IDEA

IDEA requirements, explained for busy teams

Allie Wilson, Founder, IEP Assure · September 30, 2026 · 4 min read

What every IEP must include

Under 34 CFR 300.320, an IEP includes, among other things:

• Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, including how the disability affects involvement and progress in the general curriculum.
• Measurable annual goals, academic and functional.
• How progress toward goals will be measured, and when periodic progress reports will be provided.
• The special education and related services, supplementary aids and services, and program modifications or supports for school personnel.
• The extent, if any, to which the child will not participate with nondisabled peers.
• Accommodations for state and districtwide assessments.
• The projected start date, frequency, location and duration of services.
• Transition services, beginning no later than the first IEP in effect when the child turns 16, or younger if the state requires it.

Implementation is part of the requirement

Under 34 CFR 300.323(d), the IEP must be accessible to each regular education teacher, special education teacher, related services provider and any other provider responsible for carrying it out, and each must be informed of their specific responsibilities, including the accommodations, modifications and supports they provide. Writing a strong IEP is half the job; delivering it is the other half.

Progress and the Endrew F. standard

In Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (2017), the Supreme Court held that a school must offer an IEP reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child's circumstances. In practice, that means goals that are appropriately ambitious and progress data that shows how the student is doing.

Where teams most often slip

• Services listed with a frequency and duration, but no record of whether sessions happened.
• Accommodations known to the case manager but not to every teacher who serves the student.
• Progress reports sent late, or sent with a narrative but no data.
• Goals carried from year to year with the same baseline.
• Transition plans written once and not revisited as the student's interests change.

Each of these can show up in a parent complaint, a due process hearing or state monitoring. Each is also easier to catch early than to explain later.

Review and revision

The IEP team reviews the IEP periodically, and at least annually, to determine whether goals are being achieved and to revise it as needed to address lack of expected progress, reevaluation results, new information from parents and other matters. Good daily records make those reviews faster and far more useful.

How daily records support compliance

IDEA does not tell districts which software to use or how to log a session. It does expect the IEP to be implemented as written and progress to be reported as promised. Daily records are the simplest way to show both. A dated log of services, accommodations and goal evidence answers most of the questions a family or monitor will ask, and it gives the IEP team real information when it reviews the plan.

Just as important, daily records help teams improve. When a service is consistently missed on one campus, or a goal shows no movement for two months, leaders can step in with support long before the annual review.

A quick self-check for leaders