Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the readability of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B procedural safeguard documents, as distributed by each of the 50 U.S. states. Results were compared to the 5th- to 6th-grade readability guideline for documents recommended by experts in health literacy and health…

With the growing use of technology in today's schools, electronic IEP programs are being adopted by many school districts around the nation as part of special education service delivery. These programs provide a useful technology that can facilitate compliance with IDEA requirements in IEP development while concurrently lessening teacher paperwork…

Many school districts have adopted commercially available software or templates for electronic Individualized Education Program (IEP) development. These programs have useful features that allow Individualized Education Programs to be electronically developed and reliably stored for each student. Although the program features are designed to…

Team collaboration is necessary to fully support school-age students who use assistive technology (AT). Teams should include the student, his or her family, and school professionals. Unfortunately, team collaboration is often not realized due to constraints that range from scheduling conflicts and language barriers to lack of defined roles and…

This article discusses the development and use of an on-line portfolio process. It presents a background rationale for the need and effectiveness of a communication tool that supports the use of the portfolio process throughout the education of a child with identified disabilities. The process for developing the individualized Web page is…

A computer-based expert system, Mandate Consultant, was designed to review regulatory procedures for developing individualized education programs. Findings of formative and summative evaluation indicated the system generated conclusions that matched those of the "better" human experts, and more appropriate than those of the majority of…

Educators interested in applying technology to individualized educational program (IEP) development for handicapped children need to first, understand and explicitly state the local context in which IEP development occurs and then weigh the options in relation to criteria specifying ease of use, data features, program capabilities, and costs.…

The paper describes a mainframe based, locally devised computer-based system that meets the needs of a medium sized district in managing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for handicapped students. The program produces and stores behaviorally based IEPs tailored to reflect the competency based regular education curriculum in use. The system…

Individualized educational programs (IEPs) written either by hand or by use of the "IEP Writer'" a specially designed word processing program, were compared. Results indicated that IEPs which were written using the program took less time and were of higher quality than were handwritten IEPs. (Author/DB)

This report presents results of a survey of 1,275 Individualized Education Program (IEP) managers in Minnesota concerning IEP team collaboration and communication, technology use, IEP manager tasks, and effects of IEP software, both networked and non-networked versions. Survey data were divided into five comparative groups: no use of software to…

The study reports on the costs and time associated with the preparation of special education individualized education programs (IEPs) with and without computer assistance. Data were gathered from nine agencies within California. In each agency special education administrators, teachers and parents were interviewed to determine the time and…

This article discusses the use of IEP software applications from the perspectives of form (i.e., legally correct documents) and function (i.e., educationally appropriate individualized programs). The article provides an overview of the basic components of two fairly comprehensive IEP software programs and discusses the general strengths and…

This User's Manual is intended to accompany VOC-PLAN, a computer (Apple) program designed to assist in the preparation of an Individualized Vocational Education Program (IVEP) for handicapped, disadvantaged, or regular vocational secondary and postsecondary students. The program is presented in standard IEP (Individualized Education Program)…

This article reviews requirements for considering the need for assistive technology (AT) services within the Individualized Education Program process and highlights the importance of collaborative teamwork. Current AT models are described, along with the AT Co-Planner. The use of a software version of the model is discussed. (Contains references.)…

The Adapted Computer Studies Program for the Disabled at Grossmont College was developed with the following objectives: (1) to provide the disabled students with essential computer skills and a support system enabling them to mainstream into the regular college classroom; (2) to provide the students with a tool that will enable them to transfer to…