FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education) is what every child is entitled to, but if 
we want our students with disabilities to reach for the stars we have to make sure we are pronouncing this effectively. It is not a FAPEE, meaning because a student has a disability or a deficit they should have access to every accommodation and modification conceivable. Interventions and supports are not a buffet line, they carefully prescribed. However it is also not a FAPE’, where we provide services, modifications, and accommodations because they sound good together.
It is FAPE, and there is no FAPE but what we make, meaning that because a student has a deficit or a disability we are providing the needed supports and nothing beyond in order to equip the individual to be successful in school and in life. Their independence, their success, their fate is directly tied to the precise planning to optimize their future. As routine as IEP meetings can be, recognize the high importance on meaningful planning that you are taking part in. You are doing more than just writing out the plan for the year ahead, you are writing your student’s future.