IEP Planning Report

Student:
Age:
Address:
Telephone:
Parent(s):
Date:

The following five areas will be considered in the IEP process, per IDEA:

* Physical abilities
* communication abilities
* thinking (cognitive) abilities
* social and emotional behavior
* developmental or educational growth
* and any other areas specific to the child

The IEP meeting should always start on a positive note--discussing your child's strenths. Staffing teams sometimes refer to this as "Current Level of Functioning" or "Current Level of Acheivement." In any case, your opinions of your child's strengths are important.

In order for a child to be appropriately served by Special Education Services, each child must be viewed as a "whole child" with gifts, talents, and abilities. Focus on the positive, not simply the negative (deficits). A child's strengths should be a part of any IEP and these strengths should be drawn upon when developing goals and objectives.

Strengths should be identified in all five areas described on page 1. In addition, strengths should not be limited to only academics and/or physical abilities. They can, and should, include interests skills, hobbies, peronal traits, etc.

Examples:

* Matt is great at basketball.
* Dylan is trying really hard to talk.
* Benjamin knows how to use the computer.
* Emily likes to play board games with other girls.
* Nicole can read 4th grade textbooks.

List strengths for (child's name). Always start each strength with the child's name!

Special Education Services are based on a child's strengths and needs. These needs must be explored for all five of the areas listed on page 1. Needs must be very specific and written in plain English!

When thinking of your child's needs, don't be limited by what you think may or may not be available at the school. It is called an IEP because a program must be individualized to each student. The program designed must "fit" the child; the child is not supposed to "fit" into the existing school program!

What does a student need in order to benefit from special education services? Needs should be detailed, comprehensive, and, again, represent all five of the areas previously outlined on page 1.

Examples:

* Benjamin needs to lean to move around the classroom and the school building independently in his wheelchair.
*Dylan needs to learn communication skills using a picture board (communication device) to help him talk.
* Emily needs to lean how to read.
* Matt needs to be able to model typical peer behavior.
* Nicole needs to learn typical 4th grade science.

ANNUAL GOALS

Whwere do you want your child to be one year from now? What are your family's dreams and goals? What is important for your child to learn or to do, from the perspectives of the child, the parents, and the family?

Goals should not be written on the basis of what grade teh child is in, what school the child is in, or any other factor. Goals should be individualized to the child and should have a strong correlation to the needs stated. Goals should be written in plain English, esily understandable to anyone who reads them. Remember that goals should be activities the child can accomplish. They chould not be isolated behaviors or skills. Referenece the "Writing Goals" information on the next page. Goals also need to address all five areas listed on page 1.

Examples:

* Benjamin will move around his homeroom, go to and from art, music, PE, llunch, and recess in his wheelchair, daily, without assistance from an adult.
* Dylan will use picture-symbols to make choices: about his lunch selection, his free-choice activities in class, and about what games to play at recess.
* Emily will read an "Easy Reader" book of her choice and describe what the book is about after reading it.
* Matt will tell his friends and teachers when he is angry, upset, or needs help, with words instead of gestures.
* Nicole will perform 4th grade science experiments with help from her peers.

SHORT TERM OBJECTIVES

How will a child achieve his/her annual goals? Through short term objectives. These are the "steps" a child will use in reaching the goals. Most goals will have more than one short term objective and the objectives usually build on one another. Once the child has been achieved.

Short term objectives must be measurable. How will they be measured? By teacher anecdotal notes, teacher observation, parent observation, testing, etc.? Short term objectives need to have timelines that are met. Parents play an important role in meeting with school personnel to monitor the timelines and the progress. Objectives should be written in plain English. Here is one example:

Annual Goal-- Benjamin will move around his homeroom, go to and from art, music, PE, lunch, and recess in his wheelchair, dailing, wihtout assistance from and adult.

