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Tool 24: Frequency, Duration, Location: the Three Fields that Make a Service Enforceable

THE RULE

For the services an IEP lists, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires the document to state the projected date for the beginning of the services and the anticipated frequency, location, and duration of those services (34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(7); 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d)(1)(A)(i)(VII)). That is 3 fields - frequency, duration, location - plus a start date. This is not a best practice. It is the text of the regulation.

“Anticipated” is not a loophole. The Department of Education has said that using the word “anticipated” to diminish the agency’s obligation to provide services would be inconsistent with the requirements of the regulations, and that a district cannot alter the basic nature and scope of the IEP without reconvening the IEP team (64 Fed. Reg. 12406, 12594 (Mar. 12, 1999)). The Department has also said that the IEP must state the amount of services, so that the level of the district’s commitment of resources is clear to parents and to everyone who implements the document (71 Fed. Reg. 46540, 46667 (Aug. 14, 2006)).

Two of the fields need a definition. Duration has no single fixed meaning in the regulation. The Department has said it varies with the child, the service, and the form, and that what matters is that the amount of time committed to each service be clearly stated (71 Fed. Reg. at 46667). On most forms duration does 2 jobs: how long each session runs, and how long the service itself runs, usually until the IEP’s end date. If your form captures only one, write in the other. Location generally means the type of environment where the service happens - for example, in the regular classroom or in a resource room - not the particular school building or street address (64 Fed. Reg. 12406, 12594 (Mar. 12, 1999)). Whether a service is push-in or pull-out lives in this field, and that choice has its own costs (Tool 36).

WHY IT MATTERS

Put two service lines side by side.

“Speech - weekly” fails 3 ways. It states no session length, so a 10-minute hallway check-in counts. It states no location, so a group of 8 in the cafeteria counts. And it gives you nothing to subtract when sessions are missed, so non-delivery can never be shown on paper.

“Speech-language therapy, 2×30 minutes per week, individual, therapy room” binds, because every word of it can be checked. Two sessions. Thirty minutes each. Alone. In a room built for the work.

Specific fields also make the math yours. At 2×30 minutes per week, a 36-week school year promises 36 hours of speech therapy. If 3 weeks go undelivered, you can name the 3 missing hours - a number you can put in a letter. That letter is the non-delivery letter (Appendix A, Letter 19), and these 3 fields are what it runs on. Promised, minus delivered, equals the ask.