Aims and Scope of the Review - this review was carried out under a contract with the New Zealand Ministry of Education, which contained the following requirements: A literature review of national and international developments in the use of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) with schools and families, with particular attention to special education assessment practice(s) and their relationship to the IEP process. The purposes of the review were defined as follows:

1. To undertake a literature review of national and international developments in IEP processes and special education assessment practice to contribute to the Ministry of Education’s current project to review, revise and position the Individual Education Programme (IEP) Guidelines in relation to: the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education 2007), current assessment practices, effective teaching and learning practices, and engagement and reporting to parents, family and whanau (National Standards).
2. To provide both New Zealand and international research evidence of effective and/or evidence based practice, which, along with the data being collected by the Ministry of Education project team, will ultimately inform the future use of IEPs. The scope of the review was defined as follows:
3. The focus of the review is to be on: students with special needs in all school sector settings, students as learners, not the disability or the diagnosis they present with, the use of IEPs with schools and parents, the role of special education staff and other agencies in the IEP process, and what makes the IEP process effective for schools, students and their families, and what evidence there is of their effectiveness, with particular reference to the educational implications.
4. The literature sourced will include studies from both New Zealand and overseas, and peer reviewed journals and other publications.