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Writing Quality Individualized Education Programs Workbook Summary
Margaret L. Jones
Liberty University
1971 University Boulevard, Lynchburg, Virginia 24502
(757) 869-4930
EDUC 521
WORKBOOK SUMMARY2
Writing Quality Individualized Education Programs Workbook Summary
This textbook has been filled with information that an individual special education
instructor will need to be proficient. The text also broken down the main key points and explain
in details with pictures and examples on how to write IEPs.
Special Education in the Individualized Education Program
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) defines special
education as specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of s
student with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in
hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education. To provide
special education, each state must ensure that all students raging from the ages of 3 to 21 with
disabilities have access to these five provisions: 1. Free appropriate public education, 2.
Appropriate evaluation, 3. IEP, 4. Least restrictive environment, and 5. Procedural safeguards.
In 1970 there were 1 in 5 children who with certain disabilities received schooling, and
some states specifically excluded children with certain disabilities from attending public schools.
The tide of the civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s along with increased public
advocacy and a series of pivotal legal decisions, moved Congress to pass the Education for all
Handicapped Children Act in 1975, which mandates free and appropriate public education for all
children, regardless of any disability.
Section 1: Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act requires that the
individualized education program (IEP) include a statement of the student’s present levels of
academic achievement and functional performance (PLAFF). A PLAFF is a brief but detailed
description of a student’s achievement and functional performance at the time the individualized
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education program is created. It also provides a starting point for all decisions regarding a
student’s individualized education. During the PLAFF statements, obtaining the necessary
information requires three steps. Those steps are: reviewing the curriculum standards for
academic achievement, determine the student’s current academic strengths and limitations:
which includes formal and informal assessments, and assessing the student’s current functional
strengths and limitations.
When creating the student’s present levels of academic achievement and functional
performance the IDEA requires the team to describe how the disability affects the student’s
academic achievement and functional performance in the relevant skill areas, for elementary or
secondary students, describe how the disability affects the student’s involvement and progress in
the general education and lastly for preschool students, describe how the disability affects the
student’s participation in appropriate activities. The strength-based approach more accurately
portrays the student’s functional by stating what he or she has mastered within the curriculum.
Section 2 – Measurable Annual Goals
Measurable annual goals designate what the student is expected to achieve within one
year to address the effects of the disability. Present levels reflect present conditions; annual goals
describe future achievement. Measurable annual goals are the individual’s education program
team’s best estimate of what the student can accomplish in the next year. The Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) requires IEP teams to consider a student's
academic, development, and functional needs. Additional educational needs refer to the student's
developmental and functional needs that result directly from the disability
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Developmental refers to a predictable sequence of growth. Functional refers to applying
knowledge and skills to meet every day needs. The term measurable means the behavior stated in
the goal can be observed and measured to determine when it has been achieved.
When a student is achieving well below grade level, the IEP team might write goals using
a bilevel approach. The bilevel approach means that one or more goals address the student’s
grade-level standards, and one or more goals address necessary skill improvements at a lower
level. The IDEA does not specify the wording for writing a measurable annual goal. The law
requires only that annual goals must address progress in the general curriculum, address other
needs caused by the disability, and be measurable.
Previous versions of IDEA required that all annual goals include benchmarks or short-
term objectives. Today, the law requires these provisions only for students who take alternate
assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards. Alternate standards and alternate
assessment procedures apply only to one small percentage of students whose disabilities inhibit
them from progressing comparably to their peers without disabilities in the general curriculum.
Benchmarks and short-term objectives are two ways to break down annual goals into smaller
measurable parts.
Benchmarks have three main components: they break down one skill into major
milestones to be achieved throughout the year, they describe levels of increasing performance for
the target skill, and many of them include dates by which students are expected to meet
milestones. Short – term objectives describe multiple, related but distinct and consequential skills
necessary to achieve the annual goal. These goals can be broken down into benchmarks in a
variety of ways, including performance, assistance level, task analysis, generalization, and a
combination.
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Section 3 – Measure and Report Student Progress
Having regular measurements of the students learning shows the team members whether
the student is making adequate progress. If progress is not measured, the team can’t track the
success of instruction, and the teacher can’t make necessary changes to help the student meet
annual goals. The IDEA requires that reports of student’s IEP goal progress be issued at least as
often as school report cards are issued. Assessing and reporting each student’s progress affects
classroom practice by requiring the teacher to do three things: measure, monitor, and report.
Measuring is the act of administering different types of assessment to describe a student’s
academic or social behavior. A teacher can measure a child’s progress frequently to determine
whether the students are progressing at the rate necessary to achieve their goal. Monitoring is the
act of comparing student achievement to desired goals. A teacher monitors students’ progress by
comparing measurement data with appropriate benchmarks. To determine if a student is making
adequate progress toward IEP goals, a teacher must monitor frequently enough to either verify
adequate progress or make necessary instructional changes to increase achievement. Reporting
provides oral or written information regarding student achievement.
Section 4: Services needed to Achieve Annual Goals
Special education and related services accomplish two purposes: they help the student
achieve annual goals and they do this in the least restrictive environment. The IDEA requires that
student with disabilities be educated in the least restrictive environment, which means that these
students are educated with their peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate.
