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The Individiual Education Plan (IEP)

A. Information in my child's IEP paperwork:

1. Exceptional Student Education Program - child is enrolled in

2. Related Services - special help child may need. Related services means transportation and such developmental, corrective and other supportive services that are required to assist a child with special needs to benefit from special education. These related services can include speech pathology and audiology, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation and extracurricular activities, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. The term also includes school health services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training. The IEP should specify the services to be provided, the extent to which they are necessary, and who will provide the services.

3. Participation in Regular Education: The law required that handicapped students be educated to the maximum extent appropriate with students who are not handicapped. The committee must keep in mind that each child must be provided with the required services in the least restrictive environment. The exact percent of time spent with normal children must be specified on the IEP.

4. Dates:

5. Signatures:

6. Present Level of Performance

The people at the IEP conference should carefully review all the educational related information they have about the child, and identify the skills or subject areas for which special education is needed. Then, within each identified skill or subject area, the child's strengths or weaknesses should be specified in terms of present ability levels.

In different areas of learning such as:

7. Annual Goals: The IEP must include a statement about what is expected of your child by the end of the school year. This represents the "best guess'' of the IEP committee members as to possible progress, and is not legally binding. In other words, the annual goals set should be stated in such a way that you will be able to see the specific changes that this education will produce in your child's behavior. For example, a goal for self-help skills might be, ''Suzanne will independently dress herself except for working back buttons and zippers.'' A good way to check to see if the goals are appropriate is to ask "What do I want my child to do at the end of this year?''

8. Short Term Instructional Objectives: The short term instructional objectives generally refer to expected outcomes of instruction to be accomplished in one grading period. Each instructional objective should be written in such a way that you will be able to judge if your child has mastered the objective. It should include a specific behavior and the criteria for meeting the objective. This criteria might be a percentage or across time. For example, 80 percent of words spelled correctly, or hopping ten feet on four out of five days. If you don't understand any of your child's objectives, ask that they be rewritten to clear up confusion.

9. Evaluation Criteria and Procedures: The evaluation procedures should be determined directly from the goals and short term instructional objectives listed in the IEP, Possible evaluation strategies include: formal testing, observation, dated samples of the student's work, regularly scheduled informal tests, or checklist. Each objective should be stated in measurable terms. An example of the evaluation strategy for adding sums might be to give a test every week and to keep track of the student's scores. Another strategy might be to mark beside the stated objective on the IEP form the date that task was achieved and by what means the achievement was determined (e.g., if the stated objective is: ''Ethan will be able to read and identify ten safety signs found in the community,'' then the teacher can mark ''March 10, 1999'' next to the objective when Ethan is able to accomplish that task).

B. Parents' Information Needed for IEP Meeting

1. Who is attending the IEP Meeting: Federal guidelines require that certain people participate in the IEP meeting. These include:

2. When is the IEP meeting scheduled? Within thirty days after being informed that your child qualifies for exceptional education, you should be invited to attend a meeting to develop the school program that is going to best meet your child's individual education needs. If the meeting time suggested by the school is inconvenient for you, you may request a change of time or date. Make sure there is adequate time scheduled so that the meeting will not be rushed. If it is impossible for you to attend any meeting, you may request that a conference call be arranged so that you can talk to committee members by telephone. This, however, should be a last alternative. The IEP must be in effect at the beginning of each school year and be reviewed at least annually, which means that the IEP should be reviewed at the end of each school year, or during the summer. However, if there are significant changes in your child during the school year, you may request an IEP conference be held at any time. In addition, a child must have a complete diagnostic examination at least every three years.

3. What are my goals for this IEP meeting: It is essential that you participate in the development of your child's individualized education program. You have two very important jobs at this meeting.

4. What are the statements I want included in my child's IEP:

5. Steps I will take if I do not agree with the IEP:

6. After you get a copy of the IEP, then what? After the meeting, keep your child's IEP in a convenient place. Refer to it often. Make sure the services that were listed on the IEP are actually being provided as stated. For example, if the IEP indicates that "Charles is supposed to be receiving speech therapy for twenty minutes three times a week," but he is only scheduled for therapy twice a week, contact the school, show the therapist the IEP, and ask that these changes be initiated. Your IEP is your guarantee that the needed services will be provided to your child. The IEP also allows you to watch your child's progress.

C. Sample Parent IEP Statement:

Parental input on the individualized education program for Jamie Green:

Placement: in a class of 4 to 6 students with a teacher who is skilled in "Floor Time," play therapy, intrusion therapy, consistency, and positive reinforcements. The teacher and the teacher's aid must be proficient in sign language.

Long Term Goals:

Short term Instructional objectives:

IEP Exercises
Exercise 1: Instructional Objectives

Which of the following do you think are good statements of instructional objectives? Remember, an objective should be a specific behavior which you can see and judge for yourself if your child can do.
Put a Check the good objectives.

Reaction Questions:

1. What is the difference between a well written and poorly written objective?

2. Why is it important to be able to judge if your child can do a specific behavior?

3. Why are objectives so important to my child's future?

4. How can I use these objectives to evaluate if my child is making progress?

Answer Key: Exercise 1 The good objectives are 1, 2, and 5.

Exercise 2: Parent Input into the IEP

How well have these following parents understood their rights and responsibilities in the IEP development, writing, and review for their children. Check the box in front of the parents' statement which shows understanding for the requirements of the IEP and the importance of it to their child's education.