Special Education and listening to music in class

We are having a conflict at my school in regards to how to handle music being used in SpEd students IEP's.

All the study's that I can find say that listening to music while studying is detrimental to learning. However, our SpEd has written the ability to listen to music while in a Directed Studies class (supervised study hall with a teacher and para's there to help students) into students IEP's, citing that it helps them focus, concentrate, and stay on task.

Is this common place in other schools? Can anyone provide actual research that that is a proven technique to helping SpEd students focus?

Frankly, I'm skeptical and our SpEd wants to spend upwards of $2000 to purchase ipods for school use.

Submitted January 04, 2017 at 02:38PM by pistolwhip_pete http://ift.tt/2iF8Thm