Important Disability Terminology, Acronyms, and Definitions
Acronym: 504
Acronym Defined: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Definition: This national law protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their disability. Section 504 forbids organizations and employers from excluding or denying individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to receive program benefits and services. It defines the rights of individuals with disabilities to participate in and have access to program benefits and services. This is for students.
Acronym: AAC
Acronym Defined: Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Definition: Augmentative means to add to someone’s speech. Alternative means to be used instead of speech. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) means all of the ways that someone communicates besides talking. Children and adults with severe speech or language problems may need to find other ways to communicate besides talking. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can help.
Acronym: ABA
Acronym Defined: Applied Behavior Analysis
Definition: Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a therapy based on the science of learning and behavior. ABA therapy applies our understanding of how behavior works in real situations. The goal is to increase behaviors that are helpful and decrease behaviors that are harmful or affect learning. It uses scientific and systematic processes to help influence an individual’s behavior.
Acronym: ADA
Acronym Defined: American with Disabilities Act of 1990
Definition: This federal law protects the civil rights of individuals with disabilities in many areas of public life.
Acronym: ADHD
Acronym Defined: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Definition: Attention Deficity Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. It is usually first diagnosed in childhood and often extends into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention or controlling impulsive behaviors (may act without thinking about what the result will be) and may be overly active.
Acronym: APE
Acronym Defined: Adapted Physical Education
Definition: Adapted Physical Education (APE) is physical education that has been modified so that it is appropriate for students with disabilities. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), all students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) should receive effective physical education services.
Acronym: ASD
Acronym Defined: Autism Spectrum Disorder
Definition: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. Individuals with ASD may behave, communicate, interact, and learn in ways that are different from most other people.
Acronym: AT
Acronym Defined: Assistive Technology
Definition: Any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities is considered Assistive Technology (AT).
Acronym: BIP
Acronym Defined: Behavioral Intervention Plan
Definition: A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) is a formal, written plan that teaches and rewards good behavior. The purpose is to prevent or stop misbehavior. The BIP should describe how antecedents that trigger the interfering behavior will be addressed and how new skills and replacement behaviors will be taught and reinforced.
Acronym: CTE
Acronym Defined: Career and Technical Education
Definition: Career and Technical Education (CTE) includes courses and programs designed to prepare students for careers in current or emerging professions. At the high school level, CTE provides students with opportunities to explore a career theme of interest while learning a set of technical and employability skills that integrate into or complement their academic studies.
Acronym: DHH
Acronym Defined: Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing
Definition: An individual who has hearing loss, aided or unaided, that impacts the processing of linguistic information and adversely affects performance in the educational environment is considered deaf or hard-of-hearing. The degree of loss may range from mild to profound.
Acronym: DP
Acronym Defined: Due Process
Definition: Due process is the formal way to resolve disputes with a school about your special education.As it applies to special education, due process includes the legal procedures and requirements developed to protect the rights of children, parents, and school districts.
Acronym: ED
Acronym Defined: Emotional Disturbance
Definition: Emotional Disturbance (ED) is a condition that impacts a person's ability to effectively recognize, interpret, control, and express fundamental emotions. This condition adversely affects a child's educational performance.
Acronym: EL
Acronym Defined: English Learner
Definition: English Learner is a term to describe an individual who is learning the English language and has a native language that is not English.
Acronym: ESSA
Acronym Defined: Every Student Succeeds Act
Definition: Signed into law in 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorizes the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the nation’s national education law and long-standing commitment to equal opportunity for all students. The previous version of ESEA was the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Acronym: ESY
Acronym Defined: Extended School Year
Definition: Special education and related services that are provided to a students with disabilities beyond the normal school year is referred to as Extended School Year (ESY). The intent is to provide students with disabilities a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in accordance with the child's individualized education program (IEP) at no cost.
Acronym: FAPE
Acronym Defined: Free Appropriate Public Education
Definition: Students with disabilities have a legal right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Each qualified person with a disability who is in the school district’s jurisdiction, regardless of the nature or severity of the person’s disability, is entitle to FAPE.
Acronym: FBA
Acronym Defined: Functional Behavior Assessment
Definition: A Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is an ongoing process of collecting information used to determine the function of target behaviors and the factors that maintain it. The information is used to design an intervention that will help the student learn a new, more acceptable method of getting what they want.
Acronym: FERPA
Acronym Defined: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
Definition: This federal law protects the privacy rights of students and their families. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords parents the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records.
Acronym: IDEA
Acronym Defined: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Definition: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal law that ensures students with disabilities are provided with a free appropriate public education (FAPE) that is tailored to their individual needs.
Acronym: IEP
Acronym Defined: Individualized Education Program
Definition: An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a written plan developed for a student identified with a disability by a team of education professionals, the parent/guardian, and the child (when appropriate) that describes the special education instruction, supports, and services a student needs to receive free appropriate public education (FAPE).
