Orientation · Domains
What is a domain?
If you're new to the funding rubric, start here. This explains the first piece of its structure: domains.
A domain is one area of support
The rubric breaks a student's needs into five separate areas, called domains. You look at each one on its own and ask: how intensive is the support this student needs in this area?
The five domains are:
| # | Domain | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Curriculum & Instruction | How much specialized academic teaching does the student need? |
| 2 | Behavior | How much behavioral intervention and regulation support? |
| 3 | Communication | How much support to understand and express themselves? |
| 4 | Independent Functioning | How much help managing routines, organization, self-management? |
| 5 | Personal Care / Health | How much physical care or health support to attend safely? |
Each domain gets a single score from 0 to 3: none, minimum, moderate, or significant.
Why five separate areas?
Because a student's needs aren't one lump. A student might need intensive academic support but no behavioral support at all — or be medically complex but academically on grade level. Rating each area separately captures that shape, instead of flattening it into a single number too early.
Most students are empty in most domains. That's normal and expected — you'll often score three or four domains at 0 and do the real work in one or two. how to rate a student
Keep the domains in their lanes
One thing to watch for is rating a support in the wrong domain. Each domain has an explicit "this belongs elsewhere" list. A few examples of supports that can land in the wrong place:
- A behavior that's really about communication breakdown → Communication, not Behavior.
- Supervision for safety → Behavior; supervision to get through routines → Independent Functioning.
- A physical-care ratio that incidentally helps behavior → Personal Care, not both.
Don't double-count one support across domains
When a single support genuinely serves more than one area — most often a reduced ratio or a 1:1 aide — rate it only in the domain it's actually required for.
The rubric's own example: if a 1:1 ratio is required for independent functioning, and behavior and curriculum happen to benefit as a side effect, you do not also check that ratio in Behavior and Curriculum. You'd rate it in more than one domain only if it's required for FAPE in each.
The same logic applies to equipment: an AAC device is a Communication support, unless it's specifically required to prevent behavioral escalation, in which case it's Behavior — but not both, unless it's truly required in both.
How a domain gets its score
Inside each domain you answer four questions — called factors — and the domain takes the highest of the four. So one factor at Significant makes the whole domain Significant. what is a factor
Then the five domain scores combine into the student's overall tier. how scores become a tier
Where to go next
- To understand the four questions inside each domain: what is a factor
- To rate a specific domain with a student in front of you: the five domain pieces. the five domain pages
- For the order of operations start to finish: how to rate a student