 |
In the last lesson we left the IEP team members seated comfortably at a round table with herbal tea and soothing music. The meeting is about to begin. In this lesson we deal with the process of developing the heart of the IEP. In Lesson 1, we presented the IDEA requirements for all the elements that must be contained in an IEP. In this lesson we concentrate on the three most important components of an IEP: (a) the statement of the child's present levels of performance, (b) a statement of the special education and related service which are necessary in order to adequately address the child's unique educational needs, and (c) a statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or short-term objectives which indicate the progress a child is expected to be able make when the district provides appropriate special education and related services. Additional content requirements for the IEP will be addressed in Lesson 4: Completing the IEP.
A very simple concept underlies the IEP. It is so simple it is sometimes overlooked or forgotten. The concept is this: the most basic, fundamental purposes of the IEP are (1) to identify and describe the child's unique educational needs (described as present levels of performance), (2) to determine what services are necessary to address those needs, and (3) to establish reasonable goals the student will be able to accomplish if the services are appropriate. This sequence is so critical it should be memorized - What are the student's needs? How will we address those needs? How will we know if our services are appropriate?
In this lesson you will learn how to develop the heart of the IEP: the answers to these three questions. A very important part of this lesson describes a simple, "measuring stick" approach to writing PLOPs, goals, and objectives which are truly measurable.
As we move into actual IEP development, it is good to remind ourselves that the IEP to be developed must be educationally useful and it must be developed according to the procedural rules of IDEA. If an IEP is not legally correct, a district could be liable for not providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to a student with a disability. Such liability could cost the district in time spent in litigation or mediation and in dollars for legal representation and reimbursement to parents. If an IEP is not educationally useful, then all parties to the IEP have wasted their time in developing the IEP, and the student for whom the IEP was developed will not benefit from an appropriate program.
|
