COUN 6810S: Working With Exceptional Children

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IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1 Program Transcript

NARRATOR: Welcome to the next segment of the IEP process video programs. Previously, you learned about the assessment and eligibility stage in Ryan's story. Let's watch this reenactment of an IEP meeting that focuses on program planning.

KIM REESE: I would like to welcome everyone to Ryan's IEP meeting. Ryan was referred in third grade for services to special education. He is going into the seventh grade at this point. He is 13-years-old, and we're here to discuss his current IEP and what has been done and what we can do to further his educational process.

First of all, I will send around a record of access sheet. This is a confidentiality sheet. We do not go out of the classroom and discuss anything about him.

And you've been aware of everything and your rights. Here are your parental rights again. You probably have a million copies, and you're welcome to keep that one. It does afford you your due process rights and what rights you receive as a parent and your child also.

I am Kim Reese, the special education teacher. I will let you introduce yourself and your role.

NANCY ANDERSON: I'm Nancy Anderson. I'm the special education director, and I'm here representing the administration.

SHERRI FAIRCHILD: I'm Sherri Fairchild, school psychologist.

LAURAL WADE: I'm Laural Wade. I'm the regular classroom teacher.

DEBBIE YOUNG: Hi, Rhonda. I'm Debbie Young, and I'm the assistant tech coordinator.

KIM REESE: And I think we all know each other, except for you might not know Debbie at this point as well as you know all of us. So we are here today to review his current IEP and develop a new IEP. We will review the program progress and what he has done in the last year and develop a subsequent IEP, continue the same type service delivery, possibly. We will review placement, supplementary aids and services. We will review modifications and what has happened in the past and what we need to do to further help him

I realize the transition from grade school to sixth grade seemed to be, after visiting with Ryan, pretty easy for him, he said. He didn't have any issues. And

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

we'll see if we need to add to the modifications to get him on through and help him next year. And Debbie will discuss her assistive tech eval.

Ryan is a pleasant 13-year-old, seventh grade boy. He is polite and excellent at working independently. He is currently mainstreamed in all academic classes.

He is in one hour of a special services for a resource period where he consciously uses this period to finish work not completed in the regular classes. Ryan becomes overly stressed when he has too many academic tests at one time or when contemplating on taking the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Tests. He often gets migraine headaches related to stress.

I gave Ryan a WRAT III pre-test, and it indicated that he was performing on a first grade level in spelling, third grade level in reading, and on a fifth grade level in math. On his Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test, he's scored an advanced on math, and that is a great strength. He scored not so well in reading, unsatisfactorily. Satisfactory in science, and satisfactorily on social studies.

Ryan's strengths are his attendance. He has great attendance. His auditory processing is a strength-- math computational skills and parent support.

Ryan learns best by somebody lecturing, talking to him. He takes it all in. He is a very good learner auditorially.

These strengths, along with Ryan's natural self-motivational will help him achieve satisfactorily in the regular academic environment. His weaknesses are reading skills, possibly some behavior-type issues, not so much in the classroom, but as far as maybe stress levels. I don't know that I would so much call those a weakness, but if it's affecting his educational process in the classroom or by taking a test, then we might need to seek or see if we need to find out what we can do to help him as a team.

DEBBIE YOUNG: With his anxiety?

KIM REESE: With anxiety and stress. Today, we will also discuss assistive technology devices and services. He has computer access whenever he needs it, assistive software, tape recorder, possibly?

DEBBIE YOUNG: That's what we're discussing, whether or not he needs computer access and assistive devices.

KIM REESE: Tape recorder in the classroom-- does he utilize this? I know we put this on there last year.

RHONDA HUNT: Not at this time. He hasn't yet, but I feel like maybe in the future it might be necessary.

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

KIM REESE: He is getting into higher level classes in middle school. And whether he wants to carry in a tape recorder to tape the teacher, we need to discuss that, or just have the teacher have it on and tape it. Those are some issues we need to--

RHONDA HUNT: Would each teacher have a tape recorder?

KIM REESE: They can, or--

RHONDA HUNT: Or carry the same one from class to class. If we want the teacher to turn it on-- I don't know. We need to discuss it.

NANCY ANDERSON: It depends on what we decide on the IEP. Because if we decide that each teacher needs to have one, then that's what we do. We provide that. If it's not needed and he can carry it around and will do that--

KIM REESE: Hand it to the teacher--

NANCY ANDERSON: Then that's what we'll do.

