Skip to content
THE PARENTEDGE
CartMy Library
Cover of Assistive Technology, Decoded, a Parent Edge guide: the tagline From a task to a line in the IEP, the subtitle Text to speech, AAC, and the tools the school has to provide and send home, and the words Instant Digital Download, on the brand's dusty rose and ivory palette.

IEP Process

Assistive Technology, Decoded

Text to speech, AAC, and the tools the school has to provide and send home

$24

49 pages · 5 worksheets · 7 checklists · Instant PDF

Backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

What’s inside

  • 7 checklists, from What you already hold to The thirty-day plan
  • 5 fill-in worksheets: the need by task, the tool statement builder, the home-use case, the district's answer mapped onto the notice, and independence goals for the tool
  • A blank one-page request letter you fill in yourself, asking for an evaluation of assistive technology needs, the review of your information, and the written answer
  • 8 figures, including the device and the service side by side, which door the tool comes through, three ways to ask for an evaluation, who pays, the surgically implanted line, and the same tool under IDEA and Section 504
  • Ten states, verified: the assistive technology rule, where the team records the tool, the state's device lending program, and any home-use or ownership rule, in one table (California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington)
  • The Department of Education's own 2024 answers on the questions parents hear most, quoted as guidance and cited by number
  • Three ways to write the same tool, from vague to specific, so you can recognize a line that commits to nothing
  • A dated thirty-day plan

About this guide

The team checked the assistive technology box and moved on. Or it said try the free app first, or that is a home issue, or we do not have that. Nobody explained what counts as assistive technology, what the team has to consider, what the school has to provide, whether the device can come home, or what the IEP has to say for the tool to be real. This guide explains all five the way a good advocate would on the phone: steady, specific, and in order.

No regulation names a device, an app, or a brand. The rule defines a device as any item, off the shelf or customized, that increases, maintains, or improves your child's functional capabilities, and names the evaluation, the acquisition, the fitting, and training for your child, your family, and the adults as services. The team must consider whether your child needs assistive technology at every IEP, and when it determines the answer is yes, the district must make the tool available at no charge and write it into the IEP with its frequency, location, and duration. A school-purchased device goes home when the team determines your child needs it there to receive a free appropriate public education, and a refusal comes with a written explanation. That is the spine of this guide. It shows you how to describe the need as a task instead of a product, the four routes to an evaluation of assistive technology needs, exactly what the IEP page has to say, the home-use rule and who pays, how a communication device and a hearing aid travel through the same rules, how to read the usual answers against the written notice, what changes under a 504 plan and under your state's rules, and how the tool is reviewed and grown into independence. Every timeline, right, and requirement carries its citation in the sentence where you read it, at the paragraph level, so you can check each one yourself.

Who it is for: a parent, usually a mother, of a school-age child with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a 504 plan who reads far below grade level, cannot get words onto paper by hand, cannot speak reliably, or cannot see or hear the lesson as delivered. Your alternative is an educational advocate at 100 to 300 dollars an hour. This guide costs less than a quarter of one of those hours.

49 pages, US Letter, instant digital download (PDF). Print the worksheets and the letter as many times as you need.

Before you buy

When do I get it?

The download link appears the moment checkout completes, and the same link is emailed to you, so you have a copy either way.

What do I need to open it?

One PDF, 49 pages, 5 worksheets, 7 checklists. Any free PDF reader opens it on a phone, tablet, or computer, and it is laid out for standard US Letter paper if you would rather print it.

Are the letters and worksheets fillable?

The letter templates use bracketed fields you replace with your own details, and the worksheets are built to be printed and filled in by hand. If you would rather stay on screen, most PDF apps, including the free readers, let you type anywhere on a page with their comment or fill and sign tools.

Will this work in my state?

Federal law is the backbone of every guide, and it applies in every state. Where states are allowed to differ, the guide says so plainly, and a state number appears only when it has been verified against that state's own rules, with the citation printed beside it. Every guide is date-stamped with its version and review date, so you can see how current it is.

What if it is not what I needed?

Every guide is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Email [email protected] within 30 days of buying and you get a full refund. The full guarantee explains how it works.

How was this guide made?

Various tools, including AI tools, were utilized by the shop owner to help in research and the creation of this guide.

Related article

How to get assistive technology into your child's IEP

Federal law makes the IEP team ask about assistive technology at every meeting, and no regulation names a single device. Here is what the rules define, how the question reaches the team, and what the IEP has to say for a tool to be real.

Pairs well with