IEP What you need to know - 504 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Individualized Education Program Information (IEP)

504 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Individualized Education Program Information (IEP)

 

As a parent and a guardian of a child, you may have heard the term IEP during parent/teacher conferences or while reading educational material; you are probably wondering… what is an IEP, and is it really that important? In a nutshell, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a contract between the school system and the parent, and it identifies educational goals for their child that need to be achieved. Now, as a project manager, I know a thing or two about goals/project setups, and I have found important items are often left out of most IEPs.

 

To simplify, an IEP should have 3 main parts. For example, if you are planning a vacation with your family, you start by 1. picking the place you want to visit… let's say the beach,  2. the best time to go… the time of year and when you can get time off from work, and lastly 3. you’ll need a map, and you will need to decide if you are going to get there by air or car.  If you skip any one of these steps, you might not get to go on vacation. If you forget to plan time off from work, your boss will probably not let you go, and if you don’t know how to get there or where to go, you will be stuck at home as well.

 

This is how an IEP should be laid out in 3 steps. 

1. Begin with the end result… where do we want to be or what needs to be accomplished. For example… we want the child to be able to count from 1 to 20 by his or herself. 
2. What is the best timeline for accomplishing this goal? We want the child to be able to count from 1 to 20 by November 10 of this year.
3. How is the child going to get there? Example…. If we want the child to be able to count from 1 to 20 by November 10 of this year, then the child will have an extra 2 hours of help a week using xyz method of learning and using colored boxes and other items to count.

 

In conclusion, the main components of an IEP contain a goal that you can measure (the child can count to 20), a timeline (by Nov. 10), and specific ways the goal is going to be achieved (extra 2 hrs of help per week using XYZ method).   I see so many IEPs that do not follow these 3 main steps or that skip one or more parts.   The biggest one I see skipped is the most important one… how are you going to get there?  If the answer is “extra help” working with Jane, it’s not good enough… you need a plan.   You need to know what tools are going to be used and how they are going to be used. There needs to be more information included other than the people that will be helping because if you only list people, they will fail without the tools… make sure you list what tools need to be used.  This way, if the tool is not working for the child by the end of the time period, change it and make a new plan/IEP.  I have also noticed that many like to keep an IEP open-ended, without a lot of details… this is pointless.  It is like someone giving you a contract to buy your car, but without a purchase date; you can’t sell it to anybody because you promised to sell it to someone else… they can take years to come and give you the money and take ownership of the car… they can even look at other cars, buy them and then come back to you years later… you’re stuck! It’s the same with an IEP; if you don’t have a date, they can keep that IEP going forever, never having to create new plans/goals as the child’s needs change.    Think of it as a contact… it must have what, who, when, and how.   I hope this helps.  Here is what to ask when reading a task/goal on an IEP.

 

1. Does this task/goal have an end in mind? Count to 20 by Nov. 10

a. The child can count to 20, tasks ends; write new task, next level in growth for the child

            b. The date has passed, Nov 10; re-write IEP and try a new tool

2. Does this task/goal have a tool method defined? How are we going to do it?

a. The child will have one-on-one time using the XYZ method of learning how to count to 20.

3. Does this task/goal have a traceable goal?  The child can count to 20.

            Note: if the IEP Goal reads something like, “become a better counter” how do you test for that, how do you know.  It must read “count to 20” or read 20 words per minute at a 3^rd grade level of reading. 

Again, I hope this helps…

 

more on IEP visit or nonprofit page at  http://theglp.info/resources/sec-504iep