While doing some more research on IEPs, I realized that while I have noted the steps to getting an IEP, I have yet to mention anything on the actual content of an IEP. By law, IEP’s have to contain certain things about the student and the student’s personalized programs. This list of things includes:

 

  • Current performance. The IEP must state how the child is currently doing in school (known as present levels of educational performance). This information usually comes from the evaluation results such as classroom tests and assignments, individual tests given to decide eligibility for services or during reevaluation, and observations made by parents, teachers, related service providers, and other school staff. The statement about “current performance” includes how the child’s disability affects his or her involvement and progress in the general curriculum.
  • Annual goals. These are goals that the child can reasonably accomplish in a year. The goals are broken down into short-term objectives or benchmarks. Goals may be academic, address social or behavioral needs, relate to physical needs, or address other educational needs. The goals must be measurable-meaning that it must be possible to measure whether the student has achieved the goals.
  • Special education and related services. The IEP must list the special education and related services to be provided to the child or on behalf of the child. This includes supplementary aids and services that the child needs. It also includes modifications (changes) to the program or supports for school personnel-such as training or professional development-that will be provided to assist the child.
  • Participation with nondisabled children. The IEP must explain the extent (if any) to which the child will not participate with nondisabled children in the regular class and other school activities.
  • Participation in state and district-wide tests. Most states and districts give achievement tests to children in certain grades or age groups. The IEP must state what modifications in the administration of these tests the child will need. If a test is not appropriate for the child, the IEP must state why the test is not appropriate and how the child will be tested instead.
  • Dates and places. The IEP must state when services will begin, how often they will be provided, where they will be provided, and how long they will last.
  • Transition service needs. Beginning when the child is age 14 (or younger, if appropriate), the IEP must address (within the applicable parts of the IEP) the courses he or she needs to take to reach his or her post-school goals. A statement of transition services needs must also be included in each of the child’s subsequent IEPs.
  • Needed transition services. Beginning when the child is age 16 (or younger, if appropriate), the IEP must state what transition services are needed to help the child prepare for leaving school
  • Age of Majority: Beginning at least one year before the child reaches the age of majority, the IEP must include a statement that the student has been told of any rights that will transfer to him or her at the age of majority. (This statement would be needed only in states that transfer rights at the age of majority.) 
  • Measuring Progress: The IEP must state how the child’s progress will be measured and how parents will be informed of that progress. 

This is the website that gave me this information and has a lot more useful facts on IEPS : http://www2.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html

Creating an IEP

In my last post I discussed generally what an IEP is and what it can do for the student. While researching I had also found the steps that are involved in a child receiving an IEP, however I have been wondering how effective these methods can be. There just  seems to be a lot of time spent going through all these steps. I have really been wondering just how quickly a child can actually get into the IEP and receive the help that they need before they fall further behind in their classes. During my research into this I found multiple instances when parents had tried to get their child an IEP but had been waiting moths to hear anything back from the schools. In these instances the state tends to get involved and there is a huge amount of paperwork that goes into getting this child the help that they need. A lot of schools take so long to get back to parents with special needs children simply because they are unprepared to deal with this new challenge. Many do not have a staff that is experienced in working with special needs children. I feel like a major way we need to change schools today is to make sure that every school is adequately equipped for children with special needs so that time is not wasted just waiting to hear back from the school.

Furthering my research i found that a typical IEP should be issues within 4 weeks and reviewed every 6 months. This just seems like a lot of time wasted before the child receives the help that they need. That is almost another month that they will be falling more behind in classes, and then if htey program they are assigned does not work, they have to wait another 6 months until it is reviewed and changed. I feel like schools really need to find a way to shorten this process so that the children can get the help they need in a more timely fashion. I know that sometimes it is good to have a lengthy process so that children are not wrongly assigned into a “special needs” category when they are just misbehaving in class, but for those kids who genuinely need the help, it is certainly a drawn out process to receive any.

Defining IEPs

After my first post for this project I received some very helpful comments that are really helping me in forming a direction for this project. Since my project will be on IEPs I felt like a good first step would be to start small  with the basic definition of IEPs. I received some very helpful sights from commenters that gave me a great idea of where to be looking! 

So far while researching, I have learned that IEPs stands for: Individualized Education Programs. An Individualized Education Program is for every public school student who receives special education. This individualized program creates an opportunity for teachers, parents and school administrators to work together to improve educational results for children with disabilities. The IEP is a written statement for each child with a disability staring what special education and related services the student needs, but before the actual IEP is written there is a process to go about determining if a child is actually in need of a personalized education program. 

These are the general steps in the special education process:

1) Child is identified as possibly needing special education and related services 

2) Child is evaluated 

3) Eligibility is decided 

4) Child is found eligible for services 

5)  IEP meeting is scheduled 

6) IEP meeting is held and the IEP is written 

7) Services are provided 

8) Progress is measured and reported to parents 

9) IEP is reviewed 

10) Child is reevaluated 

 On Pinterest I found a cute little “road map” to help illustrate this process in a fun way! Image

So now that I have a pretty good understanding of what an IEP is and how a student is deemed eligible for one, now next time I can really begin to dive into how these programs are individualized for particular students with particular disabilities. After all, no two people are the same. I am very interested to find out how you go about determining what type of IEP a particular student with a particular disability needs. 

Getting Started

As I start researching for my 20% project I am a little confused about what I need to be looking for. I know that I want to figure out how to go about testing students for IEP’s, but I am not sure where to start. I have a twitter account that I follow and a pinterest board dedicated towards communication sciences and disorders where I have been getting some really good ideas about things to do in a classroom setting for children with speech problems. However, I have not yet seen anything that tells me how to pinpoint a technology that a child will need because of a certain speech problem that he or she has. That was one of the reasons that I chose this topic. I also was very curious about all the different kinds of technologies that we have nowadays and how they can help benefit children and adults that have certain problems. I am fascinated with how mankind has been able to create things so that people with speech problems are able to communicate with and fully participate in society. I have always really loved to help people and seeing how much these technologies can help someone in their everyday lives really makes me want to learn all i can about it so that one day maybe I will be able to assist in the process of helping someone by giving them a technology that will change their life.