Better IEPs

1. Better IEPs Building a Strong and Compliant Document

2. PURPOSE • A well written IEP guides our instructional decisions. • The State is directing our districts to comply with targeted IEP indicators.

3. OUTCOMES • By the end of the day, participants will be able to: • Understand the relationship between Goals, Needs and data-driven PLAAFPs. • Begin to examine our own IEPs for how well our current goals are driven by the data in PLAAFPs. • Begin the process of writing the kind of thoughtful PLPs that produce well written goals

4. Your Subtopics Go Here

5. 5 Principles from Legal Rulings on IEPs • Address all unique needs, not just academics • Write the IEP based on needs, not availability of services • IEP is a binding commitment of resources • IEPs must be individualized • All required components of the IEP must be included -- Barbara Bateman

6. There is no such thing as a behavior IEP, a transition IEP, an inclusion IEP, a speech IEP, an LD IEP… An IEP is an IEP!

7. YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE • Your Subtopics Go Here

8. Simple vs. Easy • It’s simple… write goals that address needs that are spelled out in the PLAAFPs by data. Simple…right? However, anything but easy.

9. Present levels of Academic achievement and Functional performance

10. “First of all, you will find it difficult to write a clear and measurable goal if you have not first written a clear and measurable present level of performance.” Peter W. D. Wright and Pamela Darr Wright 10

11. PLAAFPs are the foundation of the IEP • Basing an IEP on a poorly written PLAAFP is like building a new house on a crumbling foundation… …it won’t stand up

12. PLAAFPs are the foundation of the IEP • The PLAAFP provides the informational basis for generating goals, objectives, supports, accommodations, and services that are specifically designed to meet the student’s individual needs.

13. PLAAFPs Must: • Identify where the student is NOW, including their unique strengths, preferences and needs, parent and student concerns, and post-secondary interests/needs (Baseline) • Student voice • How student has grown or changed

14. PLAAFPs Must: • Address how the student’s disability impacts their involvement and progress in the general curriculum (Relationship to standards) • Identify areas of educational need

15. PLAAFPs Should: • Use clear, understandable language that all can understand. No jargon. Avoid vague terms such as:“understands”, “good student”, “misbehaves” • Identify supports and accommodations that have been used successfully in the past • Be specific and use data. Without data, the PLAAFP is only your opinion!

16. PLAAFPs Should: Create a clear picture of the student: If the student moved to California tomorrow, could their new teacher read the PLAAFP and have a good idea what to do with them?

18. Questions to Think About • What is the child’s learning style? • Visual • Auditory • Tactile • Kinesthetic • What skill is the student’s strength? • Decoding words • Comprehending • Rote Memory • Creativity • Listening • What is their current independent learning level? • What does this child need in order to learn? • If the student is 14, what are the student’s strengths, needs, preferences and interests, as they relate to transition from school to post-school activities?

20. Questions to Think About • What type of relationship does this student have with his/her peers and adults? • How does he/she interact with others? Does this student have difficulty meeting new people making friends, or keeping friends? • How does this student feel about himself? • How does this student adjust socially to the school and community environment?

21. Support Staff

22. Questions to Think About • Does this student require: • Small group instruction • Cooperative learning groups • Working independently • Does this student need: • Preferential seating • To have a consistent room arrangement and seating assignment • To have a consistent routine • Does this student require a paraprofessional to assist the student locate classes and follow schedules? • Does this student need daily assistance organizing material? • Does the student need assistance with extracurricular activities?

24. Questions to Think About • Does this child have physical skills or limitations that pertain to the learning process? • Are there motor, sensory, or health development concerns? • Is fatigue a concern? • What are the results of the latest physical, hearing, and vision exams? (i.e./check with school nurse)

25. Ability to communicate effectively with peers and teachers Assistance or Interpreting Communication Needs Language skills or limitations related to learning

26. Questions to Think About • Is the student speech and/or language impaired? • How does he/she communicate with others? Does this student have difficulty being understood or does not communicate clearly? • Is the student hearing impaired an in need of an interpreter? • Does the student’s communication deficits interfere with their ability to participate in instruction?

27. PLAAFP statements should answer these questions: • What are the student’s unique needs that result from his or her disability? • What is it that the student can and cannot do at this time? (student voice) • What are the student’s strengths in this area? (student voice) • How do these needs affect the student’s participation and progress in the general curriculum, or for a preschool student, participation in age appropriate activities? • What are the parents’ concerns for the education of their child?

28. PLAAFP statements should answer these questions: • What instructional and/or behavioral supports or services have been effective or not effective in addressing the need area in the past year? • What accommodations and/or program modifications or supplementary aids and services have been effective or not effective in addressing the need area in the past year? • What instructional supports and services will likely be supported and used by the student? • What transition needs of the student must be addressed to prepare the student for living, learning, and working in the community as an adult?

