that all school districts identify and serve gifted students in kindergarten through 12 grades. This mandate places gifted education under the umbrella of special education, therefore requiring that gifted education in Kansas must follow all the guidelines and procedures required by IDEA. The reauthorization of IDEA in 1997, and the subsequent revision of the Kansas special education regulations in 1999 to reflect the language of IDEA, has greatly influenced changes in the methods by which almost 15,000 gifted students in Kansas are identified and in the document called the Individual Education Plan.

As the pressures of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and adequate yearly progress (AYP) channel educational resources to students who are having difficulty learning, inclusion in special education forces the educational system in Kansas to pay attention to the needs of the population of gifted students in the state identified as “exceptional.” Inclusion in special education also provides protection and due process rights for students and parents. Parents, and students, have the right to be a member of the IEP team and to have their concerns addressed. Parents have the right to receive regular reports of their child's progress on IEP goals. Parents have the right to confidentiality of information and access to their child's records, to seek an evaluation outside of the education system, to give or refuse consent for placement and services, and, in the event of a conflict, to have mediation and an impartial due process hearing. The right to due process provides parents and gifted students the opportunity to be heard and consequently, the right to free, appropriate public education as it applies to the needs of the gifted student. And because gifted education is mandated by the state, legislative action would be required to eliminate funding and services for gifted education.

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