Teachers must also keep the IEP in mind as they determine how they will collect and evaluate student progress toward educational goals. Evaluation helps teachers to assess whether their teaching approaches are effective and to change or tune their practices accordingly.
A well-researched and fully collaborative IEP will help students with disabilities to develop their capacities and to experience academic accomplishment—while benefiting the class by modeling and cultivating a more inclusive and differentiated educational experience for all students. Accommodations can be as simple as a seat change or as complex as embedding the use of an assistive communication device in a student-led team project.
Families and students are key to successful IEP planning and implementation. Figuring out how to host a meeting with all participants present can be daunting. There are an array of reasons why some family members can attend IEP meetings and others cannot. Some of your students may be in the custody of the state and in transition between one foster house and another.
Some students with IEPs may come from home environments where taking time off from work to attend a school meeting, or connect with a teacher is very difficult for either or both parents. For families that are paid hourly, missing work usually means cutting a paycheck. Family engagement and participation are critical to ensuring students have the supports they need to succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. Partnerships with families require caring and thoughtful communication across the school year.
Learn and engage with families so that you understand the family culture and their hopes and dreams for their individual students and the family overall. Prepare for these situations by having translators at your meetings, and consider using video to show families how their students are performing.
Before scheduling a meeting, distribute the materials and reports you want to discuss. This may also be in the form of a video or audiotape of the student, the family, or another informational format that the family thinks may be helpful to the education team.
Reach out regarding changes in behavior or academic performance that you observe. Strategies implemented at school can often be practiced at home, offering the student more consistency. The IEP is only as powerful as the strength of the partnership within the team engaged in implementation. Once it has been determined that a student qualifies for special education, a blueprint or plan to specify and guide those services and supports is required.
An individualized education program serves as that blueprint. Though it does not guarantee student success, the IEP is a statement of the efforts that school personnel will undertake to give the student the best possible chance to succeed in the classroom. The process of developing this vital document involves a series of formal steps, each with clear guidelines and a timeline for completion. This process, in turn, produces a written record, the IEP, that formalizes educational services and supports for each student.
A written document used to record and guide the early intervention process for young children with disabilities and their families; designed to reflect individual concerns, priorities, and resources. On the following pages, we will discuss in detail each of the steps in the IEP development process, as well as the guidelines that educators use to complete those steps. Both the IEP process and the resulting IEP document are described in legislation laws but are often clarified through litigation lawsuits.
Direct quotations from legislation and legal findings are included throughout this module to provide important context for the information on the following pages.
For example, with regard to the issue of an IEP resembling a contract, the U. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit noted:. An IEP, like a contract…embodies a binding commitment and provides notice to both parties as to what services will be provided to the student during the period covered by the IEP. Antelope Valley School District, , p. The terms below will be used frequently throughout this module. It should be noted that we have included user-friendly, rather than legal, definitions.
Initial Thoughts. Step 1. Child is identified as possibly needing special education and related services. To do so, states conduct "Child Find" activities.
A child may be identified by "Child Find," and parents may be asked if the "Child Find" system can evaluate their child. Parents can also call the "Child Find" system and ask that their child be evaluated.
Referral or request for evaluation. A school professional may ask that a child be evaluated to see if he or she has a disability. Parents may also contact the child's teacher or other school professional to ask that their child be evaluated. This request may be verbal or in writing. Parental consent is needed before the child may be evaluated. Evaluation needs to be completed within a reasonable time after the parent gives consent. Step 2. Child is evaluated. The evaluation must assess the child in all areas related to the child's suspected disability.
The evaluation results will be used to decide the child's eligibility for special education and related services and to make decisions about an appropriate educational program for the child. If the parents disagree with the evaluation, they have the right to take their child for an Independent Educational Evaluation IEE.
They can ask that the school system pay for this IEE. Step 3. Eligibility is decided. A group of qualified professionals and the parents look at the child's evaluation results. Together, they decide if the child is a "child with a disability," as defined by IDEA. Parents may ask for a hearing to challenge the eligibility decision. Step 4. Child is found eligible for services. If the child is found to be a "child with a disability," as defined by IDEA, he or she is eligible for special education and related services.
Step 5. IEP meeting is scheduled. Step 6. Parents and the student when appropriate are part of the team. If the child's placement is decided by a different group, the parents must be part of that group as well. Before the school system may provide special education and related services to the child for the first time, the parents must give consent. The child begins to receive services as soon as possible after the meeting. If the parents do not agree with the IEP and placement, they may discuss their concerns with other members of the IEP team and try to work out an agreement.
If they still disagree, parents can ask for mediation, or the school may offer mediation. Parents may file a complaint with the state education agency and may request a due process hearing, at which time mediation must be available. Step 7. Services are provided.
The school makes sure that the child's IEP is being carried out as it was written. Parents are given a copy of the IEP. Each of the child's teachers and service providers has access to the IEP and knows his or her specific responsibilities for carrying out the IEP.
This includes the accommodations, modifications, and supports that must be provided to the child, in keeping with the IEP. Step 8. Progress is measured and reported to parents. The child's progress toward the annual goals is measured, as stated in the IEP. His or her parents are regularly informed of their child's progress and whether that progress is enough for the child to achieve the goals by the end of the year.
