Introduction
In the fall of 2005, the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, Florida Department of Education (DOE), initiated the development of a Web-based exceptional student education (ESE) tool to assist Florida school districts comply with all state and federal requirements related to exceptional student education. In May of 2006, DOE contracted with Ohio State University to develop and implement this project in collaboration with the Bureau. School districts across the state have been partners with us in the development and design of the Web-based system. The success of the project and secure access to this online system and other statewide educational tools and data is possible through our partnership with Sunshine Connections.

PEER
The Portal to Exceptional Education Resources (PEER) was designed to provide a standardized process for the provision of exceptional student education services for all school districts in the state of Florida. When fully implemented, PEER will provide a resource for teachers to develop and track ESE processes required by federal law and state statutes. PEER will provide for the uniform development of individual educational plans (IEPs) for students with disabilities, services plans (SPs) for parentally placed private school students with disabilities, and educational plans (EPs) for students identified as gifted. Other ESE processes will be implemented over time, including general education interventions, evaluation and reevaluation, eligibility, and manifestation determination meetings. In addition, ESE management tools for tracking and reporting will be available for use by educators and administrators.

PEER provides an environment for continuing compliance with federal and state requirements, and is designed to ease the transition of students as they move from school to school and district to district within the state, enable more efficient communication with families, and streamline monitoring and other quality assurance processes. Fully implemented, the system has the potential to impact over 381,000 students with disabilities and over 130,000 gifted students.