Maryland IEP Related Services: Speech Therapy, OT, and What You Can Request

Related services are the therapies and supports that help a child access and benefit from special education. In Maryland, they are legally required components of the IEP when the evaluation data supports the need — not optional add-ons that schools provide at their discretion.

If your child's IEP includes speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, or any other related service, those services are legally binding commitments. If the school fails to deliver them, that failure has consequences. If your child needs a related service that is not currently in the IEP, you have the right to request an evaluation and advocate for its inclusion.

What Related Services Are Under COMAR

Under IDEA and COMAR 13A.05.01, related services are defined as developmental, corrective, and other supportive services that a child with a disability requires to benefit from special education. The key phrase is "requires to benefit." Related services are not extras — they are services without which the child cannot meaningfully access their educational program.

Related services most commonly included in Maryland IEPs include:

• Speech-language pathology (SLP): For students with articulation disorders, language processing difficulties, fluency issues, pragmatic language deficits, or augmentative and alternative communication needs
• Occupational therapy (OT): For students with fine motor deficits, sensory processing challenges, difficulties with handwriting or other functional tasks
• Physical therapy (PT): For students with gross motor impairments, mobility limitations, or posture/positioning needs
• Counseling services: Including school social work and psychological counseling for students whose emotional or social-behavioral needs affect their educational performance
• Audiology: For students with hearing loss not served through the Deafness or Hearing Impairment disability category alone
• Orientation and mobility training: For students with visual impairments
• Assistive technology: Devices and services that enable a student with a disability to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities
• Transportation: When a student's disability requires specialized transport to access their educational program

How a Related Service Gets Added to an IEP

A related service must be supported by evaluation data. You can request an evaluation for any related service at any time by putting the request in writing. The school then has an obligation under COMAR to evaluate your child in the requested area.

The evaluation for a specific related service is typically conducted by a specialist in that area — a speech-language pathologist evaluates for speech-language services, an occupational therapist evaluates for OT. The evaluation results are presented at an IEP team meeting, and if the data supports the need, the service is added to the IEP.

Schools sometimes decline to evaluate for a related service, arguing that the need is not educationally relevant — that the child's deficit does not affect their educational performance. If you disagree with a refusal to evaluate, the school must issue a Prior Written Notice explaining the basis for the refusal, and you retain the right to request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) in that specific area at public expense.

Speech Therapy in Maryland IEPs

Speech-language pathology services in Maryland IEPs cover a wide range of needs. The eligibility question for speech services asks whether the student's communication needs adversely affect their educational performance — which is broadly interpreted in Maryland to include academic performance, participation in classroom activities, and social communication.

Common reasons speech services are included in Maryland IEPs:

• Articulation disorders: Difficulty producing specific sounds correctly, affecting intelligibility
• Language processing deficits: Difficulty understanding or following directions, processing complex language, or organizing verbal output
• Expressive language delays: Difficulty with vocabulary, sentence formulation, or narrative structure
• Pragmatic language deficits: Challenges with conversational norms, reading social cues, or understanding non-literal language (frequently co-occurring with Autism)
• Fluency disorders: Stuttering or cluttering
• Voice disorders
• Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC): For students who are non-verbal or minimally verbal and require alternative communication systems

The IEP should specify the speech services with precision: number of sessions per week, duration of each session (typically 30 or 45 minutes), and whether services are delivered individually or in a small group. Group services are common but raise quality concerns when group sizes are too large for meaningful individual attention.

Occupational Therapy in Maryland IEPs

Occupational therapy in the school setting focuses on a student's ability to perform the functional tasks required to participate in their educational program. In Maryland, OT eligibility rests on demonstrating that the student's functional limitations affect their ability to access and benefit from their education.

Common reasons OT is included in Maryland IEPs:

• Fine motor deficits: Difficulties with handwriting, pencil grip, cutting, and other manipulation tasks
• Sensory processing challenges: Sensory over- or under-responsivity affecting attention, behavior, and participation in classroom activities
• Visual-motor integration: Difficulty coordinating visual information with motor output, affecting copying, writing, and drawing tasks
• Self-care and daily living skills: When independent functioning in the school environment (managing materials, dressing for PE, using a cafeteria tray) is impaired
• Assistive technology support: Evaluating and training students in the use of adaptive tools

One common area of conflict: schools sometimes distinguish between "educationally necessary" OT and OT that addresses needs the school considers medical or non-educational. If your child's sensory processing challenges are causing behavioral dysregulation in the classroom, that has a direct educational impact and supports an OT need in the IEP — not just a medical one.

When Related Services Are Missed

This is one of the most frequent special education violations in Maryland, particularly in districts facing severe staffing shortages. Prince George's County Public Schools, for example, reported over 240 special education teacher vacancies in the 2023–2024 school year — a shortage that directly resulted in missed therapy sessions and unfulfilled related service hours documented in IEPs.

When related services are missed:

Document it immediately. Keep a log — date, service that was supposed to occur, reason given (if any), and who you spoke with. Email is better than phone calls because it creates a written record.

Notify the school in writing. Send an email to the IEP chairperson noting the missed sessions and asking when they will be made up. This creates a paper trail and signals that you are tracking compliance.

Request an IEP team meeting if the pattern continues. If services are being missed consistently, the school is not implementing the IEP as written, which is a FAPE violation. Request a meeting in writing to address the pattern.

Request compensatory education. When services are missed due to school failures (not absences on your child's part), you are entitled to request compensatory services — additional sessions delivered in the future to make up for what was missed. MSDE can also order compensatory education through the state complaint process.

The Maryland IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a service tracking log template and the specific language to use when requesting compensatory services from a school district.

Rural Maryland: Specialist Shortages and Itinerant Delivery

In rural areas of Maryland — the Eastern Shore, Western Maryland, the counties served by the Mid-Shore Special Education Consortium — related service shortages are particularly severe. Occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and other specialists are often shared across multiple schools and travel extensively between sites.

For families in these regions, this means related services may be delivered on an itinerant basis — meaning the therapist rotates between schools and your child may see them less frequently than an urban or suburban counterpart. It also means that vacancies hit harder, because a single SLP covering four schools is not easily replaced.

If your child's IEP specifies a frequency of services that is not being met due to staffing challenges, that is not an acceptable excuse for noncompliance. It is still a FAPE violation. Document, notify, and if necessary escalate to MSDE.

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