If you have a child with autism or sensory processing disorder this list of Special Education Acronyms will help you familiarize yourself with the “lingo” you need to know. Psst: I wrote this post in 2018, and updated it in March 2025.)
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I’m just going to be honest with you. My son’s first IEP Meeting was a nightmare!
I wasn’t prepared, and I didn’t understand what they were saying.
I mean, they might as well have been speaking a foreign language.
So. Many. Acronyms.
I couldn’t keep up.
The next day, as I was attempting to organize the 2.5 million pages of paperwork, I decided to make myself an acronym dictionary.
I spent three hours bouncing from one website to another. I couldn’t find one resource that had it all.
I needed a list of Special Education Acronyms that I could read without a magnifying glass and print without using several hundred dollars worth of ink!
Honestly, the more I read, the more I felt like I needed to go back to college to take a few SPED classes. You know, just to get up to speed.
I felt so behind, and I hate that feeling.
See, I didn’t even know what The Individuals with Disabilities Act was about.
I do now, of course, but back then I was a new special needs mom who was stressing out over my son’s preschool placement.
I didn’t have anyone to call-none of my friends at the time had special needs kids.
I had been living a life of blissful ignorance.
Anyway…
If you’re feeling like I was and you need info ASAP-this is for you. See, I’ve gotten a lot more savvy as time has gone by and kind of made it my mission to help special needs moms.
Here’s the Acronym Guide I created. I made a pretty cover for it, but the actual acronyms are in black on a basic white background. Hopefully this won’t take up too much of your printer’s ink! (They’re so expensive!)
On the last page there’s a list of websites full of great legal and financial information. The links are not clickable, but you can easily copy and paste them into a new browser window. I hope to fix this soon – when I created this guide I had no idea how to insert hyperlinks!
Hopefully having a resource like this will help you with the stress and overwhelm of being a special needs parent. I know it’s tough and trust me, the learning curve at the beginning is scary for everyone. But it does get better.
What are you struggling with today? How can I help? Let me know in the comments.
What To Read Next
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