On The First Page Of The IEP (Probably The First Thing That Will Be Discussed), The Parent Will Be Asked To Talk About:

Mary Hall, PLUK Parent Center 2013

On the first page of the IEP (probably the first thing that will be discussed), you will be asked to talk about:

 Student strengths. These do not necessarily need to be related to school or academics. What does he or she like to do? Is he good with younger kids/older people? Is she helpful? Social? Organization? Whatever you can think of. The purpose of identifying student strengths is to use them to help offset barriers to success.  Educational concerns: everything that you list as an educational concern must be addressed in some way in the IEP. Educational concerns is a broad concept which includes o academics, e.g., written expression, reading, and/or math o organization; setting priorities, planning and reaching a goal, organizing materials, being prepared for class o social/behavioral skills: friendship -social communication- skills, ability to work in a group, managing frustration effectively (having more than one strategy or tool in the tool box), ability to change transition from one activity to another, assignment completion -on-task behavior o all concerns that you list must be discussed and addressed in the body of the IEP. If they are not included in the goals or under Supplementary Aids and Services as accommodations, the discussion should be included in the notes. Information on meeting notes is below.  IEP goals; describe what he will accomplish in a year’s time. The school must provide instruction to address the goals. Information about the structure of IEP goals is attached  Supplementary Aids and Services section, includes accommodations, modifications, staff supports and training, o these are things that the school does to support the student in school and extra-curricular activities. They include changes to the way material is presented; technology that the student can use (e.g., books in audio format, voice-to-text software, visual mapping software for written expression, keyboard for written work, Smart Pens for note taking). If the IEP team decides that the student needs AT to access the curriculum and/or to demonstrate what he knows, the school must provide the devices. . use of AT can be written into the student's goals, e.g., "using visual mapping software, the student will write a three paragraph essay that includes ...... "  Home-school communication can be put in the notes. Parents should consider what information they want from the teacher about their student, when they want it, who will provide it, and how it will be provided. It must be a method that works for the school and the parent.  Special Education Services section; this will list the number of minutes that the student will receive special education instruction from a qualified special education profession in the special education classroom or regular classroom settings.  Related services are services that the student requires in order to benefit from his special education services. They may include speech therapy, counseling, occupational therapy, physical therapy, parent counseling to help parents support the student's IEP, etc.  Signature page. The parent is asked to sign in two places. o One is a signature that she/he participated in the IEP. The parent can request that the meeting notes are reviewed by the team before signing. That way he/she can determine that any requests and the school's responses have been accurately noted. If parent requests are noted as requests, then the school must respond. If they disagree and refuse, they must justify that decision (see Written Notice in Procedural Safeguards Booklet). Approval signature; in Montana the parent must sign IEP approval. There are two ways to sign; the parent can sign to approve the IEP or they can sign with exceptions. If there is something that the parent believes was missed or if they disagree with as service or want a goal changed, etc. they can list those and with exceptions. 1 Mary Hall, PLUK Parent Center 2013

That lets the school implement the parts that there is agreement on and immediately requires the team to reschedule to resolve differences.  Parents are equal partners of the IEP team. The minimum team members are, parents, an administrator, regular education teacher, and special education teacher. All must attend unless the parent agrees to excuse them.  IEP meetings must be scheduled at a mutually convenient time.  IEPs may take more than one meeting to write and can be rescheduled as needed. A student with a disability, i.e., who qualifies for an IEP, is entitled to a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE). The IEP team decides what FAPE is for the individual student, it is the contents of the IEP. The team has considerable latitude when making those decisions.  Parents are not required to sign approval at the IEP meeting. It is reasonable to request a copy to take home to review. He/she should make sure that everything that they thought was included is included. If the notes are not accurate, write a parent addendum and request that it be added/attached to the IEP. The notes should include parent requests. If the notes state that something will be done, then it must happen. The IEP is a legal contract and the notes are part of it. Do not keep the IEP unsigned for an extended time without responding. If the parent does not approve or reject the IEP, the school can send a 15 day written notice that they will implement the IEP as written.  Keep copies of all records and correspondence. Verbal communication can be followed up with a note or email that thanks the school staff, summarizes the important issues and asks that they contact the parent if he/she has misunderstood anything.  the IEP is a living document and can be revisited anytime the parent or school has concerns. The Special Education (SPED) teacher is your contact at the school for all things SPED related.

IEP Meeting Notes From the OPI Guide The Individualized Education Program A Special Educator’s Guide to the Individualized Education Plan Process (2007)

Meeting Notes, formerly know as Minutes, should be used to record:

• any discussion of options considered, options rejected, and reasons for rejection of proposals for initiating or changing the student's identification, evaluation, educational placement or the provision of FAPE;

• necessary information regarding IEP services not recorded elsewhere in the IEP document; and

• if the meeting was rescheduled, reasons for rescheduling.

The Notes section is not intended to be a recording of the IEP meeting, such as, who attended, when the meeting started, when the meeting ended, or what individuals shared. Information does not need to be in the IEP Notes unless the information is relevant to the development of the IEP and is not recorded in other sections of the IEP.

