Abstract:

The policy on special education in Quebec (1994) confirms that the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) remains the essential tool for planning interventions to be carried out with child and youth with learning disabilities. Nonetheless a review of the literature indicates that IEP’s are in need of improvement. The Ministry of Education in Quebec (2004) as well as the Special Education and Rehabilitative Services U.S. Department of Education explicitly identifies five functions in regards to the IEP. None of them define what a function is, its role, its importance and what it implies. The ambiguity revolving around the concept of function lacks rigor in the conception and practice of IEPs because when all the functions are identified it allows for the development of a product that fulfills its purpose (Langevin & al.) There are a number of functions that an IEP fulfills and other functions that it should fulfill. Furthermore, none of them has of yet been emphasized, specified and validated. Our objectives where to identify different IEP users, to identify the different needs of the different IEP users, to identify and specify the functions that an IEP needs to fulfill to satisfy the needs of his users at low cost and to develop a prescriptive and normative IEP Functional Specification Matrix to innovate, create, implement, monitor and assess an OPTIMAL IEP .

Keywords:

IEP, Special needs, Learning disabilities.