IEP vs IFSP: What Georgia Parents Need to Know
Same federal law, two different parts, two different agencies, and the handover happens on a birthday. Here is what each plan is, who runs it, and what you sign.
An IFSP and an IEP are the same idea at two different ages. An IFSP, the Individualized Family Service Plan, is the written plan for a child under three, and in Georgia it is run through Babies Can’t Wait. An IEP, the Individualized Education Program, is the plan from age three through twenty-one, and it is run by your local school system. Same federal law, two different parts of it, two different agencies, and the handover happens on your child’s third birthday.
Most of the confusion families run into comes from assuming the second is a continuation of the first. It is not. It is a different agency applying different eligibility rules to a plan with a different purpose, and knowing that in advance is the difference between a smooth spring and a scramble. Our page on early intervention covers what the birth to three system does. This piece covers the seam between the two.
The two plans, side by side
| IFSP | IEP | |
|---|---|---|
| Ages | Birth to the third birthday | Three through twenty-one |
| Law | IDEA Part C | IDEA Part B |
| Run by | Babies Can’t Wait, through your public health district | Your local school system |
| Focus | Your child and your family together | Your child’s access to education |
| Where services happen | Everyday settings, usually your home | Usually a school or preschool setting |
| Reviewed | Every six months, rewritten annually | At least once a year |
| Cost to families | Sliding scale, many services at no cost | Free, as part of public education |
The row that matters most is the fourth one. An IFSP is required to include the family’s own priorities and concerns, written in the family’s words, alongside the child’s outcomes. An IEP is built around annual goals and the services a child needs to make progress in the general curriculum. The first asks what your household is trying to be able to do. The second asks what this child needs in order to learn at school.
Neither is better. They are answering different questions, and parents who expect the second to feel like the first are often disappointed by a process that is working exactly as designed.
Who runs each one where you live
Both systems are federal, but the phone number you call is local, and it changes by county.
For the birth to three side, Babies Can’t Wait is administered through Georgia’s Department of Public Health and delivered by regional health districts. Forsyth and Dawson counties sit in one district, Cherokee in another, and Fulton runs its own. The details for each are on our county pages for Forsyth, Cherokee, Dawson and North Fulton.
For the three and older side, every school system is required to find and evaluate children who may need special education, whether or not they attend that system’s schools. That obligation is called Child Find, and it applies to children in private preschool, in daycare, and at home. Each county runs its own Child Find desk, and each one is named on the county pages above.
That last point catches families out. Parents often assume they have to wait until their child is enrolled somewhere to ask. They do not. You can contact your district’s Child Find desk directly, in writing, at any time.
What changes at three, in actual dates
The transition is not a single event on a birthday. It has a legal timetable that starts months earlier.
Under IDEA, the early intervention agency must notify your school system that your child may be eligible for preschool services not fewer than ninety days before the third birthday. A transition conference bringing together your service coordinator, your family and the school system has to happen in that same window, and by agreement it can be held as early as nine months before the birthday.
Nine months is a long runway, and it exists because the process underneath it takes time. An evaluation has to be scheduled, completed and written up. An eligibility meeting has to happen. If the child is eligible, an IEP has to be written and agreed before services can start.
The practical advice is simple. When your service coordinator raises transition, treat it as the beginning of a process rather than a formality, and ask for the conference at the earlier end of that window rather than the later one. A family that starts in the fall has room to reschedule a missed appointment. A family that starts in April does not.
Does an IFSP automatically become an IEP?
No, and this is the single most important thing to understand before the meeting.
Eligibility is decided again, by a different agency, using different criteria. A child who qualified for early intervention may or may not qualify for preschool special education, and the two answers are genuinely independent. We have written about what that transition looks like from the Babies Can’t Wait side, including what happens when the answer is no.
What you can do is make the second decision better informed than it would otherwise be. Bring the current IFSP. Bring any private evaluation reports you have. Ask the school system, in writing, which areas they intend to assess, and say so if you think an area is being left out. You have the right to request an evaluation in any area of suspected need, and asking specifically is far more effective than assuming it is covered.
The meetings feel different, and that is not a warning sign
Parents who have sat through two years of Babies Can’t Wait meetings often find the first school meeting cold by comparison, and worry that something is wrong. Usually nothing is.
An early intervention meeting tends to happen in your living room, with a service coordinator you have known for months and one or two therapists who have watched your child play on that same floor. The conversation moves at the pace of your family.
A school eligibility meeting happens in a school building, on a schedule, with people who may have met your child once, for the purpose of assessment. There may be six or seven of them: a special education lead, a school psychologist, a speech-language pathologist, a general education teacher, an administrator. It is a formal process because it produces a legal document, and the formality is not a judgment about your child.
Two things make that room easier. Bring someone with you, which you are entitled to do and which nobody will find strange. And ask for the draft paperwork in advance, so the first time you read a proposed goal is not the moment you are asked to respond to it.
What to take to the transition conference
A short list, and each item earns its place.
- The current IFSP, including the most recent progress notes.
- Any private evaluation reports, even older ones, and even ones from a discipline nobody has raised.
- A written list of what you are seeing at home, in plain language, with examples and rough dates.
- Your specific questions, written down. Meetings move fast, and the question you meant to ask is the one that gets forgotten.
- The name of anyone else working with your child, so the school can request records with your permission rather than starting from nothing.
What you actually sign
Both systems run on written consent, and both give you the same core protections.
Services cannot start until you agree to them in writing. You can consent to part of a plan and decline another part without losing the rest. Before either agency changes, adds or refuses a service, it has to tell you in writing first, with its reasoning, in language you can understand. And if you disagree with a decision, both parts of the law give you a formal route to challenge it.
Read what you are signing at the meeting, and if you are being asked to sign something you have not had time to read, say so and take it home. Nothing in either system requires a same day signature.
If the answer at three is no
Some children do not qualify for school services, and that outcome is more common than families expect, particularly for children whose difficulties are real but do not affect their access to a classroom.
If that is where you land, private therapy is the usual next step, and it is worth having that conversation before the transition meeting rather than after it. A gap in support at three, when a child is moving into a new setting with new demands, is the worst possible time for services to stop. If you want to talk through what that would look like, get in touch and we will walk you through the options.
Common questions
What does IFSP stand for?
Individualized Family Service Plan. It is the written plan for a child under three receiving early intervention. The word family is doing real work in that name: the plan covers what your household is trying to be able to do, not only what the child is working on.
Can a child have an IFSP and an IEP at the same time?
Not usually. The plans belong to two different systems and two different age bands, and the handover happens at the third birthday. Some states allow an IFSP to continue past three in limited circumstances, but the ordinary path in Georgia is that one ends and the other begins.
Do I have to accept everything written in the plan?
No. You are a member of the team that writes it, and you can decline a specific service while accepting the rest. Both systems require your written consent before services start, and both require the agency to tell you in writing before it changes or refuses something you asked for.
Does private therapy replace an IEP or an IFSP?
No, and the two are not in competition. A school plan covers what a child needs to access their education. Private therapy can address goals a school plan is not designed to cover. Many families use both, and the plans work better when each side knows what the other is doing.
About this article. Written and reviewed by the clinical team at Joy Therapy and Learning Center, a pediatric therapy practice in Cumming, Georgia.
This article is general information and is not a diagnosis or medical advice about your child. If something here sounds familiar, speak to your pediatrician or ask us for an evaluation.
