IDEA · 20 U.S.C. § 1400 · EVERY STATE · ANNO MMXXVI LAUNCH PRICE $97 — $147 AFTER LAUNCH

A FIELD MANUAL · NO. I

❦

WILLIAM J. PORTA, ESQ., M.ED.

I learned the IEP process as a father before I ever practiced it as a lawyer.

The school district sends a team to your child's meeting. They know the law, the deadlines, and the words that trigger obligations. The IEP Field Manual — 700+ pages, written by a special-education attorney who is also a special-education parent — teaches you the same playbook, for less than one hour of a lawyer's time.

See the Manual Read the Math

Educational information · Not legal advice

A Parentlived the IEP process first
U.S. Supreme Courtamong the author's bar admissions
7-Dayrefund guarantee

Not for suing your school. For walking in prepared.

I. The Manual

One book. Every meeting, every deadline, every letter. Thirteen years of school.

Referral, evaluation, eligibility, the document, the goals, the placement, the meeting, the behavior plan, the discipline rules, the data, the transitions, the disputes. Fourteen parts. Ninety-seven numbered tools. Each one with the rule, the citation you can point to, and the exact next move — the sentence to say, the letter to send, the deadline to calendar.

Illustrated ebook · 700+ pages · First Edition

The complete playbook for the parent's side of the table.

The evaluation-request letter. The IEE the district pays for. The goal autopsy. The ten-day discipline tripwire. The meeting scripts, the records requests, the dispute ladder — with the regulation cited beside every move, in plain kitchen-table English.

  • The IEP Field Manual700+ page illustrated ebook — 97 numbered tools, 40 fill-in-the-blank letters, meeting scripts, deadline tables$97
  • The First-30-Days Road Mapa decision tree for wherever you're starting, and the first three letters to send this weekIncluded
  • The Evidence Binder Systemprintable tabs, call log, incident log, suspension counter, progress-tracking sheetsIncluded
  • The 50-State Lookup Sheetyour state's deadlines, complaint forms, recording law, and parent center — one page per stateIncluded
  • Lifetime updatesevery revision and every future edition, freeIncluded
$97Launch price · $147 after launch
Get the Manual · $97

Instant access · Pay once · Yours forever

II. The Math

What families pay to learn this. And what the page costs instead.

When a disagreement with a district escalates, families buy help — by the hour, by the case, or out of their own pocket — and it adds up fast. Every situation is different. The right-hand column is the same family after reading the Manual.

What families pay for help

Priced by the hour, by the case, or out of pocket
Special-education advocateBy the hour, or a full-case package
Special-education attorneyBy the hour — contested cases run highest
Private neuropsychological evaluationOut of pocket, if insurance won't cover it

What this help costs varies widely by region, provider, and case — which is exactly why going in prepared matters.

The same family, prepared

After the Manual
This manual — the process, the letters, the deadlines$97
Independent evaluation requested correctly at public expense under 34 C.F.R. § 300.502*$0*
Disputes raised on the written record, before anyone is hiredPostage
A flat-fee attorney records review — when you actually need onea few hundred dollars

*A district may instead ask a hearing officer to defend its own evaluation — the Manual covers exactly that fork.

Preparation does not guarantee you will never need a lawyer. It means you will not pay one by the hour to teach you what a records request is — and when you do hire one, your paper trail does half the work.

III. What's Inside

Ninety-seven numbered tools across fourteen parts.

Organized the way the process actually unfolds. Each tool states the rule in plain language, cites the regulation so you can point to it, and ends with the exact next action. IDEA is federal law. It applies in all fifty states. So does this book.

I. The Suspicion 6 chapters

Before anyone says "IEP," a legal clock exists. Start it on your terms.

  1. The one-page letter that legally starts the evaluation process (a phone call never does)
  2. The "let's try RTI first" stall — and the sentence that ends it
  3. What to write down tonight: the home-evidence log a district can't wave away
  4. The pediatrician's letter that turns a hunch into a referral
  5. Child Find: the duty your district owed you before you ever asked
  6. The private-school and homeschool side door into a free evaluation

II. The Evaluation 8 chapters

Free testing, done right, on deadline — or done again at their expense.