Short Term Objectives
1. Benjamin will take his papers from his desk to his teacher's desk using his wheelchair; measured by teacher observation; by October 1st.
2. Benjamin will go with his peers, from his homeroom to the art room and back, using his wheelchair; measured by teacher observation; by November 1st. (These objectives would continue in increments until the goal is met.)

List one annual goal for (child's name). Then list appropriate objectives.

RELATED SERVICES

Related Services can include therapy services (physical, occupational, vision, hearing, speech/language, etc.), transportation, counseling servies, assistive technology, interpreters, and more.

There is no set formula for the delivery of Related Services, the formula should be individualized to the child's needs and goals. Related Services delivery should not be decided by "what teh school typically offers," e.g. physical therapy one time a week for 30 minutes. Related Services need to be relevant to the student and his/her academic day. "Pull-out" isolated therapies are no longer considered useful techniques, because too often, the child can't "generalize" skills learned in isolation into the entire academic day. Occupational therapy, for expample, might be handwriting or keyboarding skills taught withing the realm of language arts in the classroom. Physical therapy, for example, might be provided during regular ed PE and/or recess, as opposed to isolated, one-on-one therapy in a separate room.

Parents need to understand that assistive technology has been part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act since 1990. Assistive technology can be defined as any device that enhances a person's independence. Computers, communication devices, wheelchaires, etc., are just a few examples of assistive devices. Again, if a need is expressed and teh staffing team agrees, the assistive technology should be provided. In addition, if necessary, the devices(s) may be provided to the child to take home daily, on weekend/holidays, and over summer vacation if the device needs to be used at those times to continue to enhance learning/independence.

What are some Related Services your child might need?

CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVICE

* Who will provide services, instruction, modifications, adaptations? A therapist, classroom teacher, special ed teacher, teacher's aide?
* What will they be? Therapy? Curriculum modifications? Physical adaptations to a classroom? A modified desk? Adaptive PE? A communication device? A computer?
* When will they be delieverd? How often and for how long?
* Where will the delivery of services or modifications take place> In the reular classroom, the special ed room, in Music, Art, PE, recess, or at lunch?
* How will servies or modifications be delivered?

* the school will provide cooperative learning groups to enable Matt to learn teamwork and model appropriate behavior.
* The school will provide physical therapy two times each week when Benjamin is in general PE class.
* The school will ensure that Nicole's science lessons are modified for her reading level.
* The school will provide picture/symbol cards for Dylan to use in all areas of his school day (academics, lunch, recess, PE, music, art).
* The school will provide a computer for Benjamin to use to do his writing work with.
* The school will provide a teacher's aide to assist Dylan with toileting.

PLACEMENT

Placements should be the very last thing decided at an IEP meeting. Only after a child's strengths, needs, goals, related services, and characteristics of service have been discussed can the determination of placement be made.

Placement should not be discussed at the beginning of an IEP meeting, nor should the decision on placement be made by school personnel alone. Placement in a decision made by the staffing team, which includes the parent(s) of the child.

The following paragraphs from the law have been interpreted to mean taht every child with a disability should start out in his/her neighborhood school, in a general education, age-appropriate classroom, with supplementary aids and servies. Only if the child cannot succeed/learn should the child be removed from that environment to a more restrictive one.

Unfortunately, many schools have reversed this policy, starting children with disabilities in segregated, restrictive environments and allowing them to be educated in the least restrictive environments when (a) the child "earns" his/her way out of the special ed environment and/or (b) when the school feels it has the resources to include children in the general school environment.

"To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disaiblities are educated with children who don't have disabilities. Special classes, sparate schooling, or other removal of child with disabilities from the regular educational environment occures only when the nature of severity of the disability is such that education in the regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily." Regulations 300.500 (Italics added) ...AND...
"Unless the cil'd individualized education program requires some other arrangement, the child is educated in the school which he or she would attend if he/she didn't have a disability; and in selecting the least restrictive environment, consideration is given to any potential harmful effect on the child or on the quality of servies which he or she needs." Regulation 300.522 (c) and (d)(Italics added)