Vermont Homeschool Special Needs: IPE Form, IEP Documentation, ADHD and Dyslexia Portfolios

When you pull a child with a diagnosed disability out of Vermont public school, you don't just need the standard Notice of Intent. You also need to handle the IPE form, attest to curriculum adaptations, and build a portfolio that proves those adaptations are actually happening. Generic homeschool planners don't account for any of this — they're built for neurotypical learners following a standard curriculum. Here's what Vermont law actually requires and how to document it without drowning in paperwork.

The IPE Form: What It Is and When You Need It

The Independent Professional Evidence (IPE) form is required when a student has a documented disability and has not previously been enrolled in a Vermont public school or a Vermont home study program. The form provides professional evidence about the child's disability before the Agency of Education (AOE) will process your Notice of Intent.

If your child was already enrolled in a Vermont public school and had an active IEP there, you typically don't need the IPE form — the existing public-school record satisfies that requirement. But if you're registering for the first time, or if your child has never been in the Vermont public system, missing this form creates a compliance gap that delays your home study acknowledgment and leaves your child in technical truancy status until the AOE processes the paperwork.

The IPE form must be completed by a qualified professional — a licensed psychologist, special education evaluator, physician, or equivalent credentialed specialist. It documents the nature and extent of the diagnosed disability. Once submitted alongside your Notice of Intent, the AOE checks it for completeness as part of their administrative processing. They are not evaluating the quality of your planned adaptations at that stage — they are simply confirming you've met the procedural requirement.

The Curriculum Adaptation Attestation

Under 16 V.S.A. §166b as updated by Act 66 in 2023, if your child has a documented disability, your Notice of Intent must include an attestation that your Minimum Course of Study (MCOS) contains the necessary adaptations to accommodate that disability. You are not submitting the MCOS itself to the state — you are legally attesting that you have one and that it's adapted.

This shifts the legal liability onto you entirely. If you later face a custody dispute, a DCF inquiry, or need to re-enroll your child in public school, you will need to produce the adapted MCOS and supporting portfolio. The attestation you signed is a legally binding document. Parents who sign it without actually building the adapted records are exposed.

What does an adapted MCOS actually look like in practice?

• ADHD: Note accommodations such as shortened work sessions (20-minute blocks rather than 45-minute), movement breaks integrated into the day, oral responses accepted in place of written, project-based assessment used instead of timed tests. Document each accommodation with dated work samples showing how the child performed under those conditions.
• Dyslexia: Document the use of orton-gillingham or structured literacy approaches. Include decodable reader logs, phonics drill records, and audio-recorded reading samples at intervals through the year — September, January, and May — to show progression. Portfolios for dyslexic learners are especially strong when they include a brief parent narrative explaining how assessment methods were adapted (e.g., oral narration instead of written essay).

Building a Portfolio for ADHD and Dyslexia

Vermont's "Parent Report and Portfolio" assessment option requires a minimum of four work samples per required subject. For neurodivergent learners, this means rethinking what "work samples" look like.

For a child with ADHD, four written worksheets per subject is an unrealistic and counterproductive documentation strategy. Vermont law does not require worksheets — it requires "samples of student work." That can mean:

• Photographs of hands-on projects labeled with date and subject area
• Transcribed oral narrations (the child speaks, the parent types it up, notes "oral response due to ADHD accommodation")
• Audio or video clips saved to a dated digital folder
• Parent observation logs noting what the child demonstrated understanding of during a lesson

For dyslexia, the portfolio needs to tell a growth story. A single work sample from May doesn't show progress — it shows a snapshot. Spread your samples: early September when the child struggled with blending, December showing improvement, March showing further fluency. That trajectory is what demonstrates "adequate progress" in a meaningful way, and it's the argument you'd need in any formal review.

IEP Documentation After Leaving Public School

When you withdraw from public school, your child's IEP no longer has legal force. Vermont does not maintain shadow IEPs for home study students. However, the IEP document itself is an enormously valuable piece of your homeschool portfolio for two reasons.

First, it establishes the baseline. If your child was reading at a second-grade level in October when you withdrew, and your May portfolio shows third-grade-level reading samples, that's documented progress. The IEP gives you the starting line.

Second, it protects you in disputes. In any custody proceeding or DCF investigation where someone questions whether you're meeting your child's needs, the prior IEP combined with your documented adaptations and work samples creates a compelling evidence trail. It shows you understood the diagnosis, built a plan around it, and executed it.

Retain the IEP permanently. Vermont law requires you to keep homeschool records for at least two years, but IEP documents tied to high school years should be kept indefinitely — they're relevant to college disability services, military evaluations, and future employers.

Getting the Documentation Right

Building compliant documentation for a special-needs learner is more complex than the standard portfolio — you're managing the legal IPE requirement, the adaptation attestation, and the substantive work of documenting progress in a way that accounts for how your child actually learns.

The Vermont Portfolio & Assessment Templates include adapted MCOS tracking forms with accommodation fields, subject-by-subject sample collection guides that work for oral and hands-on learners, and a parent narrative framework designed specifically for children who don't produce traditional written work. The templates are built around Act 66's current requirements — no outdated submission instructions, no generic planner filler.

If you're documenting ADHD, dyslexia, or any other disability in your Vermont home study, the standard free AOE forms won't tell you how to build records that actually hold up. Start with a system designed for your situation from day one.

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