How Much Special Education Does Your Child Actually Need?

By Frances Shefter, Esq. (and mom)

Parent’s Guide to Reading an IEP Series:

Part 1: Present Levels
Part 2: Annual Goals
Part 3: Accommodations
Part 4: Supplementary Aids and Services
Part 5: Services
Part 6: Progress Reports – Coming Soon.
Parts 7 and 8: Coming Soon.

Part 5 of the Parent’s Guide to Reading an IEP

Over the past several weeks, we have been working through your child’s IEP one section at a time.

In Part 1, we talked about the Present Levels and why they are the foundation of the IEP. In Part 2, we looked at annual goals and how they should address the needs identified in the Present Levels. Part 3 focused on accommodations and how they remove barriers so your child can access instruction and demonstrate what they know. Last week, we discussed Supplementary Aids and Services and why the Clarify Location and Manner section needs to explain exactly how those supports will be implemented.

Now we are moving to a section that parents often care about the most: Special Education and Related Services.

This is the section that tells you what direct services your child will receive, how often they will receive them, how long each session will last, and where the services will be provided.

Parents often look at this page and ask: Is this enough?

That is an important question, but it is not always an easy one to answer. There is no standard number of service hours that is appropriate for every child with a particular disability. Two students can have the same diagnosis and need completely different types and amounts of special education.

The question is not how much service another student receives, what is usually offered in a particular program, or how the school typically schedules students with similar needs.

The question is whether the services in your child’s IEP are reasonably calculated to address your child’s individual needs and help them make meaningful educational progress.

Start With the Present Levels and Goals

You may be noticing a pattern in this series. Everything goes back to the Present Levels.

The Present Levels identify your child’s strengths, weaknesses, and educational needs. The goals explain what your child is expected to learn during the IEP year. The special education services should then explain what specially designed instruction the school will provide to help your child reach those goals.

When I review a draft IEP, I look at each goal and ask: What service is being provided to teach this skill?

If your child has a reading comprehension goal, who is providing the specialized reading instruction? How often will it occur? How long will each session last?

If your child has an executive functioning goal, what specially designed instruction will be provided to teach task initiation, organization, planning, or work completion?

If your child has a social skills goal, when and where will those skills actually be taught?

A goal without corresponding instruction is just a statement about what the team hopes your child will accomplish. The service section should explain how the school plans to help your child get there.

Special Education Is More Than Extra Help

One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is that special education means giving a student extra help when they are struggling.

Special education is more than extra help. It is specially designed instruction that is individualized to meet the student’s disability-related needs.

There should be a difference between the support available to every student in the classroom and the specialized instruction your child receives through the IEP.

For example, all students may have access to small-group reading instruction. That does not automatically make it special education. The important question is whether the instruction is specially designed for your child’s needs. How is the small group determined? Is the small group just for general instruction, or is it focused on specific goals?

When reviewing the services section, ask yourself whether you can tell what specialized instruction your child will actually receive. If the IEP only says “support in the general education classroom,” you may need more information about what that support includes.

Frequency, Duration, and Location All Matter

The service section usually includes several separate pieces of information. Each one matters.

Frequency explains how often the service will be provided. It usually states how many sessions per day, week or month.

Duration explains how long each session will last. A service might be provided for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or an entire class period.

Location explains where the service will be provided. This is usually inside the general education classroom or outside of the general education classroom.

So, what does this actually look like? Thirty minutes once a day is very different than 150 minutes per week. Thirty minutes in a one-on-one setting is very different than 30 minutes in a small group setting.

You need to understand the complete service: what is being taught, how often it is taught, how long the instruction lasts, where it occurs, and is it individual or group setting.

Services Written by the Month Can Be Appropriate—With Clarification

One issue I see is services written as a certain number of minutes per month.

For example: Special education services: 120 minutes per month.

A monthly total is not automatically inappropriate. Sometimes it gives the provider needed flexibility, especially when the length of a session may depend on the student’s attention, regulation, stamina, or engagement.

For example, the IEP might clarify that the service will be provided in 30- to 45-minute sessions depending on the child’s level of engagement, with the total amount of service adding up to the required monthly minutes.

That can make sense.

The problem is when the IEP lists only the monthly total and provides no explanation of what the service will look like in practice.

If services are written monthly, the IEP should include enough detail for parents, providers, and teachers to understand the expected pattern of delivery. Flexibility can be helpful, but flexibility should not mean that no one knows when or how the service will occur.

Services Should Not Be Determined by the Program

Another issue I see is services being based on the program the student currently attends rather than on the student’s individual needs.

For example, a parent may be told that all students in a particular program receive the same amount of reading support, social skills instruction, or behavioral services.

That may explain how the program is generally structured, but it does not determine what should be written into your child’s IEP.

The IEP team should first identify your child’s needs. Then it should determine the services necessary to address those needs. The team should not begin with the program’s existing service model and make your child’s IEP fit within it.

Two children in the same program may require different goals, different amounts of instruction, and different related services. The program is where the services may be delivered. It should not be the reason the amount of service was selected.

Sometimes You Have to Balance Services Against What Your Child Will Miss

Determining the right amount of service is not always as simple as deciding that more is better. You also have to consider what your child will miss while receiving that service.

