Sep 10, 20256 min readUpdated September 5, 2026

Special Supports Spotlight: Strengths, Struggles, and Solutions

How Ontario schools turn a child's strengths and needs into supports: what belongs in each IEP section, the three program options, and how needs get assessed.

Conversations about a struggling child tend to start with what is going wrong. That is understandable, and it is also the wrong end of the document. An Ontario IEP is built strengths first, then needs, then supports, in that order, and knowing the order changes how you read the plan and how you talk about your child at school.

Start with strengths, because the plan does

Strengths are not a courtesy paragraph. The ministry's IEP standards say a clear understanding of the student's strengths and needs is fundamental to developing the program, and that the learning expectations, strategies, accommodations and resources must be informed by that section.

Three kinds of strength belong there, in the ministry's own terms: learning styles and preferences, previously acquired learning skills such as organizational or time-management skills, and cognitive processing and communication abilities. A child who remembers everything they hear, who explains their thinking out loud better than they write it, who never loses a deadline: those are strengths the plan can build on.

What you notice at home counts here. The ministry expects parents to provide information about the talents and skills their child demonstrates in the home and community, their likes and dislikes, their interests, and how they react to different situations. Bring three examples. Specific ones get written down.

Naming the struggle without labelling the child

Needs in an IEP describe what makes learning hard, not what the school should buy. The ministry says the needs section should make evident why the student requires a special education program, using broad cognitive or processing challenges such as visual memory, or skill deficits that relate to the exceptionality and interfere with learning, in areas such as social skills, attention, emotional control, or expressive language in writing.

It also says what is not appropriate there, and it is worth quoting because so many IEPs get it wrong: do not indicate a need for a type or level of human support ("the student needs an educational assistant"), a specific program or service ("the student needs speech therapy"), or improvement in a subject ("the student's math skills need to improve"). Those are answers, not needs. When the needs section lists staff instead of difficulties, the supports that follow tend to be whatever was available rather than what fits.

A diagnosis is not the gatekeeper here. The ministry is explicit: the determining factor for providing special education programs or services "is not any specific diagnosed or undiagnosed medical condition, but rather the need of the individual student based on an individual assessment of strengths and needs" (categories of exceptionalities). That same page sets out the five categories used at an IPRC: behavioural, communicational, intellectual, physical and multiple.

The three solutions an Ontario IEP offers

There are exactly three program options, and every subject in the plan is labelled with one of them.

Accommodated only (AC). Your child works towards the regular grade-level expectations with supports that change how they learn and how they show learning. The ministry says accommodations in no way alter the curriculum expectations. They are recorded as instructional, environmental or assessment accommodations, and only the ones that differ from what the class regularly gets are listed.
Modified (MOD). The grade-level expectations themselves change, either by drawing on expectations from a different grade or by changing the number or complexity of them.
Alternative (ALT). Skills that are not in the Ontario curriculum at all. The ministry's examples include speech remediation, social skills programs, orientation and mobility training, and personal care programs.

A word about "interventions", which parent groups use constantly and Ontario IEPs do not. Targeted teaching to build a specific skill is real, but in the plan it usually appears in the human resources section as direct instruction from a special education teacher, with a type of service, a start date, a frequency and a location, or as an alternative program. If someone tells you your child is getting an intervention, the follow-up question is which section of the IEP it is written in, and how many minutes a week.

How the school works out what is going on

Assessment in Ontario is continuous, not a single event. The ministry's guidance on assessing student learning describes a cyclical process that begins and ends with the classroom teacher, using daily observation of how a student responds to text, approaches new tasks, organizes time and materials, works in groups, and is affected by the physical environment.

When the teacher needs help, they refer to the in-school team, which may recommend further assessment. The ministry notes that this "does not necessarily mean that the student has a special education need", only that other professionals may have useful insight. Some assessments require your written consent, and the ministry says you should be helped to understand what the assessment involves and what it might show before you decide.

If the process reaches an IPRC, an individual educational assessment is required before the committee decides on identification or placement.

What to do this month

Write down three strengths, with an example each, and send them to the special education teacher.
Read the needs section and flag any line that names a person or a service rather than a difficulty.
Ask which program option applies to each subject, and why that one.
For any support described vaguely, ask for the four details: what, starting when, how often, and where.
If an assessment has been suggested, ask what it involves, who does it, and how the results would change the plan.
Note what helps at home. The ministry expects that information to feed the plan, and it is the part only you have.

Go deeper

If the open question is why your child is struggling rather than what the school should do about it, the next step is usually assessment. Psychoeducational assessments in Toronto and Ontario covers what a report can and cannot tell you, how to access one through your board, private cost ranges and wait times. If your child does not have a plan yet, how to get an IEP in Ontario is the place to start. Reading a report and translating it into what to ask the school for is our Assessment Breakdown & Guidance work, and it is often the gap between a thick report and a changed classroom.

Frequently asked questions

Does my child need a diagnosis to get support at school?

No. The ministry states that the determining factor for the provision of special education programs or services is not any specific diagnosed or undiagnosed medical condition, but rather the need of the individual student based on an individual assessment of strengths and needs. A diagnosis can explain a pattern and open other doors, but it is not the trigger for school support.

What are the five categories of exceptionality in Ontario?

Behavioural, communicational, intellectual, physical, and multiple. They come from the Education Act and each has ministry-accepted definitions and subcategories, including learning disability and giftedness. A student may be identified in more than one category. Identification happens at an IPRC, not at a school-level meeting.

Is an intervention the same as an accommodation?

Not in Ontario's IEP language. The plan has three program options: Accommodated only, Modified, and Alternative. Targeted teaching to build a specific skill usually shows up as instruction from a special education teacher in the human resources section, or as an alternative program such as social skills, rather than as a separate category called intervention.

Does a referral to the in-school team mean something is wrong?

Not necessarily. The ministry says a referral does not necessarily mean the student has a special education need, and may simply indicate that the teacher would benefit from the insights of other professionals in assessing the student or developing programming ideas. It is a normal step, and it usually happens before any talk of an IPRC.

Where do my child's strengths actually appear in the plan?

In the strengths and needs section, near the front. The ministry says it is appropriate to record learning styles and preferences, previously acquired learning skills such as organization and time management, and cognitive processing and communication abilities. It also says the learning expectations, strategies and accommodations must be informed by that section.