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Lesson 5 |
Introduction |
Activity 1 |
The individual education program (IEP) serves as a planning document that provides guidance for both placement decisions and instruction. The individual education program summarizes information on the child's current levels of performance and identifies specific goals and objectives for each child. Second, the individual education program involves parents as equal partners in the educational planning process.
The IEP also provides a means of accountability. The IEP sets forth in writing, a commitment of resources necessary to enable a child with a disability to receive needed special education and related services; it establishes evaluation criteria and procedures used to assess progress toward meeting objectives; and it serves as a compliance document for the Nebraska Department of Education.
A written IEP must be completed before a child is placed in a special education program or provided services. After the initial placement, an IEP must be in effect for each year the child receives special education services.
The IEP is a written statement that includes the following components:
The statement of the present level of performance should describe the effect of the disability on the child's educational performance. This includes both academic areas such as reading, math, or communication and nonacademic areas such as daily life activities or mobility. The statement of performance should contain information provided in objective, measurable terms. If test scores are included, they should be self-explanatory or an explanation should be included. Test scores should reflect the impact of the disability on the child's performance. Raw scores alone are not sufficient. Whatever problems the multidisciplinary team identifies in the statement of educational performance should then be addressed in both the objectives of the IEP and in the services proposed for the child.
Annual goals should describe what the parents and the rest of the IEP team expect the child to accomplish in the next twelve month period. The goals should focus on the special education and related services that the school employs to offset or reduce the problems resulting from the disability. The individual educational program does not address the total education of the child. For example, the IEP of a child with a mild speech impairment might focus only on correcting the impairment or minimizing its effect.
The IEP short term instructional objectives are measurable, intermediate steps between the child's present level of performance and the annual goals established for the child. Short term objectives are not intended to include the detail necessary for daily, weekly, or monthly instructional plans. IEP objectives provide general benchmarks for determining progress toward meeting annual goals.
The IEP is a commitment by the school to provide all the services listed, even if the school does not provide the services themselves. The IEP must also include a statement of the extent to which the child will be able to participate in the regular educational programs and any modifications necessary for the child to participate in these programs.
Nebraska Rule 51, Section 007.01 describes the IEP and provides the requirements for its content.
The school district is responsible for conducting conferences to develop and update each student's IEP. Parents and school personnel develop the IEP during this conference. Parents should be active and equal participants in the development process. The conference is used to gather relevant information and describe the educational services which are to be provided. The school must hold the conference within 30 days of the time in which the child's disability is first verified. In each subsequent year, the school must hold a conference to update the IEP. Conferences may be held at any time during the year but an IEP must be in effect at the start of each school year. For more information on Nebraska rules regarding IEP conferences see Rule 51, Section 007.03.
An IFSP, or Individualized Family Service Plan, is a statement of family resources, priorities, and concerns, as well as, a description of family goals and the services to be provided. The IFSP is written for infants and children who qualify for services and who are from birth to three years of ages.
Please see Rule 51, sections 007.07 - 007.13 for further information about the IFSP process.
Parent participation is an important aspect of the individual education program. Both federal and state laws require that the school make an effort to involve parents in the planning and development of the IEP. These efforts include providing adequate notice of the meeting, scheduling of the meeting at a convenient time and place, and providing an interpreter as necessary. Notice of the meeting must indicate the purpose of the meeting, the time and location of the meeting, and who will be in attendance. This information should include the name and position of each person who will attend. Parents should also be informed of their right to bring other participants to the meeting. Notice also includes a full explanation of all procedural safeguards available to parents. If the school cannot persuade the parents to participate, they must carefully document their efforts to involve the parents and the parents responses.
Parent signatures are not required on the individual educational program. Many schools do use parent signatures to document attendance at the meeting and as a means of indicating that parents approved the special education program. Parents have a right to a copy of the individual educational program. When signatures include that of the school representative, this provides parents a signed record of the services that the school has agreed to provide.
Parents do have a right to appeal if they disagree with the individual educational program. The IEP enables school personnel and parents as equal participants to jointly decide what the needs of the child are and what goals, objectives, and services are appropriate. If parents and the school cannot agree, the parents have a right to seek a hearing and to invoke their other due process rights.
If a child has no parents, a surrogate parent is appointed to represent the interest of the child. This surrogate parent has all the rights and responsibilities of a parent.
Nebraska rules regarding parent participation are found in Rule 51, Section 7.04.
A team of persons develops the individual education program at the IEP conference. The team must include at least the child's teacher, one or both parents, and a representative of the school other than the child's teacher. The child may be present when appropriate. At least one member of the multidisciplinary team that evaluated the child must also be present when the initial IEP is developed. When children receive services from an outside agency, a representative of the agency must also participate. Parents or the school district may also designate other persons to attend the meeting.
The school counselor may be one of these other persons when they provide information regarding the child's current performance or when the evaluation determines that the services of the school counselor should be provided to the student. The counselor, psychologist, or social worker may also serve as coordinator or case manager of the IEP process. Activities carried out by the case manager might include coordinating the multidisciplinary evaluation, collecting and synthesizing the evaluation reports needed at the IEP meeting, communicating with parents and participating in or conducting the IEP meeting itself.
Nebraska rules regarding IEP team participants are found in Rule 51, Section 7.05.
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