IEPs, IPPs and IIPs for young autistic students: a guide for school teams

Which plan does a young autistic student need in your province?

Most provinces use a written plan for students who need support beyond everyday teaching, but the names, rules and timelines differ. Start simple supports while the plan is written.

Ontario: IEPs and IPRCs

An IPRC (Identification, Placement and Review Committee) is a school board committee that decides whether a student is "exceptional" and where they are placed. The principal must refer a student to one when a parent asks in writing (Regulation 181/98). Many students have an IEP without an IPRC. The Auditor General of Ontario notes they may have a diagnosis from outside school or "other support needs as determined by educators in consultation with parents" (Auditor General of Ontario, May 12, 2026). In 2023/24, 334,860 students in Ontario's publicly funded schools had an IEP (same report).

British Columbia: IEPs and Category G

In B.C., "All students with disabilities or diverse abilities must have an IEP", with narrow exceptions (B.C. manual). Autism is Category G. B.C. counted 32,374 students in Category G in public and independent schools in 2025/26, up from 16,697 in 2020/21 (B.C. data).

Who writes the plan, and what is the classroom teacher's part?

In Ontario, usually you. The Auditor General says "The student's main classroom teacher usually develops the IEP, in consultation with the school special education resource teacher, the student's parents/guardians and others who support the student" (Auditor General of Ontario). Ask your SERT first.

The principal must consult the parent, and make sure the plan is completed and a copy sent to a parent within 30 school days after an IPRC placement (Regulation 181/98). The IEP must then be reviewed each reporting period, which is each term in elementary school, and shared with all staff directly responsible for teaching the student (Auditor General, same report). In kindergarten classes of more than 16, the educator team includes an early childhood educator (Ontario), so plan with the ECE too.

In B.C., the teacher "is responsible for designing, supervising and assessing the educational program", and the principal should make sure a case manager is appointed to coordinate the IEP (B.C. manual). In Alberta, principals name the teachers responsible for IPPs, who must involve parents and, when appropriate, students, and obtain "written informed parental consent" (Standards).

A workable order for a new plan

1. Gather what's known. With the family's consent, collect notes from child care and any therapists. In Ontario, PPM 140 requires principals to make sure community professionals working with the student are invited to give input (PPM 140).
2. Meet the family before you write. Ask about strengths, favourite things, how the child communicates, what helps at home and their hopes for this year.
3. Watch the child across the day, from arrival to recess, lunch and gym, noting what helps and what is hard.
4. Draft two to four goals and the accommodations that go with them.
5. Share the draft in plain words, write down what the family said, and change the plan where it should change.
6. Give the plan to everyone who works with the child, including EAs, the ECE, specialist teachers and recess and lunch supervisors.
7. Track progress with quick tallies or notes, and review it each reporting period.

Involving the child

Ontario's regulation requires the student to be consulted only from age 16, but younger children's views count too. B.C.'s IEP Order offers consultation to a parent "and where appropriate, the student" (IEP Order), and Ontario's PPM 156 does the same for transition plans (PPM 156). For a five-year-old, that can mean choosing between photos of activities, or a one-page profile made with the family, using our free template.

What makes a good IEP goal for a young autistic student?

A good goal names a skill that will make school better for the child, in communication, taking part, play, learning or independence, and is specific enough that anyone could tell whether it was met. Keep to a few.

Ontario's Auditor General found at least 90% of the annual learning goals reviewed at each of three boards lacked measurable criteria, with goals such as a student "would improve communicational skills" (Auditor General of Ontario). B.C. wants goals that differ from grade outcomes "set at a high but attainable level", with measurable objectives (B.C. manual), and Alberta defines an IPP as including "measurable goals and objectives" (Standards).

Goals should never aim at compliance for its own sake, or at making a child look less autistic: no goals for eye contact, "quiet hands" or stopping harmless stimming. In one study, autistic participants answered math questions less accurately when made to hold eye contact (Riby and colleagues, 2012). Autistic adults describe stimming as a way to regulate themselves (Kapp and colleagues, 2019).

Examples written for this guide:

If the child is non-speaking or minimally speaking, build communication goals around their AAC: pictures, signs or a device that speaks. Speech-Language & Audiology Canada says AAC has no "pre-requisites". Plan these goals with the child's speech-language pathologist if they have one.

Which accommodations help in kindergarten to Grade 3?

Accommodations change how a child is taught and assessed, not what they are expected to learn; changing the expectations is a modification (Auditor General of Ontario). The Auditor General found the accommodations in the IEPs reviewed were generic, with "frequent check-ins, proximity to instructors or extra time for processing" repeated across plans (same report). Tie each one to something you have seen this child need.

Visual supports are among the best-supported everyday strategies: a large US review counted 65 supporting studies (NCAEP 2020).

Never take away recess, movement breaks or calming tools as a consequence, and never use a quiet space as a punishment or a locked room. Our guides to visual schedules, First-Then boards and calm spaces for the classroom and meltdowns and big feelings in child care and kindergarten go further.

What do Ontario's PPM 140 and PPM 156 ask of school teams?

They add two requirements to Ontario IEPs: applied behaviour analysis methods where appropriate, and a transition plan.

PPM 140 (May 17, 2007) says "Principals are required to ensure that ABA methods are incorporated into the IEPs of students with ASD, where appropriate" (PPM 140). Ontario says ABA methods in school "may look different from ABA services provided in community-based and therapeutic programs", and names prompting, modelling, task analysis and reinforcement (Ontario). The memo says "where appropriate", so methods should fit each goal, and the goals should still be skills that matter to the child.

