Reading the IEP, finding what affects your day-to-day work, and treating its accommodations and modifications as the contract they legally are.
The thinking behind strong practice, and the cues that show it.
Guides written for paraprofessionals. Ranked by para ratings, then by how directly each guide maps to this skill.
You support a student with an IEP, and you should be able to read the IEP, find what affects your work, and use it as the contract it is.
Recall is where it sticks. A few quick scenarios.
Reading is useful, but recall is where it sticks. Three short scenarios, low-stakes, no scoring. About 3 minutes. You can stop any time.
Start the practice set →Short on time? Start with the first one.
PROGRESS Center (OSEP-funded, U.S. Dept. of Education)
One-page PROGRESS Center tip sheet defining specially designed instruction (SDI) — the adapted content, methodology, and delivery an IEP requires — and how it differs from accommodations, modifications, and instruction given to all students. Grounds the daily question 'what does this student's IEP actually require me to support?' Quotes IDEA Sec. 300.39. Public domain (OSEP-funded).
PROGRESS Center (OSEP-funded, U.S. Dept. of Education)
One-page federal tip sheet quoting the IDEA regulation and listing the concrete aids, services, accommodations, and modifications a para finds in an IEP — reinforcing that the IEP is a legal contract, not a suggestion.
Center for Parent Information and Resources (OSEP-funded, U.S. Dept. of Education)
Defines the accommodation-vs-modification distinction and walks through the IDEA categories of supports a para sees in an IEP and must implement daily. Public domain.
VCU Autism Center for Education (VCU-ACE), Virginia Dept. of Education-funded
Free self-paced course built for paraprofessionals on supporting students with autism day to day — instruction, communication, and behavior support — with interactive knowledge checks in each module and a final quiz for the certificate. Reinforces treating the IEP's supports as the plan you implement. 6 modules (~6 hours total); open self-registration to anyone (select "Private Provider / N.A. / Other" if you're outside Virginia).
Minnesota State (MinnState) Open Educational Resources — CC BY 4.0
Openly-licensed self-check activities on disability categories, the special-education process, and IDEA basics — the background knowledge that makes an IEP readable and its accommodations enforceable in your day-to-day. Playable in the page, no login. (Minnesota State OER, CC BY 4.0.)
Paraprofessional Best Practice Library (original)
In Round 1 — IEP Scan (12 min) — participants examine a set of twelve IEP-item cards and complete a written classification card sorting each into three columns — accommodations (change how the student accesses or demonstrates learning, leaving the standard intact), modifications (change what the student is expected to learn, affecting credit and testing validity), and specially designed instruction (SDI, the adapted content, methodology, or delivery IDEA §300.39 defines as requiring specialist direction) — drawing on the CPIR 'Supports, Modifications, and Accommodations for Students' article's IDEA-category framework and the PROGRESS Center 'IEP Tip Sheet: What Is Special Education? A Focus on SDI' to anchor the SDI column; the round surfaces how implementing from memory or verbal instruction alone, without reading the IEP document, produces the first failure mode — substituting an approximate version that blurs which category applies and what the legal obligation actually is. In Round 2 — Contract Check (12 min) — participants receive three vignettes of a para applying an IEP support in a well-intentioned but legally compromised way (skipping the extended-time provision when a period runs short, substituting a quieter corner for a specified testing room, or reducing the number of items when the plan specifies extra time only) and write a contract check note for each identifying the specific provision from the PROGRESS Center 'IEP Tip Sheet: Supplementary Aids and Services' category that applies, what the deviation changed, and what question to bring to the case manager before acting unilaterally — countering the second failure mode of treating the IEP as a flexible suggestion rather than a legal contract whose terms are the para's daily implementation responsibility, not a starting point to adapt on the fly. In Round 3 — Daily Touchpoint Plan (11 min) — participants draft a written one-day IEP touchpoint plan listing the specific accommodations, modifications, and SDI supports they are responsible for in a typical school day, the moment in the day each applies, and one observable indicator that confirms each support was delivered correctly; the resulting card operationalizes the daily-practice frame from the CPIR IDEA-category framework — the IEP is read, its supports are identified by category, and each one is treated as a binding daily commitment rather than a background document.
PROGRESS Center (OSEP-funded, operated by the American Institutes for Research)
Free self-paced courses walking through each part of an IEP — goals, present-levels, services, and team roles — and how they show up in the school day, so you can connect the accommodations and goals you implement to the document they come from. (Free PROGRESS Center account required.)
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