Special Education Terms in Arkansas
What special education terms does Arkansas use?
Arkansas generally uses terminology consistent with federal IDEA. The standard team name is 'IEP team,' consistent with federal usage — Arkansas does not use a distinctive name like CST (New Jersey), IEPT (Michigan), PPT (Connecticut), or CCC (Indiana). However, Arkansas uses the distinctive term 'Evaluation/Programming Conference' (EPC) for the meeting that determines eligibility and, if appropriate, develops the initial IEP — a term not used in other states. Arkansas uses 'Intellectual Disability' (updated from 'Mental Retardation' consistent with Rosa's Law). For ages 3-5, Arkansas uses a 'Non-Categorical' developmental delay category rather than listing all 13 IDEA categories. Arkansas DESE refers to its agency as the 'Division of Elementary and Secondary Education' (DESE), previously known as the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) — some older documents and links still use 'ADE.' The state's special education website is at dese.ade.arkansas.gov and the legacy special education site is arksped.ade.arkansas.gov. Arkansas's alternate assessment is the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM).
What Arkansas Requires
Arkansas uses 'IEP team' as the standard team designation — no alternative state-specific team name is used in Arkansas (Ark. Admin. Code 005.18.10-001, §8.00).
The 'Evaluation/Programming Conference' (EPC) is Arkansas's term for the meeting that determines eligibility and develops the initial IEP — this term is not found in federal IDEA (Ark. Admin. Code 005.18.10-001, §8.04.2.1).
Arkansas uses 'Intellectual Disability' (not 'Mental Retardation') consistent with Rosa's Law (Ark. Code Ann. § 6-41-203; Arkansas DESE Eligibility Criteria).
For ages 3-5, Arkansas uses a 'Non-Categorical' developmental delay category instead of listing all 13 IDEA disability categories (Arkansas DESE Early Childhood eligibility criteria).
Arkansas DESE was formerly the 'Arkansas Department of Education (ADE)'; the agency is now DESE — the legacy abbreviation ADE still appears in URLs and older documents (Arkansas DESE communications).
Arkansas's alternate assessment is the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) — the state-level assessment for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, adopted in the 2014-2015 school year replacing the Arkansas Alternate Portfolio Assessment (Arkansas DESE assessment guidance).
Arkansas Education Service Cooperatives (ESCs) are regional intermediary agencies — 15 ESCs cover defined geographic regions and deliver specialized services to member districts; this term is unique to Arkansas's service delivery structure (Arkansas DESE ESC program).
MySped is the state's Special Education Monitoring and Tracking System used by DESE for compliance monitoring of LEA special education programs (Arkansas DESE MySped).
MITS (Medicaid in the Schools) is Arkansas's program for LEA Medicaid billing for IEP-specified medical and mental health services (Arkansas DESE MITS program).