PPM 156 (February 1, 2013) says "A transition plan must be developed for all students who have an IEP", covering transitions such as "upon entry to school" and "between grades" (PPM 156). It is developed with parents and "the student (as appropriate)", sets out goals, actions, roles and timelines, and is reviewed with the IEP.

Starting JK, SK or Grade 1 in Ontario

Ontario kindergarten (JK and SK) is "a free 2-year program for 4- and 5-year-old children", and from 2026-27 it follows a new 2026 kindergarten curriculum (Ontario).

The free Entry to School program is for children in the Ontario Autism Program who are 3 to 6 on December 31 of their school-start year and not getting core clinical services. Its staff offer consultation to "Families and educators" as needed "during a child's first 6 months in school" (Ontario). Ask the family whether their child is in it and, with their consent, invite the program's staff to planning meetings.

What does the duty to accommodate mean for the plan?

The duty to accommodate means the school must meet a student's disability-related needs up to the point of undue hardship, whether or not the plan is finished. Ontario's Human Rights Commission says "education providers have a legal obligation to accommodate students with disabilities up to the point of undue hardship", and "All students with disabilities, even students whose behaviour is disruptive, are entitled to receive accommodation" (Ontario Human Rights Commission).

The same policy says:

• The most appropriate accommodation most respects the student's dignity, meets their individual needs and promotes inclusion.
• The duty has "both a substantive and a procedural component", so record what you considered and why.
• When the best accommodation can't happen right away, schools have a duty to provide "interim accommodation".

In Moore v. British Columbia (Education) in 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada said adequate special education "is not a dispensable luxury": it is "the ramp that provides access to the statutory commitment to education" (Supreme Court of Canada).

If a child is being sent home early or kept on a shortened day, see our guide to being sent home, excluded or on a modified day.

How do you work with EAs and families on the plan?

Share the plan with both, and agree who does what.

Educational assistants

EAs put much of the plan into practice under a teacher's direction. Ontario's Auditor General describes EAs "implementing IEP accommodations under a teacher's direction" (Auditor General of Ontario), and Alberta's Standards say teacher assistants "work under the direction of a certificated teacher" (Standards).

Walk the EA through the plan, agree who teaches, prompts and records what, and plan for days without them. Across three Ontario boards, an average of 18% of EAs were absent on any school day in 2023/24 (Auditor General of Ontario). See our guide to educational assistants and young autistic students.

Families

Parents know their child best, yet their input is often missing on paper: between 38% and 95% of student files reviewed at three Ontario boards lacked evidence of parent consultation or input (Auditor General of Ontario). For 2026-27, Ontario made IEPs a mandatory PA Day topic, including "methods to communicate and consult families" (Ontario).

• Ask what the family wants to discuss, and send the draft before the meeting.
• Start with strengths, and explain every acronym.
• Agree two or three priorities together, and record what the family said.
• Agree how you'll share progress, including good news.

If the family wants something to read, our parent guides to First-Then boards, visual schedules and speech, signs, pictures and AAC use the same ideas at home. If you're worried about a child with no diagnosis, see our guide to talking with parents about autism concerns.

What does the research say?

Research supports planning goals with parents and coaching staff in the classroom, but most studies are small and from the US.

• Structured goal-setting with parents. COMPASS is a parent-teacher planning meeting followed by coaching for the teacher. In a trial with 35 children aged about 6, children whose teachers had COMPASS made much more progress on their IEP objectives, with a large effect size of 1.51 (Ruble and colleagues, 2010). A second trial, with 49 children each working on a social, a communication and an independence goal, found similar results with coaching in person or by video (Ruble and colleagues, 2013). Both trials came from one research group.
• Whole-school practice. In 60 US elementary schools, autistic students in schools using the NPDC model met more of their goals, but made the same progress on standardized tests (Sam and colleagues, 2021).
• Coaching. In 60 schools, students whose teachers had a year of coaching in Classroom SCERTS were more actively engaged than students whose teachers had online training modules (Morgan and colleagues, 2018). Across 60 studies, mostly of US literacy coaching, coaching improved teaching by 0.49 standard deviations (Kraft and colleagues, 2018).
• Canada. In a 2018 survey of 412 Ontario caregivers, those more satisfied with the IEP process were less likely to report that their autistic child had been excluded from school (Schneider and colleagues, 2025). That is a link, not proof of cause.

Where can school teams and families get more help?

Start with your school and board.

• Everywhere: your SERT or resource teacher, your principal and the board's special education staff, such as psychologists, speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists.
• Ontario: your board's ABA expertise professionals, for coaching (Ontario). For Ontario Autism Program students starting school or facing a transition, the School Support Program's ASD consultants offer "classroom consultations"; boards arrange it with the local program agency (Ontario).
• British Columbia: POPARD, the Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders, "is available to provide assessment and consulting services to school district personnel". Ask through your district contact (B.C. manual).
• Alberta: school boards must make sure each school has a learning team for consultation, planning and problem-solving (Standards).
• Free videos: ACT's free video library includes talks on IEPs (ACT).

For families: in Ontario, ARCH Disability Law Centre and Autism Ontario; in B.C., BCEdAccess; and in Alberta, Inclusion Alberta. Each offers families information or support with school.