Individualized Education Plans, or IEPs, are programs developed specifically to meet the needs of individual students, including those with disabilities.
The online version is intended to be customizable, include parent portal access and have translation services available.
FCPS put out a bid for the online service in February. In August, the Frederick County Board of Education voted to award the request for proposal to Public Consulting Group, a firm based in Boston.
The online IEP services cost $1,353,500 over five years for licensing, maintenance and support fees, according to the bid.
Year one of the service is funded through FCPS' fiscal year 2025 operating budget, which was approved over the summer. Future funding is contingent on board approval of future operating budgets, according to the bid.
Public Consulting Group is the firm that audited the district's services for special education programs after the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020 found the district was systematically misusing seclusion and physical restraint against students living with disabilities.
Troy Keller, director of special education, specialized programs and supports at FCPS, said the online IEPs will launch during the 2025-26 school year.
He said when he began working in the school district in 2020, he received a lot of feedback, especially from special education teachers, that the IEP system was "not super user friendly."
Keller said the school district is unable to customize or change the way data is inputted into IEPs with the current system because FCPS uses the Maryland State Department of Education's IEP system.
"Because we don't oversee the system, we weren't able to do that," he said. "That was the ultimate ask, is that regardless of what company we work with, we want to be able to customize it for our teachers and all of our staff who input IEPs."
Keller added that the time and effort it takes teachers to input information into the online IEPs will decrease "because we will learn how to make it efficient." He said technological advancements have increased the number of options for creating IEPs.
"As we understand the needs of the county, we're able to adapt to that and ask for changes within the system so that everyone that's at the table can understand the IEP," Keller said.
He said the online IEP has a portal that allows for parents to access their child's IEP records, progress reports, "and they'll be able to maintain those records in a digital fashion."
Keller added that the new IEP format has translation services built into it and that the online records will be automatically translated.
He said currently, the process to translate an IEP would be to go through an FCPS translator or to send it to a third-party translator, which could take a couple of days.
"Whereas now, it will be completely automated, and they will get it the same day they have the IEP," Keller said.
He said FCPS is getting stakeholder feedback together now and will discuss in the spring when the district plans to launch the online service.
Five companies submitted a bid to FCPS for the online IEP system.
PowerSchool Group, an education technology platform headquartered in California, submitted a bid that would have cost $684,912 over five years.
However, PowerSchool Group's bid showed additional costs of $16,977 for initial training services and $75,489 for data conversion and implementation services.
PowerSchool Group's bid also showed a rate of $2.61 per IEP distributed and 56 cents per 504 Plan distributed, also as additional costs. A 504 Plan is a formal agreement that students living with disabilities are provided with accommodations.
Public Consulting Group's bid price showed those same additional costs as included in the overall cost.
©2025 The Frederick News-Post (Frederick, Md.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