  1. The consent form trap: what you're signing, line by line (and why the clock starts at consent)
  2. Sixty days, not "when we get to it": the timeline tracker with every state's real number
  3. The eight assessments to request by name (and the three they hope you forget)
  4. How to read a psychoeducational report in twenty minutes: the four numbers that matter
  5. Percentiles, standard scores, and the "average range" dodge
  6. "She's passing, so she doesn't qualify" — the caselaw sentence that ends that
  7. The IEE: how to make the district pay for a second opinion
  8. Choosing your independent evaluator: three questions before you sign anything

III. Eligibility 6 chapters

Thirteen doors into services. Know which one your child fits through — and what to do when they say none.

  1. The thirteen classifications, translated into kitchen-table English
  2. Discrepancy vs. RTI vs. patterns-of-strengths: how districts decide, and how to push back
  3. The OHI category most ADHD parents never hear about
  4. Autism vs. ED vs. OHI: why the label on the line changes the services on the page
  5. When they say "not eligible": the ten-day letter that keeps every option open
  6. The 504 consolation prize — when to take it, when it's a trap

IV. The Document 8 chapters

Read the IEP like a lawyer: the page order, the traps, the blanks that should scare you.

  1. The twenty-minute anatomy lesson: what each section legally promises
  2. Present levels: the paragraph the whole document hangs on
  3. "As appropriate" and "opportunities for": hunt the weasel words, replace them
  4. Frequency, duration, location: the three fields that make a service enforceable
  5. What a blank box means at a hearing (nothing good for the district)
  6. Prior Written Notice: the paper they must hand you — every single time
  7. The draft-written-before-the-meeting problem, and the request that fixes it
  8. The shrinkage check: comparing this IEP to last year's in fifteen minutes

V. The Goals 6 chapters

A goal you can't measure is a goal nobody has to meet.

  1. The goal autopsy: five tests every annual goal must pass
  2. "Will improve reading skills": forcing a baseline, a number, and a date
  3. Who measures it, how often, with what tool — three questions per goal
  4. The copy-paste scandal: catching last year's goals wearing this year's dates
  5. What FAPE demands after Endrew F. — and the sentence to quote at the table
  6. The goal-bank tell: spotting a goal written for no child in particular

VI. Services, LRE & Placement 7 chapters

The right help, in the right room, in writing.

  1. Related services A to Z: OT, PT, speech, counseling — what to ask for by name
  2. Push-in vs. pull-out: what each costs your child in minutes and in dignity
  3. The LRE ladder: every placement from full inclusion to residential, and who decides
  4. "We don't offer that here" is not a legal answer — the reply that proves it
  5. The 1:1 paraprofessional request: build the case before you ask
  6. What "12:1:1" actually buys: ratios decoded
  7. When the right placement is a private school on the district's dime: the Burlington/Carter playbook

VII. Accommodations & Modifications 5 chapters

One levels the field. The other changes the game. Confuse them and your child pays at graduation.

  1. The bright line between accommodation and modification — and the diploma it decides
  2. Forty accommodations worth asking for, sorted by what they fix
  3. State-exam accommodations: the separate paperwork with its own deadline
  4. "He gets that anyway, no need to write it in" — yes there is, and here's why
  5. The assistive-tech evaluation nobody offers until you ask

VIII. The Meeting 9 chapters

Walk in with an agenda. Walk out with a record.

  1. The two-sentence email that stops an IEP meeting from being scheduled without you
  2. The meeting-week countdown: what to send, request, and print, day by day
  3. Who must be in the room — and the excusal form you don't have to sign
  4. The recording question: your rights state by state, and the script for asking
  5. Bring-a-friend rules: advocates, evaluators, and grandma are all allowed
  6. The parent-concerns letter: getting your version inside the IEP itself
  7. "We'll table that" and six other meeting moves, decoded and countered
  8. Don't sign at the table: what consent means in your state and how long you really have
  9. The same-day follow-up email that turns a verbal promise into evidence

IX. The Behavior 6 chapters

Behavior is communication. An FBA is how the school is made to listen.

