How This Library Is Verified

This page is the standing record of how The IEP & 504 Library is researched, written, checked and corrected. If you are about to rely on something you read here, this is the page that tells you what that reliance is worth.

What this library is

The IEP & 504 Library is an independent reference library on the IEP and 504 process, published for parents in the United States. It is not a school district, a state education agency, the Department of Education or a law firm. It is not affiliated with any of them. It is a publisher. The work is a reference collection: a bank of sample IEP goals by skill area and grade band, free meeting and organizing printables, plain-language process guides, accommodation menus by need and one state-by-state table of initial-evaluation timelines. Nothing here is a case file, a plan or a decision about any individual child.

The library has no named authors on its pages by design. There is no clinician byline to lend borrowed authority and no invented credential. What stands behind a page is the process below: the primary source it was read against, the date it was last reviewed and the correction log. Those are checkable. A name is not.

The sourcing rule

Every load-bearing fact on this site traces to a primary source. In practice that means one of three things: the IDEA statute (20 U.S.C. 1400) and its regulations at 34 CFR Part 300; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794) and its regulations at 34 CFR Part 104, together with published federal guidance such as Department of Education and Office for Civil Rights letters and resource guides; or a state education department's own published rules, which is what the state evaluation-timeline figures rest on. Reputable special-education resources are used to distill goal-writing and accommodation methodology, never as the source of a legal fact.

Every page lists its sources at the end, with the citation and a link to the official text where one exists, so you can open the source and read it yourself rather than taking our summary on faith. If a fact on a page is load-bearing and you cannot find it in that page's source list, tell us, because that is a gap we want to close.

Three passes on the content

The library is built and checked in three passes rather than one. The first pass reads the law and the methodology and writes the pages: the sample goals, the accommodation menus, the printables and the guides. The second pass is an independent legal re-derivation, done fresh, that re-checks every load-bearing legal fact against the primary source and confirms every citation resolves to the official text with its label matching the URL. The third pass is a goal-quality and sensitivity check unique to this niche: every sample goal is checked to be measurable and observable, written in respectful, community-aware language (person-first or identity-first, following the community and the family) and framed as an example to discuss rather than a prescription. Every accommodation is checked to read as an option the team considers rather than a guarantee.

What the independent pass catches

The second pass is not a formality. A few real catches from the current work:

• Our IEP vs 504 guide had, in draft, listed developmental delay as one of the thirteen IDEA disability categories under 34 CFR 300.8(a). The independent pass corrected it: developmental delay is the separate optional category in 300.8(b) that a state may choose to use for children ages 3 through 9.
• On the state evaluation-timelines table, an Alaska figure of 90 days was corrected down to the federal 60-day default. The 90 describes the full combined window from consent through a finished IEP, not the evaluation timeline itself.
• New Hampshire was resolved to 60 calendar days by reading the current rule text (Ed 1107.01(c)) rather than the older 45-day figure some parent guides still circulate.

What "verified" means, by page type

A law page, like a guide or the state table, is verified when every load-bearing legal fact, a timeline, a right, a citation, is independently confirmed against a primary source with the cite and the date on the page. A goals page is different: the sample goals are written to a methodology, not found in a statute, so "verified" means each goal is measurable and observable, respectfully worded and framed as an example not a prescription, passing the sensitivity check, with the legal anchor that annual goals must be measurable (34 CFR 300.320(a)(2)) cited on the page. We do not go hunting for a statute that prints a specific words-per-minute target, because no statute carries one; the bar is that the example meets the methodology and the dignity standard.

When something could not be fully confirmed

Almost every dataset behind this library is fully verified: all 120 sample goals across the goal bank, all the accommodation menus, all the printables and all the guides. Two pages carry a partial status. One is the state evaluation-timelines table, where a handful of rows rest on an official or near-official day count without the exact rule subsection pinned down. The other is the guide on advocates and attorneys, where the legal points all trace to a primary source but the cost ranges are market figures no government body publishes, so they are stated as directional ranges to confirm rather than quoted rates.

When that happens the page says so at the exact spot, in plain words, naming the agency to confirm the figure with. There is no page-level doubt banner, because a banner tells you to distrust everything while telling you nothing about what is actually uncertain. The note sits in the row it belongs to. We would rather publish a stated gap than a clean-looking sentence we cannot fully stand behind. Papering over an uncertainty is the one failure this process exists to prevent.

The date on every page

Every guide, goal page, accommodation page, printable page and comparison table on this site carries a visible "Last reviewed" date. That date is the day the page was last read against its own sources. It is not the day the site was rebuilt. It does not move because something unrelated changed elsewhere on the site. The same date is what the page publishes in its structured data and in the sitemap, so a reader, a search engine and an answer engine are all looking at one number rather than three.

IDEA and Section 504 change through rulemaking and guidance while states adjust their own evaluation timelines, so pages are re-read on a set schedule and again whenever we learn of a change. When a review changes what a page says, the page is updated and the change is logged with its date in the updates log. A change appears there as done only once it is in effect and checked against a primary source. An item still being worked through is labeled a watch, never shown as already pushed into a page.

Corrections

If a rule or a figure on any page looks out of date, or does not match what your district or your state education agency told you, tell us through the contact page and point us at the source you are looking at. The report goes back through the same check: the claim is read against the primary source, the page is corrected if the source says so, the "Last reviewed" date on that page moves and the correction is logged with its date in the updates log. Corrections are published, not quietly swapped in. Getting these pages right is the whole point of the project. A reader who catches a mistake is doing the library a favor.

What this library is not

Everything here is general educational information. It is not legal advice and it is not educational advice. It does not tell any family what to do. It cannot say whether a particular child qualifies for an IEP or a 504 plan. Reading it creates no professional relationship. The sample goals and accommodations are examples to discuss and adapt with your child's IEP or 504 team, which makes the actual decisions from your child's own evaluation. For a genuinely contested situation, a special education advocate or an attorney who works in your state is the right person to ask. The full disclaimer sets this out in detail.

An independent educational reference for parents, not a school district, a government agency or a law firm. General information, not legal or educational advice.