Why can IEPs (Individual Education Plan/Programs) be a challenge for both parents and professionals?
This often misunderstood document is a yearly plan for a student with disabilities in the school setting. Far too often, it can be a poorly written amalgamations of parental requests, consultant demands, and the desperate stab at solutions of a special education teacher who often does not get sufficient time to devise appropriate strategies that will actually get implemented by general education teachers for students receiving services in the mainstream.
Note: What I write here is affected by one parent/professional's experience with IEPs as both a parent and a professional. Both come from the experience in one state, two districts, with higher functioning students. Mileage may differ, especially with students with more severe disabilities. My experience in that area is limited.
I could write much more than this--but this is just a quick and dirty look at what an IEP is.
An IEP is often viewed as a cure for a student by both parents and general education professionals. It is not that.
Most general education teachers have little to no training in special education techniques or processes. Older, more experienced teachers who have learned how to differentiate instruction and have dealt with difficult students in the past may instinctively know what to do. Younger teachers are still mastering their content areas or their general education goals. Newer and more experienced teachers alike may be resistant to the specially designed instruction, the pullout for one-to-one teaching, the push-in in the classroom (except for aides, which many see as a cure-all), or the accommodations mandated by the IEP. Or they may simply not know just how to apply those things in conjunction with their classroom teaching. Additionally, because the forms often change so frequently (I have seen a new IEP format a year during my admittedly short teaching career), they may be uncertain as to just what is more important and overriding in the IEP.
Parents often are uncertain about just what this IEP is. All some parents may know is that it's a pain in the rear that requires a yearly meeting with a lot of teachers who may or may not say nice things about their kids. Others view it as a magic wand to get better treatment for their child. Still others may not understand the process, but are just happy that someone, somewhere, is paying attention to their child. They don't understand the various components of the IEP, they just know their child has one.
Before we go much farther, there's just one thing I need to stress--all special ed, and the IEP mandates, through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA 2004) is specially designed instruction in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). It does not always mandate specific techniques, or the top-of-the-line methods. That's a hard concept to grasp, because as parents we want the best for our kids. That's not what the IEP is there to create. For some students, the LRE is going to be the general education classroom with resource room support in and out of the general education setting.
For others, the LRE may be complete removal from the general education setting (generally for behavioral issues). It's an individual issue.
So, with that aside, let's take a brief (too brief, sadly) look at the components of an IEP.
First off, I'll point out that while the same things are present in every IEP, they appear in different formats from state to state, and sometimes even district to district within a state. They may be shorter, or longer, with different things combined. I have seen IEPs of five pages, with lots of fine print and minimal writing. I have seen (and written) IEPs of twenty-five pages or longer. IEPs can appear in carbon forms (I have some from my son's early days in special ed, when much less was required to be in the IEP) or computer-based formats. Nonetheless, all of this information is there--somewhere.
In the format my state uses, there will be a separate cover page which states the student's name, birth date, district, home school, school, attending school (if different from home school), student ID number, case manager, and the two Very Important Dates: the IEP meeting Date and the date the next reevaluation for services is due.
Both of these dates are important. The IEP must be reviewed on or before that yearly IEP meeting date, every year. The services within the plan are written to be delivered during that yearly period. You can meet and modify the IEP more frequently than on a yearly basis, but you must meet to review the IEP yearly, even if you are making no changes to the basic plan.
The same is true for the reevaluation date, which is on a three year cycle. Every three years a student's need for services must be reevaluated, even if it's just to meet and agree that there is no further need for assessment.
Next, in the current form used by my state, there will be a Consideration of Special Factors and (if the student is 16, Transition). Special Factors includes identification of special behavior, communication, assistive technology, limited English, or sight/hearing needs. Then there is a Nonparticipation Justification which accounts for the amount of time a student may or may not be removed from general education and participation with nondisabled students throughout the school day. In my state and district, we are now required to specifically state a reason for this removal and give a percentage of time away from general ed. This flows into the later placement page. Transition discusses whether the student is being prepared for life after high school, and describes the type of diploma the student will receive. There's issues there, but I don't deal with them since I don't teach at that level--and transition is an entire diary in itself.
Following that comes what I see as the most important part of the IEP--the Present Level of Academic Performance and Functioning. This is a narrative summary which is required to address the following points: student strengths, parental concerns, how the disability affects the student's academic functioning and performance (including the most recent statewide assessment results), results of the most recent evaluation and how that illuminates the student's performance, and student preferences and needs for after-school transition once the student is 16.
Everything in the IEP is based on this summary, or should be. Yearly goals should be tied into the student academic functioning and performance, as should services and specially designed instruction. Services should tie into evaluation findings as well--for example, a student with a demonstrated need in the area of Working Memory on WISC IV should have an accommodation which provides breaking directions/instructions down into chunks of 1-2 steps. A student with attention needs should have accommodations which provide for redirection and monitoring of performance. And so on. I could write an entire diary about this section of the IEP--but this diary is already long and dry enough.
Statewide assessment and districtwide assessment pages follow. These pages state whether the student will take the standard statewide/districtwide assessments or alternative assessments, and what accommodations or modifications will be provided, if any. This section affects how the yearly goals are written. If a student is not taking the standard assessments, then, besides a yearly goal, short-term objectives must be written to describe progression toward that yearly goal. If a student is taking the standard assessment, there is no such requirement, unless a teacher feels it is necessary to achieve or describe progress toward a specific goal.
Goals need to state a condition of performance (when given a task) a behavior (what the student will do) and a criteria (what the performance of the behavior will achieve, and how often that will happen). The same is true of short-term objectives, which should break down the goal into smaller steps toward mastery of the goal.
Last of all comes the service summary. This page describes what areas the student will receive specially designed instruction in (and each area should have at least one matching specific goal), any related services the student needs (counseling, therapy, etc), classroom accommodations and modifications (including how many minutes per week the student receives services, as well as who is responsible for providing these services), and consultation provided by specialists (sped to general ed, sped to parents, and so on). Times stated in this area are generally considered to be minimums, not maximums.
Then there is the placement page. Formerly considered a part of the IEP, these days it is technically a separate document. This page describes several options for student placement, the benefits and harmful effects on the student, the modifications/accommodations/services considered to reduce harmful effects, and the option selected. It can be as elaborate or as simple as the circumstances describe. Ideally, it should contain the most realistic options for the student in question (in other words, for a student with a learning disability, except in very extreme circumstances you are not going to be considering complete removal from the general education classroom).
Overall, this document is a very brief attempt to provide services for a student. It describes the minimum of services. Ideally, a student should be receiving more service than is described in their IEP.
It can take anywhere from an hour to write a simple IEP (for a student continuing current services with a few minor tweaks) to eight or more hours (for a complex student, or an initial IEP for a student with many needs). Teachers often must fit the time to write an IEP around the daily requirements of teaching and working with their students. A well-written IEP is a thing of beauty--and a poorly written one a nightmare.
This is just a quick and dirty look at the IEP. It's not perfect, but it's what we have for special ed students.