KIM REESE: And so it might be that there's six different tape recorders and they tape their own lecture. And at the end of the day, he goes to teachers and gets the tape that's labeled. I don't know. We'll have to discuss on modifications and adaptations, what would be best for him to help him fit in and not feel bad.

RHONDA HUNT: Or even if he just collected the tape before a test, so he could review what had been taught.

KIM REESE: The lecture. I know there's also a lot of board work where transcribing-- we need to talk about him trying to copy from the board to paper. Ryan's goals, his annual goals, we need to talk about. He has made progress this year from last year's goals, and these were geared more for his elementary levels.

And we're talking more about reading, his reading levels. He has improved his reading skills by one grade level based on pre and post-testing. He has done that by the WRAT that I gave him and the WRAT that his elementary teacher gave him. So he has made 100% on improving a grade level.

I think we need to gear our goals more toward our state standards. And we will discuss this with testing, also-- his state curriculum tests. As far as reading, what do we think is important for Ryan as far as his reading?

Is it decoding skills? Would it be context, vocabulary, comprehension? What do you guys think, as a team, on the important concept of getting what he needs to

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

know, the knowledge he needs to know to be able to possibly verbalize it as far as reading goals?

NANCY ANDERSON: Laural, what do you see in the classroom?

LAURAL WADE: I see that he struggles. But if he has one-on-one help, that is most beneficial for him.

NANCY ANDERSON: And when he has one-on-one help, what are they doing? And they reading it for him?

LAURAL WADE: Well, some-- a lot of times reading it for him. And then if you read it for him, he can comprehend very well. But he struggles. But that is not helping him as much on learning to read.

NANCY ANDERSON: So can he decode? Can he decode those words and those sounds?

LAURAL WADE: Some. Some. He struggles with that some. So I don't know what we need to do on that.

NANCY ANDERSON: So it sounds like he might do better if he had things presented orally.

LAURAL WADE: Yeah. I've had more success with presenting things orally. Because even if you give him a study guide of some sort of something, that doesn't really help because he needs to hear it orally. And so a lot of our texts are provided on tape, CD. And we need to provide those, probably, for him to hear.

KIM REESE: So that will be a modification.

LAURAL WADE: Right, so he can read along with that. And that would be one beneficial thing that we could do, because almost every text that we adopt now, they provide those things for us.

KIM REESE: I will see if we can get those. Has he had those this year from his regular teachers?

RHONDA HUNT: No.

KIM REESE: OK. We can get those.

NANCY ANDERSON: Let's try that.

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

DEBBIE YOUNG: And also with the assistive tech, we're looking at screen readers, that if there's text that we can get into the computer, whether we scan it or eText-- text books through eText-- then where there's computer access, that screen reader could read the text to him out loud.

RHONDA HUNT: That would be great.

DEBBIE YOUNG: He could have headphones and read it in the resource room or when we determine where that would be and when that would take place.

KIM REESE: And so what we're really focusing on here is we need to expand his vocabulary and his comprehension.

DEBBIE YOUNG: We're not looking at teaching reading.

NANCY ANDERSON: Right.

RHONDA HUNT: Yeah, he's past that stage.

KIM REESE: Right. OK. So these are some things that I was thinking about in dealing with him one-on-one. And if we need to change these, these are just some goals that I came up with. On vocabulary, Ryan will expand vocabulary throughout study, word study, literature, and class discussion. On comprehension, Ryan will interact with the words and concepts in a text, construct an appropriate meaning

So he is getting the context. He is getting the vocabulary. He's getting it, so without feeling bad about not being able to read it.

RHONDA HUNT: So basically, the only change is the method in which it's going to be delivered to him and that he has to respond?

KIM REESE: Possibly. And I will let Debbie, the assistant tech, explain how it can be read. And I know in the past, you have always read tests. You have read his textbooks. So I know it's difficult at home, also.

RHONDA HUNT: We spend a lot of time on homework.

KIM REESE: So we need to discuss that as far as helping you out at home with the assistive tech.

LAURAL WADE: But we still ought to be able to provide these materials that we do have with the eText. We ought to be able to provide that.