These progress reports must be given to parents at least as often as parents are informed of their nondisabled children's progress. Step 9. IEP is reviewed. The child's IEP is reviewed by the IEP team at least once a year, or more often if the parents or school ask for a review.
If necessary, the IEP is revised. Parents, as team members, must be invited to attend these meetings. Parents can make suggestions for changes, can agree or disagree with the IEP goals, and agree or disagree with the placement. If parents do not agree with the IEP and placement, they may discuss their concerns with other members of the IEP team and try to work out an agreement.
There are several options, including additional testing, an independent evaluation, or asking for mediation if available or a due process hearing. They may also file a complaint with the state education agency.
Step Child is reevaluated. At least every three years the child must be reevaluated. This evaluation is often called a "triennial. However, the child must be reevaluated more often if conditions warrant or if the child's parent or teacher asks for a new evaluation.
Clearly, the IEP is a very important document for children with disabilities and for those who are involved in educating them. Done correctly, the IEP should improve teaching, learning and results.
Each child's IEP describes, among other things, the educational program that has been designed to meet that child's unique needs. This part of the guide looks closely at how the IEP is written and by whom, and what information it must, at a minimum, contain. By law, the IEP must include certain information about the child and the educational program designed to meet his or her unique needs.
In a nutshell, this information is: Current performance. The IEP must state how the child is currently doing in school known as present levels of educational performance. This information usually comes from the evaluation results such as classroom tests and assignments, individual tests given to decide eligibility for services or during reevaluation, and observations made by parents, teachers, related service providers, and other school staff.
The statement about "current performance" includes how the child's disability affects his or her involvement and progress in the general curriculum. Annual goals. These are goals that the child can reasonably accomplish in a year. The goals are broken down into short-term objectives or benchmarks.
Goals may be academic, address social or behavioral needs, relate to physical needs, or address other educational needs. The goals must be measurable-meaning that it must be possible to measure whether the student has achieved the goals. Special education and related services. The IEP must list the special education and related services to be provided to the child or on behalf of the child.
This includes supplementary aids and services that the child needs. It also includes modifications changes to the program or supports for school personnel-such as training or professional development-that will be provided to assist the child. Participation with nondisabled children. The IEP must explain the extent if any to which the child will not participate with nondisabled children in the regular class and other school activities.
Participation in state and district-wide tests. Most states and districts give achievement tests to children in certain grades or age groups. The IEP must state what modifications in the administration of these tests the child will need. If a test is not appropriate for the child, the IEP must state why the test is not appropriate and how the child will be tested instead. Dates and places.
The IEP must state when services will begin, how often they will be provided, where they will be provided, and how long they will last.
Transition service needs. Beginning when the child is age 14 or younger, if appropriate , the IEP must address within the applicable parts of the IEP the courses he or she needs to take to reach his or her post-school goals.
A statement of transition services needs must also be included in each of the child's subsequent IEPs. Needed transition services. Beginning when the child is age 16 or younger, if appropriate , the IEP must state what transition services are needed to help the child prepare for leaving school. Age of majority. Beginning at least one year before the child reaches the age of majority, the IEP must include a statement that the student has been told of any rights that will transfer to him or her at the age of majority.
This statement would be needed only in states that transfer rights at the age of majority. Measuring progress.
The IEP must state how the child's progress will be measured and how parents will be informed of that progress. More information will be given about these IEP parts later in this guide. A sample IEP form will be presented, along with the federal regulations describing the "Content of the IEP," to help you gain a fuller understanding of what type of information is important to capture about a child in an IEP. It is useful to understand that each child's IEP is different.
The document is prepared for that child only. It describes the individualized education program designed to meet that child's needs. States and school systems have a great deal of flexibility about the information they require in an IEP.
Some states and school systems have chosen to include in the IEP additional information to document their compliance with other state and federal requirements. Federal law requires that school districts maintain documentation to demonstrate their compliance with federal requirements. Generally speaking, extra elements in IEPs may be included to document that the state or school district has met certain aspects of federal or state law, such as: holding the meeting to write, review and, if necessary, revise a child's IEP in a timely manner; providing parents with a copy of the procedural safeguards they have under the law; placing the child in the least restrictive environment; and obtaining the parents' consent.
While the law tells us what information must be included in the IEP, it does not specify what the IEP should look like. No one form or approach or appearance is required or even suggested. Each state may decide what its IEPs will look like. In some states individual school systems design their own IEP forms. What is important is that each form be as clear and as useful as possible, so that parents, educators, related service providers, administrators, and others can easily use the form to write and implement effective IEPs for their students with disabilities.
By law, certain individuals must be involved in writing a child's Individualized Education Program. These are identified in the figure at the left. Note that an IEP team member may fill more than one of the team positions if properly qualified and designated. For example, the school system representative may also be the person who can interpret the child's evaluation results. These people must work together as a team to write the child's IEP. A meeting to write the IEP must be held within 30 calendar days of deciding that the child is eligible for special education and related services.
Each team member brings important information to the IEP meeting.
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