IPRCs and IEPs

Helping Your Child While Waiting for an Identification | How to Get Special Education Help for Your Child | Understanding the IPRC and IEP Process

The Education Act requires that school boards provide, or purchase from another board, special education programs and services for their exceptional pupils.

What is an IPRC?

Regulation 181/98 requires that all school boards set up an Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC). An IPRC is composed of at least three persons, one of whom must be a principal or supervisory officer of the board.

What is the role of the IPRC?

The IPRC will:

• decide whether or not the student should be identified as exceptional;
• identify the areas of the student’s exceptionality, according to the categories and definitions of exceptionalities provided by the Ministry of Education;
• decide an appropriate placement for the student; and
• review the identification and placement at least once in each school year.

Who is identified as an exceptional pupil?

The Education Act defines an exceptional pupil as “a pupil whose behavioural, communicational, intellectual, physical or multiple exceptionalities are such that he or she is considered to need placement in a special education program....” Students are identified according to the categories and definitions of exceptionalities provided by the Ministry of Education.

What is a special education program?

A special education program is defined in the Education Act as an educational program that:

• is based on and modified by the results of continuous assessment and evaluation; and
• includes a plan (called an Individual Education Plan or IEP) containing specific objectives and an outline of special education services that meet the needs of the exceptional pupil.

What is an IEP?

The IEP must be developed for a student, in consultation with the parent. It must include:

• specific educational expectations;
• an outline of the special education program and services that will be received;
• a statement about the methods by which the student’s progress will be reviewed; and
• for students 14 years and older (except those identified as exceptional solely on the basis of giftedness), a plan for transition to appropriate postsecondary school activities, such as work, further education, and community living

An excerpt from the Ontario Ministry of Education website on Special Education - http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/ontario.html

For further information see Understanding the IPRC and and IEP Process.