DEBBIE YOUNG: And I'll just go ahead and say that with the assistive technology evaluation, that that is a process. It's not a test you put in front of

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

somebody and you score it. It is a process, first, to identify the problems-- what can this student not do that everybody else is doing and why. And then we look, as a team, at the solutions for what may help solve that problem.

He is not able to read, visually, text. So we've had several suggestions right here of what can be used instead of that-- someone reading to him, CDs, or the computerized screen readers. And then as a team, we make that decision-- if we want to purchase some software or a special computer or whatever-- and we will decide what would be most appropriate, least restrictive for him, not having to leave a regular classroom to go do something. And then we'll make that decision.

But it's a trial and error. You don't want to go buy something until you know it works. So I'll provide trial software that we'll look at and see if that's going to work. And I will have to try it in different situations.

Every year will be different. Every class will be different. But then we'll make some decisions on exactly what we want to use. And it's an ongoing process.

KIM REESE: And this is what we call, Rhonda, a related service. And we have several related services. And in the past, Ryan has not received any. A related service can be so much as a bus ride on a special bus from school to home if we feel appropriate. But the assistive technology is a related service.

Counseling can be a related service. And we will discuss, maybe, counseling for his destressing if we choose to do that. But we need to discuss that as a team as far as behavior, because he doesn't have behavior issues. It's trying to find different ways to destress himself and whether counseling might be that way or just some self-monitoring. We might not even need to go with the school counselor.

NANCY ANDERSON: If he goes to the special education teacher and works directly with her, that's a direct service. Whereas with assistive tech, our assistive tech person will come and work with the regular ed teachers and with Ryan, trying to figure out how can he become as independent as possible.

RHONDA HUNT: So this would be done during the school time?

NANCY ANDERSON: I would be done during the school time, yes.

KIM REESE: Which in the past, he's been in, I've noticed in previous records, 30 minutes pull out for special education. Last year, we went with one class period daily, five days a week to come. And what he did in the room was he did his homework. It was a study hour for him to--

RHONDA HUNT: It helped a lot.

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

KIM REESE: --do his previous homework. So if we need to do two hours of services-- but we also, on the other hand, need to think about he will not be having an elective course of his choice. He will be missing out

RHONDA HUNT: I don't think he needs two hours. I think one hour is plenty.

KIM REESE: So then we need to discuss what you expect or, as a team, what we expect for him in that one hour. Are we going to do assistive technology? Are we going to do homework or just whatever is needed?

RHONDA HUNT: Well, I can help him with homework, but I don't have the knowledge to help him with this assistive technology.

DEBBIE YOUNG: And part of the related services that we wanted to provide is the service of someone training him, his teacher, you as parents, because you may be using some of the software at home. We're looking at a couple of different softwares to try, like the screen reader I talked to you about, and then a word prediction word processor that will help him with his spelling and writing. And those can be loaded on any computer in any classroom.

He could have access there and at home. And the training, it won't take him long at all to figure out how to use it, and then any of you. And then if you have questions or problems, call and we'll [INAUDIBLE].

RHONDA HUNT: Would he be able to have, maybe, a thumb drive, so if he starts an assignment at school, he can finish it at home?

DEBBIE YOUNG: Sure.

KIM REESE: That's a good idea.

DEBBIE YOUNG: A lot of the kids take a disk home to finish their English assignments. I don't see any difference for him.

LAURAL WADE: That would be a good idea.

KIM REESE: Because if he doesn't have homework, he can be doing that, which is his homework.

RHONDA HUNT: Well, that could be his homework. That would be his homework.

KIM REESE: But that's good. We discussed Ryan's goals, that he has been in special education, part-time class, specially designed service where he came into the resource room for one class period daily, five days weekly last year. Do we

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

want to continue that for him? The least restrictive environment is what we are discussing.

It depends on what best fits the kid, and that's what we're here to discuss. We can have him on an IEP and me monitor with each teacher and he not ever come to my classroom. Or we can have him in my classroom, like, the last period of the day to catch up on homework.

RHONDA HUNT: That would be wonderful.

KIM REESE: OK-- or do assistive technology.

RHONDA HUNT: That worked last year, but the last period of the day would be awesome.

KIM REESE: OK, so he would be coming to my classroom one class period to work on homework, get tests read. But we will discuss modifications, also, because in the past he has had his tests read.

DEBBIE YOUNG: And we want to see the assistive technology implement throughout his curriculum, not just that one hour of the day.

RHONDA HUNT: Right.