  1. The FBA request letter — and how to tell an FBA from a checklist with a fancy name
  2. Reading a BIP: replacement behaviors, not just punishments
  3. The daily behavior sheet that makes the school keep your data for you
  4. Restraint and seclusion: the report they owe you the same day
  5. "He just needs to want it" and other clues the plan is blaming your child
  6. When behavior is the disability talking: winning the MDR before you ever need one

X. The Discipline 6 chapters

Ten days is the tripwire. Know it before the phone rings.

  1. The ten-day rule: counting suspensions the way the law counts them (including sneaky half-days)
  2. "Come pick him up" is a removal: logging the informal suspension
  3. The Manifestation Determination Review: the most important meeting you've never heard of
  4. The two MDR questions — and the evidence that answers them your way
  5. Weapons, drugs, injury: the 45-day placements and what they don't erase
  6. The expedited appeal: discipline timelines the district hopes you miss

XI. The Data & the Year 7 chapters

Progress reports come four times a year. The truth is in the raw numbers.

  1. The progress-report decoder: "progressing gradually" is not a measurement
  2. The work-sample folder: a kitchen-table data system in ten minutes a week
  3. The records request that gets the raw data behind the report card
  4. Regression and recoupment: the ESY case you build over Christmas break
  5. ESY is not summer school: the standard, the deadline, the request letter
  6. The teacher-email cadence that builds a year of evidence without a single fight
  7. When the graph goes flat: the letter that reconvenes the team mid-year

XII. The Transitions 7 chapters

Every hand-off drops something. Carry it yourself.

  1. Early Intervention to preschool: the meeting at age 2½ that decides year three
  2. The kindergarten cliff: keeping services when the building changes
  3. Building-to-building moves: the transfer packet you assemble, not the school
  4. Moving districts or states: what transfers, what doesn't, and your state's transfer window
  5. Transition planning at 14–16: a plan that must say more than "will attend college fair"
  6. The diploma decision: standard, alternate, and the exit that ends services forever
  7. Age of majority: the rights-transfer letter and keeping your seat at the table

XIII. Section 504 & the Records 6 chapters

Your child's file tells a story. Read it before the district quotes it.

  1. The 504 plan, explained: what it covers, how it differs from an IEP, and when to ask for each
  2. When 504 beats an IEP (yes, sometimes it does)
  3. FERPA: the records-request template and the 45-day clock
  4. What counts as a record: emails, test protocols, and the notes they say don't exist
  5. The amendment request: correcting the file one wrong sentence at a time
  6. What a full records review reveals that no meeting ever will

XIV. The Fight 10 chapters

Escalate on paper, one rung at a time. Most disputes end long before a courtroom.

  1. The dispute ladder: seven rungs from polite email to federal court — and how far most parents actually go (two)
  2. The magic words: "I disagree, and I am requesting Prior Written Notice"
  3. The state complaint: free, no lawyer required, answer due in sixty days
  4. Mediation: what to bring, what to say, what never to sign the same day
  5. Due process: the filing that must be right the first time, and the two-year clock
  6. "Stay put": the most powerful phrase in special education law
  7. The resolution session: the settlement talk the district must offer within fifteen days
  8. Advocate vs. attorney: what each costs, what each can legally do, and when
  9. Attorney's fees: why a winning parent's lawyer can cost the district, not you
  10. Finding counsel in your state: COPAA, parent centers, and the questions to ask before retaining
IV. What This Manual Replaces

Judge it by what it replaces.

This book is newly published. Reader results will be printed here when readers send them — real names, real districts, with written permission. Until then, judge it by what it replaces — the help families otherwise buy by the hour.

ReplacesThe consultation.

An attorney explaining your evaluation rights across a conference table bills by the hour. Part II explains them in plain English you can reread at midnight, with the letters already written.

ReplacesThe advocate's prep hours.

An advocate at the table is valuable — and much of what you pay for by the hour is preparation you can do yourself, once someone hands you the checklist. The checklists are in the Evidence Binder System.

ReplacesGuessing.

The most expensive option. A missed evaluation timeline is a school year lost. A missed ten-day discipline tripwire is a placement lost. The Manual's deadline tables cost $97, once.

V. About the Author

The parent first.

