Part of our Decoding High School series — plain-language answers to the questions parents actually ask.
Before she led special education across all seven United Charter High Schools (UCHS), Angie Torres, our Director of Special Populations, was a kid in a Bronx kitchen. Her grandmother was a school paraprofessional who loved kids so much that the school day was never enough for her — so their kitchen filled with neighborhood children building science-fair projects, practicing their English, and staying for dinner. “That was normal to me,” she says. “That’s just what a kitchen was for.”
Later, when someone in her own family had an IEP, she became the translator — “turning school language into something my family could actually use, and turning what my family knew into something the school would actually hear.” Standing in that gap, she says, is still the truest description of her job. If your child has an IEP and you’re facing high school for the first time, Angie Torres is in your corner at UCHS. Here’s what she wants you to know about navigating high school with an IEP or 504.
Start high, not low
“A disability describes how a student learns, not how much they can learn,” she says. UCHS begins by assuming a student can handle rigorous work, then figures out what they need to show it. “If you start by asking what a student can handle, you’ve already lowered the ceiling.”
That’s why the great majority of our students with IEPs learn in general education classrooms, working toward the same diploma as everyone else. Support is added around them with two certified teachers sharing one room, targeted skill help, counseling, speech or occupational therapy. As she puts it: “An accommodation isn’t a discount on the work.”
You are the expert on your child
A typical education system will hand parents acronyms, deadlines, and a room full of people who all seem to know each other. Angie’s job is to translate the system for families. She turns educational jargon into plain language and turns a list of options into a real recommendation with the tradeoffs named so parents are never deciding in the dark. “You are the expert on your child,” she says, “and that expertise is admissible.”
She once spent a full year helping one mother get her son into the right program. It meant he eventually left UCHS for a better fit, but she has no regrets. “My job is not to keep your child in our building,” she says. “It’s to get your child where they need to go.”
Special Education terms to know
Here are a few of the terms you’ll hear most in New York high schools:
- IEP (Individualized Education Program): A legal plan spelling out the specialized instruction, services, and accommodations your child is entitled to.
- 504 Plan: A plan that removes barriers with accommodations, such as extra time, so your child can access the same instruction as everyone else.
- ICT (Integrated Co-Teaching): Two certified teachers sharing one classroom. From the hallway, you can’t tell who has an IEP and who doesn’t — by design.
- SETSS (Special Education Teacher Support Services): Targeted, small-group help in a specific skill, added on top of a student’s regular classes.
- Transition Planning: The roadmap for life after high school — college, career, independence — which by law begins by age 15.
- Regents Diploma: New York’s standard high school diploma, earned through credits and Regents exams. (Local, Regents, and Advanced Regents are all real diplomas. It’s important to note that a Local diploma is a diploma, not a consolation prize.)
What changes in high school
High school offers a few changes, and a transition to more independence for students. It can be uncomfortable for a parent to let go and let their student take the lead after years of being their advocate. Still, Angie wants families to be aware of a few changes so they can continue to support as their teen grows:
- Transition planning begins by age 15.
- Your teen is invited to help lead their own IEP meeting.
- And the IEP does not follow them to college, where they’ll have to ask for support themselves.
One myth that Angie would love to see retired is that an IEP lowers the bar. At UCHS, students with IEPs take AP courses, earn college credit, and complete the Senior Capstone right beside their peers. Plus, an IEP is confidential, never appears on a transcript, and doesn’t go to colleges.
So what does success look like? Not grades — not even graduation by itself — but a student who can say out loud what they need and why. Because, as Angie puts it: “One day the IEP ends. The confidence shouldn’t.”
About United Charter High Schools
United Charter High Schools is a network of seven award-winning and tuition-free charter schools serving 9th-12th grade students and families across the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. We are united in our mission to close the opportunity gap by ensuring equal access to rigorous STEAM and Humanities academics and unwavering support for post-secondary readiness. Get to know us at unitedcharter.org and follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Enrollment for the 2026-27 school year is open now.