NANCY ANDERSON: So it might be that we could try this for a while, and if he has the assistive tech in all of his classes, it might be that he wouldn't need to come to the special class.

RHONDA HUNT: Right, after he learns how to use it?

NANCY ANDERSON: After he learns how to use it and starts using this assistive tech, then the special ed teacher could just be a consultant with the regular ed teacher or, in fact, could sometimes even go into to the regular ed class for a portion of the day and see how is it working and work with him if she needs to. But I'm hearing at this time we want to continue part-time special class?

KIM REESE: I feel like we should, only to learn the technology, as of right now. We can reconvene. This is called a yearly IEP or an IEP review. We can reconvene any time we want to. So if I see progress and I feel like as his special ed teacher-- or you as a regular teacher-- that he is getting the techniques of what she is trying to provide and learning the programs and we feel like he's getting this, he doesn't even need to do homework even at home.

DEBBIE YOUNG: And we don't want to forget the low end of the technology, because that is the most simplest tape recorder--

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

RHONDA HUNT: Calculator.

DEBBIE YOUNG: --calculator, things given orally. I mean, we don't want to forget those as part of what he needs. We don't want to just depend on technology solutions, because we still need to rely on the low end.

LAURAL WADE: Well you know, you've come into my classroom with some other students and assisted in the classroom, but I don't really think that that would probably be what we would want to do in Ryan's case.

RHONDA HUNT: He's real nervous about being pointed out. He doesn't want anything different.

LAURAL WADE: So that, probably, isn't something that we would want to do in this case.

KIM REESE: Yeah, that's true. That is very true. But I could work with, maybe, the whole group in your classroom or maybe me come in and talk to all the kids about it and say that some of the students might be using this program. This is what it's for. Educate other students, also, for all students.

LAURAL WADE: That would be real beneficial.

KIM REESE: Right. And maybe we can incorporate it into the computer lab when our regular English teachers go there, because he is in regular English. And maybe we can see if we can purchase something for the computer lab.

RHONDA HUNT: That sounds good.

NANCY ANDERSON: And it wouldn't just benefit Ryan. It would benefit all students, anybody who has a reading--

KIM REESE: So he wouldn't be pointed out.

RHONDA HUNT: Right.

KIM REESE: OK. We need to talk about his modifications and adaptations in the classroom, the regular classroom. And what these are, they are to help him or any student to be able to achieve success in the classroom with the help of these modifications that he might need.

RHONDA HUNT: To keep his disability from affecting his education.

KIM REESE: Right, right. And it is my job is a special educator to hand these out. And they are the modifications, whatever we choose, and make sure that the

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

regular teachers read it, look at it. And I try to educate my regular teachers on, this is what we do, and this is why. This is why the student might need this.

RHONDA HUNT: Excuse me. If the teacher forgets that certain children have different criteria on their homework, whose job is it to let that teacher know? Is it my job to change the assignment when it comes home? Is it the child's job to go up to the teacher and say, do you remember? Because they can't possibly remember every child's modifications.

KIM REESE: And you know, if he has me, possibly, at the end of the day, he can either remind me-- I know we have had some problems in the past where everything's fine at school until, in the car, there you go. Call me. Let me know what's going on. And then I can go talk to the regular teachers. And if things don't get done to what best fits any child's needs, then we can take further steps.

NANCY ANDERSON: That's when she calls me.

KIM REESE: I call Nancy, or I go to my principal and say, hey, this is going on.

RHONDA HUNT: Well sometimes, that's happened in the past, and it's been completely innocent. I mean, it's just by accident.

KIM REESE: We like to go through the chain of command.

RHONDA HUNT: Right. And I don't find fault in that, but I just wondered if I had the freedom at home to apply that modification.

KIM REESE: We might put on here that this teacher needs to modify the test. The test comes to my room. It's just like everybody else's. So my job, as his special Ed teacher, is to modify it for him, whether that might be a word bank, if it's look them up in the book and write them down. I will provide all the answers.

RHONDA HUNT: Because really, all he needs is it read to him.

KIM REESE: Right. And then somebody transcribing or if we choose to do the assistive tech. OK, guys. How about we take a break?

I realize we've been here a while. We will address the behavior issues, but let's take a break right now. And we will reconvene in 10 minutes.

NANCY ANDERSON: OK

IEP Process: Program Planning, Part 1

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