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Tool 23: “As Appropriate” and “Opportunities for”: Hunt the Weasel Words, Replace Them

THE RULE

An IEP is a written commitment, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) says what the writing must contain. It must state the special education, related services, and supplementary aids and services the district will provide (34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(4)). It must contain measurable annual goals (34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(2)(i)) and a description of how progress toward those goals will be measured (34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(3)(i)). And for the services it lists, it must state the projected start date and the anticipated frequency, location, and duration (34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(7); Tool 24).

The U.S. Department of Education, in the official commentary to these regulations, has said that the amount of services must be stated in the IEP so that the level of the district’s commitment of resources is clear to parents and to everyone who carries the document out (71 Fed. Reg. 46540, 46667 (Aug. 14, 2006)).

Weasel words defeat all of this quietly. “Opportunities for social skills practice” states no service. “Speech support as appropriate” states no frequency and no duration. “Staff will be aware” commits no one to anything. Notice what the regulation does not say. It does not say “frequency, as appropriate.” It says the IEP must state the frequency.

WHY IT MATTERS

An IEP is enforced by comparison: what was promised, next to what was delivered. A promise with a number in it can be checked. A promise built from weasel words cannot. Nobody can count an “opportunity.” Nobody can measure “access.” It is hard for a hearing officer or a complaint investigator to find a shortfall in a sentence that never committed to an amount.

There is a second cost, and it arrives every September. Staff change. The people at this year’s table will not all be at next year’s. The document is what transfers, not the goodwill (Tool 77). A vague line that “everyone understood” in April is an empty line to the new teacher in October.

This is rarely bad faith. Software templates, habit, and time pressure write these phrases. It does not matter why they are there. It matters that they leave your child’s services up to whoever is busiest that week.