29. Where does the PLAAFP data come from? • Evaluations • Individual, group, curriculum based, norm referenced • State and district assessments • Structured observations • Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) • Work Samples • Strength-based assessments/informal discussions • Student interviews • The student, parents, past teachers • Factors related to the disability • Transcripts, credits earned, exams taken (HS age) • Student’s performance in relation to the standards

30. Critique this Academic PLAAFP Billie is a 3rd grader who has difficulty with written language. ?: What is difficulty REWRITE: Billie is in 3rd grade. Billie spells at an early 1st grade level. She knows that sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period, but has no other consistent use of capitals or punctuation. She is unable to write a complete simple sentence.

31. Critique this Social PLAAFP Dolly dislikes school and teachers. She violates school rules. She refuses to take responsibility for her actions. ?s: What do “dislikes school and teachers” “refusal to take responsibility” look like? What rules does she violate? REWRITE: Dolly does not initiate conversation withadults in school and only responds when asked a direct, factual (not personal) question. Dolly argues with peers when in the cafeteria or hallway without direct adult supervision. She has slapped or kicked a peer 1 out of every 3 arguments. Once agitated, Dolly is not able to de-escalate on her own and has resisted adult attempt to intervene through discussion. Cueing Dolly to take a 5 minute time out has been successful.

32. Critique this Academic PLAAFP Bob has moderate academic delays that adversely affect his educational performance. ?s: Specific delay areas & degree of delay? Impact? Rewrite: Bob’s reading decoding skills are 3 years below his 8th grade level; comprehension skills are 2years below; listening comprehension is on grade level. Bob’s reading deficits interfere with his ability to independently read and comprehend grade level academic texts. He avoids reading tasks during class and has demonstrated argumentative refusals to do assignments on 10 occasions when there was a substitute in his English or social studies class. These incidents have resulted in Bob’s removal from the class and after school detention.

33. PLAAFP Quality Indicators • Covers all domain areas • Uses data from multiple sources to describe current functioning • Includes student strengths • Focuses on priority needs • Includes parent and student concerns and desires, needs and preferences for the future • Includes progress on current IEP goals • Includes how the disability impacts performance in general education curriculum • Identifies supports and accommodations that have been successful • Uses clear language and avoids jargon in order to create a clear picture of the learner

34. PLAAFP Quality Indicators • Reflect individual-need determinations. • Provide instructionally relevant information about the student. • Identify how the student is progressing towards the Sunshine State Standards. • Are descriptive and specific. • Provide the basis for annual goals and direction for provision of appropriate educational programs and services. • Are written in such a way that parents, professionals and paraprofessionals can understand.

35. PLAAFP Quality Indicators • Are based on the results of the individual evaluation. • Reflect the priorities and concerns of the parents for the education of their child. • Reflect transition service needs. • Identify where the student is now so it is clear what it is he/she has to learn next and what supports and services he/she needs to get there. • Identify what impact the student’s disability is having on his or her ability to participate and progress in age appropriate activities or in the same curriculum as nondisabled peers.

36. Putting it All Together Based on what we have learned, you will be asked to thoroughly review your own students’ IEPs to answer these questions: • Are your PLAAFP statements clear and detailed? • Do they answer all the questions? • Does the PLAAFP describe the student as a person? • Is there an identifiable relationship between your IEP goals, the needs statements and PLAAFP data?

37. PLAAFP ACTIVITY • Review present level statements to determine if the following information is in evidence: • Strengths • Weaknesses • Objective data • Priority educational need

38. “The heart of the IEP includes measurable annual goals and short-term objectives or benchmarks that describe each student’s expected learning outcomes.” Writing Measurable IEP Goals

39. Measurable annual goals are statements that describe what a student can reasonably be expected to accomplish within a 12‐month period in the student’s special education program.

40. The PLAAFP Drives the Goals Looking at the present levels (academic and functional) the goals will make sense. If you begin by trying to find the goals before writing the PLAAFP you are set for failure. The goals won’t relate to the students needs. Peter Wright and Pamela Wright

41. Baseline Data Defined Baseline data is the rate at which the goal behavior is being performed at the time the goal is written. Baseline data is obtained using a measurement tool that will also be used to measure progress each quarter. Measurement tools must be specific to the goal behavior. 41

42. Prerequisites of a Measurable Goal Must be a correlation between the goal and PLAAFP Must describe the SKILL or level of performance that will be achieved in the year Must meet the child’s needs that result from the disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general curriculum.

43. Annual goals are useful in making decisions. • Data collection/performance monitoring and data reporting are helpful in determining the effectiveness of an IEP and in related problem solving.

44. Annual goals are able to be monitored • Goal(s) include evaluation strategies and criteria. Does the IEP state how will the student’s performance, resulting from instruction, be documented?

50. Developing SMART IEP Goals