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Tool 28: The Shrinkage Check: Comparing This IEP to Last Year’s in Fifteen Minutes

THE RULE

Nothing in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) promises that this year’s IEP will match last year’s. The team must review the IEP at least once a year and revise it as appropriate (34 C.F.R. § 300.324(b)(1)). Services can go up. They can also go down.

But a cut is never allowed to be silent. A reduction in services is a change in the provision of FAPE, and the district must give you prior written notice a reasonable time before it proposes one (34 C.F.R. § 300.503(a)). That notice must describe the action, explain why, and describe each evaluation, assessment, record, or report the district used as a basis for it (34 C.F.R. § 300.503(b)(1)-(3)). It must also describe the other options the IEP team considered and why it rejected them (34 C.F.R. § 300.503(b)(6)).

The IEP itself must state each service with its projected start date and its anticipated frequency, location, and duration (34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(4), (a)(7)). Goals must be measurable (34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(2)). Extended school year (ESY) services must be provided when the IEP team decides, child by child, that they are necessary for FAPE (34 C.F.R. § 300.106).

Put those rules together and the audit writes itself. Every number in the new IEP that is smaller than last year’s number should have two things behind it: a written explanation and named data. Your job in this tool is to find the smaller numbers and ask for both.

WHY IT MATTERS

Shrinkage does not announce itself. Nobody says “we are cutting speech from 3 sessions to 1.” It arrives in disguise: a new number in the same box. A group of 3 becomes a group of 5. “Individual” becomes “small group.” The location line moves from “therapy room” to “general education classroom.” The ESY box, checked last year, is quietly blank. Last year’s 8 goals become 5, and no one mentions which 3 left or why.

If you do not put the two documents side by side, the cut is invisible - and once the new IEP is in place, the new, smaller numbers are the ones the district owes your child. The comparison takes 15 minutes, a table, and a highlighter. It is the cheapest audit in this book.