Discussing Autism

Individual Education Plans can be VERY confusing for parents AND teachers and most parents are anxious, confused, and feel inadequate when they go into an IEP. I am a former teacher and am now in the role of a parent. I never thought that I would be the parent of a special needs child nor would I be having to fight for what he needs but that is exactly where I am at now.

I am actually in a unique situation in that I AM a former teacher and I do understand the educational jargon. I understand how to evaluate student’s progress, I understand diagnoses, I understand testing, and I understand the process it takes to get to where the staff sits. What they don’t know is that I have the utmost respect for them because of the hard work they put into their jobs and into just one IEP.

What should an IEP do?
An IEP should be adequate, sufficient, subjective, and measurable.

What needs to be included:
Present Levels of Performance
Measurable Annual Goals, including Benchmarks or Short Term Objectives
Educational Progress
A statement of –

(i) How the child’s progress toward the annual goals will be measured; and
(ii) How the child’s parents will be regularly informed (by such means as periodic report cards), at least as often as parents are informed of their nondisabled children’s progress of –
(A) their child’s progress toward the annual goals; and
(B) The extent to which that progress is sufficient to enable the child to achieve the goals by the end of the year.”

Wrightslaw specifically states in the article, Smart IEPs that good IEPs are specific, are measurable, use action words, realistic and relevant goals, and are time-limited. SMART.

Specific goals target areas of academic achievement, performance, and behavior. Measurable goals mean that you can observe behavior or count/test the skill. Action words can be categorized into the following:

(a) direction of behavior (increase, decrease, maintain, etc.)
(b) area of need (i.e., reading, writing, social skills, transition, communication, etc.)
(c) level of attainment (i.e., to age level, without assistance, etc.)

SMART IEPs use action words like: “The child will be able to . . .”

Realistic IEPs set goals that the child can obtain and time-limited means that the child can obtain the goal within a specific amount of time.

I highly suggest that anyone heading into an IEP head to this site (I briefly summarized it here) and print the entire page to review before heading into your IEP. Take it with you and verify that everything is covered. Additionally, print out the checklists at the bottom of the page so that everything is covered.

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