The DCPS IEP Template: What Each Section Means and What to Watch For

If you have been to an IEP meeting in DC, you have seen the document. DCPS uses a standardized IEP format, and while the structure is consistent, what goes inside each section varies enormously — from thoughtful and individualized to boilerplate that could apply to any student. Knowing what each section is supposed to contain makes it much easier to spot when yours falls short.

Student Information and Eligibility

The first section establishes basic facts: your child's name, date of birth, disability category, IEP dates, and the names of IEP team members. The disability category matters because it shapes what services are considered appropriate.

DC recognizes 13 federal disability categories under IDEA, including autism, specific learning disability, other health impairment (which covers ADHD when it affects educational performance), emotional disturbance, speech or language impairment, and others. Some students have multiple eligible categories.

If the disability category does not capture the full picture of your child's needs — for example, if your child has autism but the IEP only lists "other health impairment" — the mismatch can lead to services that do not address the right needs. The category should reflect the evaluation findings.

Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP)

This is the most important section in the IEP, and it is the section most likely to be inadequately completed.

The PLAAFP describes where your child is right now: academically (reading level, math skills, writing), functionally (communication, social skills, behavior, adaptive functioning), and in any domain where the disability creates a need. It should include current performance data from formal assessments, classroom observations, and teacher reports.

Good PLAAFP language is specific and data-driven: "Based on the [assessment], [child's name] reads at a second-grade level with a Lexile of 450. She accurately decodes consonant-vowel-consonant words but struggles with multisyllabic words."

Inadequate PLAAFP language is vague: "Student is making progress in reading and continues to need support."

The PLAAFP is the foundation for the goals. If the PLAAFP does not clearly establish where your child is, the goals cannot be appropriately calibrated to where they need to go. If you read the PLAAFP and it could describe any student, or if it repeats language from the prior year without meaningful updates, that is a problem to raise at the meeting.

Annual Goals

Annual goals describe what your child is expected to accomplish within the next twelve months. Under the Endrew F. standard established by the Supreme Court, goals must be designed to enable meaningful progress — not just minimal gains.

Each goal should include:

• The target skill or behavior
• The condition under which it will be demonstrated
• The criterion for mastery (e.g., 80% accuracy over three consecutive sessions)
• The method of measurement

Example of an adequate goal: "Given a reading passage at the third-grade level, [student] will answer 4 out of 5 literal comprehension questions correctly across three consecutive sessions by [date]."

Example of an inadequate goal: "Student will improve reading comprehension skills."

The inadequate version cannot be measured, cannot be used to determine if the goal was met, and cannot tell you whether progress is happening. If the goals in your child's IEP look like that, push for revision before signing.

Goals should also connect logically to the PLAAFP. If the PLAAFP identifies a deficit in written expression, there should be a goal addressing written expression. If the PLAAFP identifies a social-emotional need, there should be a goal there too. Unexplained gaps between identified needs and written goals are a signal to ask questions.

Special Education and Related Services

This section lists the specific services your child will receive: type of service, frequency (how many times per week or month), duration (how long each session), location (where it happens — pull-out, push-in, resource room), and start/end dates.

This is where vagueness costs your child the most. "Speech therapy as appropriate" means nothing. "Speech-language pathology services, two 30-minute individual sessions per week, provided in a pull-out setting, beginning September 1" is enforceable.

Read every service line carefully. If a related service is listed in the PLAAFP as a need but does not appear in the services section, ask why. If frequencies seem low given the level of need documented, ask for the basis of that decision.

Accommodations and Modifications

Accommodations change how your child accesses learning without changing what they are expected to learn (extended time, preferential seating, graphic organizers). Modifications change what your child is expected to learn (reduced grade-level expectations, alternate curriculum).

Both should be specific. See the earlier note on vague language — "teacher discretion" is not an accommodation.

If your child will take PARCC assessments or other standardized tests, testing accommodations must be separately noted in the IEP. DC has specific rules about which accommodations are permitted on standardized assessments, and the IEP team must ensure accommodations are consistent with those rules. An accommodation that is never used on classroom tests may not be permitted on standardized assessments either.

Least Restrictive Environment Determination

The LRE section documents where your child will receive education and why that placement represents the least restrictive appropriate setting. IDEA requires that to the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities be educated with nondisabled peers.

If any part of your child's program is in a more restrictive setting — self-contained classroom, specialized school, pull-out services — the IEP must explain why that restriction is necessary for the child to receive FAPE.

Be alert to LRE language that is copied from year to year without substantive review. If your child has been in a self-contained classroom for three years and the LRE section still says the same thing it said at the initial IEP, ask whether the placement has been genuinely reevaluated.

Location of Services decisions are the most-complained-about aspect of DC special education, accounting for 24.1% of all complaints. If you disagree with the proposed LRE, document your objection and request prior written notice before any placement change takes effect.

Preparing to Review the DCPS IEP Template

Before the meeting, ask for a draft of the IEP or the completed sections so you can review them in advance. Schools are not always required to provide this, but many will if asked. If you receive a draft, read the PLAAFP first — it tells you whether the goals that follow are grounded in your child's actual needs.

At the meeting, take notes. If something in the document is changed verbally but not updated in the written draft, follow up in writing to confirm the change will appear in the final IEP.

The District of Columbia IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a section-by-section IEP review checklist, examples of strong versus weak goal language, and guidance on what to do when sections of the DCPS template are incomplete or inadequate.

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