Acronym: IFSP
Acronym Defined: Individualized Family Service Plan
Definition: An Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) is a written plan developed by a team of education professionals and a child's family to obtain special education services for young children aged 0–3 years within U.S. public schools. The plan includes early intervention services that will best help reach agreed-upon outcomes and describes when, where, and how those services will be delivered.
Acronym: LEA
Acronym Defined: Local Educational Agency
Definition: A Local Educational Agency (LEA) means a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within a state for either administrative control or direction of, or to perform a service function for, public elementary or secondary schools in a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of a state, or for a combination of school districts or counties as are recognized in a state as an administrative agency for its public elementary schools or secondary schools.
Acronym: LRE
Acronym Defined: Least Restrictive Environment
Definition: Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is the placement in which a student is educated alongside students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate. The general education classroom is the presumed LRE and removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of a child's disability is such that education in regular classes, with the use of supplementary aids and services, cannot be achieved satisfactorily.
Acronym: OCD
Acronym Defined: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Definition: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead to compulsive behaviors.
Acronym: ODD
Acronym Defined: Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Definition: Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a behavioral disorder in childhood marked by defiant, hostile, and disobedient behavior to authority figures.
Acronym: OCR
Acronym Defined: Office of Civil Rights
Definition: The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) enforces several federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education. The OCR mission is to ensure equal access to education and promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights.
Acronym: OHI
Acronym Defined: Other Health Impairment
Definition: Other Health Impairment (OHI) is a disability category defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that characterizes those who have limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment. Common health problems that are examples of OHI can include asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome.
Acronym: OSEP
Acronym Defined: Office of Special Education Programs
Definition: The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), located within the U.S. Department of Education, administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Acronym: OSERS
Acronym Defined: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
Definition: The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) provides a wide array of supports to parents, individuals, school districts, and states in two main areas—special education and vocational rehabilitation.
Acronym: OT
Acronym Defined: Occupational Therapy
Definition: A form of therapy for those recuperating from physical or mental illness that encourages rehabilitation through the performance of activities required in daily life
Acronym: PBIS
Acronym Defined: Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
Definition: Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based, three-tiered framework to improve and integrate all of the data, systems, and practices affecting student outcomes every day.
Acronym: PLAAFP
Acronym Defined: Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (also known as Present Level of Educational Performance (PLEP); Present Level of Performance (PLOP))
Definition: Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) describes a student's skills and abilities based on their initial special education evaluation.
Acronym: PT
Acronym Defined: Physical Therapy
Definition: Physical Therapy (PT) is the treatment of disease, injury, or deformity by physical methods, such as massage, heat treatment, and exercise rather than by drugs or surgery.
Acronym: PTSD
Acronym Defined: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Definition: Posttraumatic Stress Disoder (PTSD) is a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress that occurs as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and the outside world.
Acronym: PWR
Acronym Defined: Prior Written Notice
Definition: Prior Written Notice (PWN) must be provided to parents/guardians within a reasonable time frame before the district proposes to initiate or change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of a student or the provision of free appropriate public education (FAPE) to a student.
Acronym: RTI
Acronym Defined: Response to Intervention
Definition: Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavioral needs.
Acronym: SEA
Acronym Defined: State Educational Agency
Definition: A State Educational Agency (SEA) is primarily responsible for the supervision of a state’s public elementary and secondary schools.
Acronym: SEL
Acronym Defined: Social and Emotional Learning
Definition: Social and emtional learning (SEL) is defined as the process of developing self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for success in school, work, and life.
Acronym: SISP
Acronym Defined: Specialized Instructional Support Personnel
Definition: Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP) are individuals who work with teachers, school support staff, parents/guardians, community members, and other education stakeholders to help students remove learning barriers while examining their individual strengths, talents, interests, and insecurities. SISP includes school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, and other qualified professional personnel, such as school nurses, speech-language pathologists, and school librarians.
Acronym: SLD
Acronym Defined: Specific Learning Disability
Definition: Specific Learning Disability (SLD) means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. An SLD does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of intellectual disability; of emotional disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
Acronym: SLP
Acronym Defined: Speech-Language Pathologist
Definition: Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are professionals who address a broad range of physical and cognitive communication disorders, including issues with articulation, stuttering, word finding, semantics, syntax, phonics, vocalization, and swallowing.
Acronym: SPED
Acronym Defined: Special Education
Definition: Special Education (SPED) is the practice of educating students, at no cost to the parents, in a way that accommodates their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs. This involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings.
Acronym: TBI
Acronym Defined: Traumatic Brain Injury
Definition: A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a form of acquired brain injury, which occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain.
Acronym: UDL
Acronym Defined: Universal Design for Learning
Definition: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that can accommodate individual learning differences.
Acronym: VI
Acronym Defined: Visually Impaired
Definition: Visually impaired is defined as an impariment in which a person's eyesight cannot be corrected to a “normal” level. Visual impairment may be caused by a loss of visual acuity, where the eye does not see objects as clearly as usual.