2 Mary Hall, PLUK Parent Center 2013

IEP GOALS

IEP goals have two parts:

1. The Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) which describe the student’s current skills and 2. The Measurable Annual Goal (MAG), based on the PLAAFF, which predicts the skills that the student will have in one year.

The below information is an excerpt from the 2007 OPI guide, The Individualized Education Program: A Special Educator’s Guide to the Individualized Education Plan Process

How to Write Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance

Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) describe a student's level of skill and ability at the time of the IEP. The PLAAFP explains what the student can do and identifies the student’s unique needs. The PLAAFP creates a baseline and provides information from which to write measurable annual goals. The PLAAFP should be specific and include units of measurement (number, percentage, prompt level, etc.).

PLAAFP statements must: • Provide information about current performance; • Be related to the Measurable Annual Goals; and • Provide baseline information for the development of Measurable Annual Goals; and • State how the disability affects the student's involvement and progress in the general curriculum or, for preschool children, involvement in appropriate activities.

Examples of PLAAFP:

♦ Jackson can write numbers to 100 and he can add and subtract single digit numbers. Jackson does not consistently use borrowing and carrying, so he has difficulty adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers. His second grade classmates can solve two-digit addition and subtraction problems that require borrowing and carrying, averaging 17 out of 20 correct. Jackson solved 3 out of 20 correctly. Jackson needs to borrow and carry in order to solve higher- level math problems.

♦ Given a story starter, June writes three sentences or less and makes approximately twice as many errors (spacing, spelling, punctuation) as she has words. Her classmates are writing 2-3 five-sentence paragraphs. June understands the sequence words, first, next, and finally, however, she is not using them in her writing.

How to Write Measurable Annual Goals Measurable Annual Goals (MAGs) set the direction for instruction and assist in determining the specific courses, experiences, and skills a student will need. Measurable annual goals and short-term objectives and benchmarks are similar in their design and construction. Each MAG is a desired outcome of performance that predicts how

much the student will progress as a result of specialized instruction or intervention. There is a direct relationship between the MAG and the needs identified in the Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP). Taken together, the PLAAFP and MAG specify how well the student performs today and how well the student is expected to perform in a year. The MAGs should be written to increase the student’s successful participation in the general curriculum and meet the needs that result from the disability.

A well-written MAG should: • Be measurable without additional information. • Allow a calculation of how much progress the student has made • Use the same method of measurement as the PLAAFP; • Provide a way to measure whether the goal has been accomplished. • Result in the SAME measurement of progress (has the goal been met) if measured by different people.

Components of a Goal:

Condition: describes the circumstances under which the behavior will occur and sometimes includes the environment in which the behavior will occur. Example: "Across all settings, . . . "

Behavior: identifies what is being measured; usually reflects an action or is directly observable, is measurable. Example: "Ian will read aloud 20 major warning words and symbols (e.g., Stop, Poison, Danger, Hazard, etc.) . . . "

Criterion: identifies the level of performance/behavior/skill required to meet the goal and may include a level of consistency (how often the student must meet the criterion) and will indicate what is success for this measurable annual goal. Example: "with 95% accuracy."

Use a format: Under what conditions, (name of learner), will ( name of behavior) to a specific criterion and consistency.

Examples:

Condition: When given a verbal cue by an adult, Behavior: Nica will begin to comply with the cue within 10 seconds Criterion: on 80% of opportunities for 3 consecutive days.

Condition: Across all settings, Behavior: Sadie will identify 20 major warning words and symbols (e.g., Stop, Poison.) Criterion: with 100% accuracy Consistency: for five consecutive times.

Behavior: Savannah will read

Criterion: a minimum of 75 wpm of a 2nd grade reading passage Consistency: on 2 out of 3 trials. (No Condition needs to be specified.)

______PLAAFP: Habib writes a weekly journal entry in the regular classroom scoring 7 out of 50 points, as compared to his classmates who averaged 36 points, using the fourth-grade rubric which measures fluency, content and mechanics. Habib has difficulty with punctuation, sentence structure and composition of an idea.

Measurable Annual Goal: In 30 weeks, when given a choice of topics, Habib will write a weekly journal entry in the regular classroom setting scoring 40 out of 50 points for a period of four consecutive weeks using the fourth-grade written language rubric.

______PLAAFP: John has creative ideas, but does not understand sentence construction or how to develop paragraphs. He does not use punctuation and capitalization consistently. John received 12 out of 50 points on the district’s assessment for expressive writing (the average is 42). His classmates can write the four different sentence types (simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex) correctly and use them in a paragraph and he cannot.

Measurable Annual Goal: Given a story starter, John will write a six-sentence paragraph using at least three different sentence types scoring 45 out of 50 on the district assessment. ______

Key Points to Remember:

 MAGs enable the student to make progress in the general education curriculum  MAGs address needs identified in the PLAAFP  MAGs are statements of anticipated outcomes to be achieved in a year or shorter if the IEP team chooses  MAGs are written with high expectations.  MAGs must be clear since they are used to report on the student’s progress.  Goals are measurable and meaningful.