Page 164 - Special Education in Ontario, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Policy and Resource Guide

Draft Part E: The Individual Education Plan (IEP)
Program Options: Accommodations, Modified Expectations, and Alternative Expectations
When planning the student’s program, the team should identify which of the following options best suits the student’s needs in each subject, course, or skill area in which the student will receive instruction:
• No accommodations or modifications
• Accommodations only
• Modified expectations (with or without accommodations)
• Alternative expectations/programs (with or without accommodations)
A subject or course in which the student requires neither accommodations nor modified or alternative expectations is not included in the IEP.
It is essential that the teacher(s) responsible for providing direct instruction to the student be the primary decision maker(s) in the process of determining the student’s programming needs and identifying the appropriate option with respect to each of the relevant subjects, courses, and programs.
All subjects or courses in which the student requires accommodations and/or modified expectations and all alternative programs must be listed in the IEP. Each should be identified as “Accommodated only” (AC), “Modified” (MOD), or “Alternative” (ALT).
“Accommodated only”
The term accommodations refers to the special teaching and assessment strategies, human supports, and/or individualized equipment required by students with special education needs to enable them to learn and demonstrate learning. The provision of accommodations in no way alters the curriculum expectations for the grade level or course. The accommodations, which are likely to apply to all of the student’s subjects or courses, must be described in the designated section of the IEP form. (See section 5.1 for types of accommodations.)
Accommodated only (AC) is the term used on the IEP form to identify a subject or course from the Ontario curriculum in which the student requires accommodations alone in order to work towards achieving the regular grade-level expectations. Because the student is working on regular grade-level or regular course curriculum expectations, without modifications, there
is no need to include information on current level of achievement, annual program goals,
or learning expectations. In other words, the Special Education Program section of the IEP template does not need to be completed when the student requires accommodations alone.
“Modified”
Modifications are changes made in the grade-level expectations for a subject or course in order to meet a student’s learning needs. These changes may involve developing expectations that reflect knowledge and skills required in the curriculum for a different grade level and/or
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