Charles
Apps & tools

Simplify IEP + IEP Process Simulator

A free mobile app that reads a parent's own IEP and explains it in plain language, plus a public reference of where the IEP process reliably breaks.

Status
In progressapp unshipped
When
Jul to Aug 2026
Category
Apps & tools
Links

Parents get a dense legal document and a meeting. Simplify IEP reads the family's own document and returns a frontloaded summary with rated sections, a chat co-pilot, a letter drafter, a process map, and a vault.

The Process Simulator is the research behind it: fifteen adjudicated cases across eleven categories, ten simulated pain points from real parent accounts, and a nine-module guide to the document itself, with every candidate entry reviewed by a person before it merges.

The app. A frontloaded summary with rated sections.
The app. A frontloaded summary with rated sections.
The Process Simulator.
The Process Simulator.
Screenshot coming
The 10-step IEP journey dashboard.
Screenshot coming
The simulator's Cited page with the case switcher open.

Stack

  • App, Expo and React Native, TypeScript, Expo Router
  • Firebase Auth, Firestore, Storage, Cloud Functions
  • A server-side language model behind a secret manager, streamed responses
  • Simulator, static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with a documented JSON export
  • A human-gated monthly ingestion pipeline

Decisions

  1. The archetype is The Guide, warmed. Clarity first, softened by care, and never an Ally that implies a human the app does not provide.
  2. Real duties named, not borrowed ones. Health-privacy law does not apply here; consumer-protection and breach-notification rules do, and claiming otherwise would itself be a violation.
  3. Cited and Simulated are separate datasets and separate pages so a reader never has to guess the evidence tier.

Lessons

  1. A full accuracy audit of the cited dataset found six of fifteen entries with citation or fact errors. All corrected, none fabricated; the audit was necessary, not optional.
  2. Status belongs in one file. Restating progress across strategy, plan, and contract docs is exactly what made them go stale.