When my young son was diagnosed with autism, I was not a special-education attorney. I was a father holding a folder, sitting across from a team of people who all knew each other's first names. They were not villains. They were a system — and the system runs on procedure, paper, and deadlines that nobody hands parents at the door.

So I learned the procedure, living the process firsthand — the evaluations, the meetings, the plans, and how they fit together. What that experience taught me is how much a prepared, well-organized family can bring to each step. It also led me to earn a law degree, with honors, and a Master's in Education focused on disability law, and to make representing families of students with disabilities my practice. I am admitted in all four U.S. District Courts in New York, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

This manual is the folder I wish someone had handed me: the whole process, referral to resolution, in plain language, with the letters already written. IDEA is federal law — the rights in this book belong to parents in every state, not just mine.

It is not an instruction set for fighting your school district. It is an instruction set for walking into the room prepared — so the fight rarely starts.

William J. Porta, Esq., M.Ed. · New York

VI. Order the Manual

$97 once. No subscription. Yours forever.

Instant access — in your inbox within a minute of payment. Read it on any phone, tablet, or computer. Print the letters at the kitchen table and mail them Monday. Seven-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked — email us and we start your refund the same business day.

Illustrated ebook · 700+ pages · First Edition

The IEP Field Manual

Ninety-seven tools for evaluations, eligibility, goals, placement, meetings, behavior, discipline, records, and disputes — with the regulation cited beside every move, and forty fill-in-the-blank letters ready to send.

  • The IEP Field Manual700+ page illustrated ebook, First Edition — PDF + accessible EPUB$97
  • The First-30-Days Road Mapthe decision tree and your first three lettersIncluded
  • The Evidence Binder Systemthe printable record-keeping kitIncluded
  • The 50-State Lookup Sheetyour state's rules on one pageIncluded
  • Lifetime updatesevery revision and future edition, freeIncluded
$97Launch price · $147 after launch
Get the Manual · $97

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This book is educational material. It is not legal advice, and buying it does not create an attorney-client relationship with William J. Porta or any law firm.

VII. FAQ

Questions parents ask before they click.

Does this apply in my state?

Yes. The IEP process is governed by IDEA, a federal law, and its federal regulations — every chapter is built on the rules that apply in all fifty states. Where states add their own timelines or extra protections, the Manual flags it, and the 50-State Lookup Sheet shows you your state's rule on one page.

My child already has an IEP. Is it too late for this to help?

No — this is when it helps most. An existing IEP is renegotiated every year and re-evaluated every three. The chapters on progress monitoring, requesting changes, independent evaluations, and building the paper trail assume you are already in the system and want more out of it.

We have a 504 plan, not an IEP. Is this for us?

Partly, and deliberately. The Manual includes a full part on Section 504 — what it covers, how it differs, and when a child with a 504 should be evaluated for an IEP. Many families are on a 504 because nobody requested the evaluation. Tool 1 is that request.

Is this legal advice?

No. This is legal education — the rules, the process, and the documents, explained by an attorney. Reading it does not make me your lawyer, and no book can apply the law to your child's specific facts. If your situation needs an attorney, the Manual tells you plainly when, and what to bring so the hours cost less.

What if the school still refuses after I do everything right?

Then you will be refused on the record — in writing, with notices and deadlines documented — which is exactly the position you want to be in. Part XIV walks the dispute ladder rung by rung: the state complaint (free, no lawyer required), mediation, due process, and how attorney's fees work when a parent prevails.

What format is it? Do I need anything special?

A PDF plus an accessible EPUB, delivered instantly by email. Read it on anything; print any page. The forty letter templates are fill-in-the-blank. Lifetime updates are included — when the regulations change or a new edition ships, it arrives free.

What if it isn't for me?

Email within seven days of purchase and you get the $97 back — no questions, no form. We start the refund the same business day; your bank may take a few days to post it. The refund address is in your receipt.

Last Call

The district prepares for your child's meeting. Stop being the only one at the table who doesn't.

$97 once. Instant access. Seven-day money-back guarantee. Ninety-seven tools, 700+ pages, lifetime updates — written by an attorney who sat on your side of the table first.

Get the Manual · $97
Get the Manual · $97