General description of types of services:
- Direct Services: Direct services are provided by “qualified personnel” directly to the student. Qualified personnel refer to those who have met state-approved certification with proper endorsements, such as special education teachers, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, etc.
- Indirect services: In contrast to direct services, indirect services are delivered directly to the student by another person (e.g. paraprofessional) under the direct supervision of a qualified professional. These services refer to an IEP goal and the person supervising the service is responsible for reporting progress to the goals. The IEP needs to specify who will provide the supervision and its frequency.
- Consultation: Consultation differs according to the needs of the student. Consultation refers to the planned communication of information or skills from one person to others. Among other things, it can include technical assistance, training or monitoring or service coordination. Consultation can be delivered in a variety of ways, such as in meetings with other team members or in natural settings (e.g. classrooms, community work sites, etc.) where the consultant works directly with a student to model an intervention or share information.
- Consultation should not be confused with supervision. In contrast to other services, the consultant does not supervise the services provided to the child. There does not need to be an IEP goal for consultation as is required for other services. Consultation requires contact between student and consultant in order for the consultant to communicate information and skills effectively with others.
Documenting services: For all students, minutes of services will be whatever the student is receiving from whoever is providing that service. Services provided by a person other than a properly qualified special education teacher or related service provider (think indirect service) require the supervision line to be completed.
It is IMPERATIVE that the minutes are completely accurate, especially the minutes in and out of the general ducation classroom as this is how the LRE for a student is calculated.
The supervision must be provided by the qualified person (special ed. teacher or related service provider), and frequency reflected on the supervision line (i.e. daily, monthly, etc.). At minimum, supervision should be provided weekly.