A child may need speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, counseling, reading intervention, or another related service. But when will that service happen? Will the child miss math, science, an elective, lunch with peers, or another class that is important to them?

That does not mean the child should be denied a needed service. It means the team should consider the full educational impact of the schedule.

This became very real for my own family. My daughter received speech-language services, and she did still have speech-related needs. However, she began advocating for herself and explaining that leaving class for speech was causing her to miss other instruction. Falling behind and trying to catch up was creating anxiety.

The question was no longer simply whether she needed speech services. She did. The question was whether continuing direct pull-out services in the same way was helping her overall educational experience.

For her, we ultimately moved speech to a consultative model. That allowed the speech-language pathologist to support her teachers and help carry over strategies without repeatedly removing her from instruction.

That was the right balance for her at that time. It may not be the right decision for another child.

This is why service decisions must be individualized. The team should consider the child’s needs, the benefit of the service, what instruction or activities the child will miss, and whether there is another way to provide support.

It really is a balancing act.

Services Should Not Be Based on Staffing or Scheduling

The IEP team should first determine what services your child needs. The school should not begin with the existing schedule and then decide where your child can fit.

I sometimes hear statements such as: “That is when the reading group meets.” “The special educator is only available twice a week.” “Everyone in this program receives the same services.” “We do not provide that service at this school.”

Those statements may describe staffing, scheduling, or program limitations, but they do not answer the most important question: What does this individual child need?

The IEP should be based on your child’s needs, not on administrative convenience or the standard structure of a program.

Red Flags I Look For

When I review the Special Education and Related Services section, I become concerned when the services do not clearly connect to the goals or when the language is too vague to understand what instruction will actually occur.

I also look carefully at services written only as monthly totals without clarification, services that do not identify whether they are individual or group setting, and goals that do not appear to have any corresponding specialized instruction.

Another red flag is when the team explains the amount of service by saying that it is simply what the school or program usually provides. Your child’s IEP should be individualized. A standard service package may not meet your child’s individual needs.

I also pay attention when a student is missing significant amounts of important instruction to receive related services. That does not automatically mean the services should be reduced, but it does mean the team should discuss whether the current schedule and delivery model create other educational problems.

Questions to Ask During the IEP Meeting

If the service section is unclear, it is okay to slow down and ask questions. Some questions you may want to ask include:

Which goal or need does this service address and are all goals connected to a service?

Who will provide the service?

Where will the service be provided?

Will the service be individual, small group, or within a larger class?

How was the amount of service determined?

Was the amount based on my child’s needs or on the existing program?

What instruction or activities will my child miss to receive this service?

Is there another way to provide the service with less disruption?

These questions are not about demanding more services simply for the sake of more time. They are about understanding how the IEP team connected your child’s needs to the educational program being offered.

Data Detective 🔎

Let’s practice.

The Present Levels state that Noah is significantly below grade level in reading and requires explicit, systematic instruction in decoding and reading fluency.

His IEP includes goals for decoding unfamiliar words and increasing oral reading fluency.

The service section says: Special education support in reading: 240 minutes per month in the general education classroom.

What questions would you ask?

I would want to know how those 240 minutes will usually be divided. Will Noah receive four 60-minute sessions, eight 30-minute sessions, or sessions that vary depending on his engagement? I would ask what specialized reading instruction he will receive, who will provide it, and whether the instruction will be individual, small group, or part of general classroom support.

I would also ask whether the monthly language is clarified enough for everyone to understand the expected schedule and whether instruction delivered in the general education classroom will provide the explicit and systematic teaching described in the Present Levels.

The service may be appropriate, but the IEP does not yet give us enough information to know.

How Shefter Law Can Help

The Special Education and Related Services section can be difficult to evaluate because it requires you to connect several parts of the IEP. You need to understand the Present Levels, goals, instructional needs, frequency, duration, location, method of delivery, and what your child may be missing while receiving the service.

At Shefter Law, we help families review draft IEPs before the meeting to determine whether the proposed services make sense based on the child’s individual needs. We can help identify missing services, unclear language, goals without corresponding instruction, services based on a standard program rather than the child, and questions that should be discussed with the IEP team.

We can review the draft IEP to help prepare you for the meeting, or we can attend the meeting with you to help ensure the conversation remains focused on what your child needs to make meaningful educational progress.

You do not have to figure it all out alone.

Final Thoughts

The service page should do more than list minutes.

It should explain how the school will provide the specially designed instruction and related services your child needs to work toward the annual goals.

As you review your child’s IEP, do not ask only: “How many hours is my child receiving?”

Instead, ask: “What will be taught, who will teach it, how often will it happen, where will it occur, what will my child miss, and is this the right balance for my child?”

The right amount of service is not determined by a diagnosis, a standard schedule, the program your child attends, or what another student receives. It is determined by what your child needs to make meaningful educational progress while still having access to the rest of their education.

Coming Next Week…

In Part 6 of the Parent’s Guide to Reading an IEP, we will look at how to read your child’s IEP progress reports and determine whether the data actually supports the school’s conclusion that your child is making sufficient progress.