Consideration

[Jeannette Van Houten]

OK - I have been asked to write an article on consideration for assistive technology in the IEP. I know this topic has been hashed out before. But I have a question:

What does consideration mean? I have found the dictionary definition of consideration, I have read articles written on consideration and I still have the same question. How do we define consideration when consideration isn't defined anywhere in IDEA? We can assume that they meant discussion. However, isn’t an IEP a legal document per say a contract between the school district and the parent/guardian so wouldn’t the legal definition be the one used?

In the legal definition there are 3 specific elements that must be met.
1) First, there must be a bargain regarding terms of an exchange.
2) Second, there must be a mutual exchange. In other words, both parties must get something out of the contract.
3) Third, the exchange must be something of value.

Now if I transform this into an AT conversation:
1) Is Assistive Technology needed? There is an exchange of information and beliefs of why or why not? There is a discussion of do we the teams skills are and if they are capable of making these decisions without further investigation.
2) The district and parents need to get something out of the mutual exchange. The mutual exchange would be FAPE and LRE.
3) The exchange has a value which doesn’t mean monetary. I would say that the IEP team would determine the value of the assistive technology.

[Wendy Homlish]

Interesting discussion. We recently did a presentation for our 14 school district Special Ed supervisors on "consideration" because, as many of you mentioned, it is something that is not, I suppose, deemed priority when most IEPs are completed (and I think that is simply lack of information and understanding more than anything). In PA it is simply a check box - and most LEAs are under the (incorrect) assumption that if they check YES, the will be authorizing a purchase. Obviously, not the case. Our frustration with the lack of teams doing ANY consideration at all led to the very very simple one page document that we suggested the teams have on hand at every IEP meeting. Forget the 5 page document - we are often lucky to just get through the IEP! We created a simple yes/no form - this was really more for "when do I refer for AT services" but it's a start.We also included a "worksheet" (this came from somewhere - and we modified it - sorry to whomever it originally belonged to!) but don't have much hope that it will be used!