Restrictive in this case means any situation in which students with disabilities are educated in
special classes or separate schools, or have otherwise been removed from the general class.
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Removing a student from a general education classroom is appropriate when the IEP team
determines that the nature or severity of the student’s disability prevents satisfactory learning.
When selecting the least restrictive environment, the team must consider any potential
harmful effects on the child or on the quality services needed. Services provided to or on behalf
of the student include: a special education services, related services and supplementary aids and
services. Services provided for school personnel include program modifications and supports for
teachers. All the provided services must help the student advance appropriately toward attaining
the annual goals, engage and make progress in the general education curriculum, and participate
with peers both with and without disabilities in academic learning and additional activities.
Supplementary aids and services refers to aids, services, and other supports provided in
regular education classes or other education related settings to enable students with disabilities to
be educated with nondisabled students to the maximum extent appropriate. When supplementary
aids and services are needed, the IEP team may determine that teachers must adjust or
modifications in one or more following areas: the ways teachers present information, the ways
student’s complete tasks, the ways teachers assess student learning, and the ways teachers
structure the environment. Supplementary aids and services are provided in the regular
classroom or on other curricular or extra – curricular environments to meet the student’s IEP
goals.
Section 5: Student Participation with Nondisabled
Concerns about excluding student from any aspect of the regular school program are
related to the area of exclusion. When students do not participate in regular classroom activities,
they do not benefit from teachers’ content knowledge and from opportunities to learn with and
from their peers without disabilities. The law through the least restrictive environment
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requirement assumes that every student with any disabilities will be involved and progress in the
general education curriculum. The general curriculum can be taught in a separate special
education setting, but students would be excluded from participating with their nondisabled
peers. The regular class is typically where students with disabilities receive instruction in the
general curriculum with nondisabled peers.
Extracurricular activities are supplementary to the general curriculum and are not
required by state curriculum standards. Nonacademic activities are part of the school day, but
they are not directly related to mandated curriculum or extracurricular activities. The IEP team
must make this determination by deciding whether the nature or severity of the disability would
preclude participation in regular classes and activities even with the use of supplementary aids
and services. The IEP must also include explanation of the extent to which the student will not
participate in the regular school program.
Section 6: Accommodations and State and Districtwide Assessments
Consistent with the goal of involvement and progress in the general education
curriculum, students with disabilities are to participate with nondisabled student in state and
districtwide assessments under any of several conditions, based on the IEP team’s decision.
Students with disabilities are tested on the same schedule as those without disabilities. Federal
law requires systematic assessment of student progress in specified grades for certain subjects.
Students with disabilities are allowed to take the same tests under the same conditions as
students without disabilities. The team should consider whether the student requires
accommodations for classroom instructions and tests. If accommodations are required in the
course of daily learning and classroom assessments, then the student will most likely require the
same or similar accommodations for state – and districtwide assessments.
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Accommodations do not fundamentally change the content or administration of the test in
ways that alter or lower the standard or expectations of the assessment. IEP teams must be
cautious in selecting the alternative means by which students will demonstrate their skills
because these alternate tests must be comparable to the regular assessments, and they must be
valid and reliable to be eligible for determining the students’ annual progress. The team considers
the modifications needed for the student to experience academic success in the classroom:
whether the student prefers and uses these modifications might be less difficult to administer
while obtaining similar results.
Alternate assessment is based on alternate achievement standards that are linked to grade
level content standards but have been reduced in complexity, depth, or breadth. Alternate
achievement standards must be aligned with a state’s academic content standard, promote access
to the general curriculum, and reflect on professional judgement of highest achievement
standards possible. IEP teams are given authority to administer alternative assessments
appropriate for measuring students’ academic achievement and functional performance.
Section 7: Transition Planning
Transition planning is a student – centered process of structuring of course work and
other education experiences to prepare the student for transition form school to adult life.
Transition planning results in a formal education document that is individualized to the needs
and aspirations of the student for adult living. The transition plan includes these important
components: appropriate, measurable postsecondary goals based on age – appropriate transition
assessments related to education, training, employment, and independent living skills; and
transition services. The team address each of the three elements by breaking them even further.
In the measurable postsecondary goals the student’s interests are translated into four
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postsecondary goal areas. Those goals are education, what the student wants to study and where
they would like to go. Training which includes specific skills necessary for desired employment.
Employment which focuses on the student’s desired trade or occupation and last independent
living which relates to the type of housing the student desires as well as transportation needs. The
next goal is transition services, which includes the course of study, necessary to assist the student
in reaching the goals. Most transition services can be provided outside the school, the team must
invite a representative of any participating agency that will be responsible for providing or
paying for transition services.
The last step is a statement that the student has been informed of the transfer of adult’s
rights no later than one year before the student reaches the age of majority. The IDEA requires
schools to summarize the academic achievement and functional performance of students with
disabilities who graduate or who no longer receive special education after age 22. The IEP and
the transition plan are complementary documents. The IEP teams serves secondary students most
effectively when IEP goals are addressed with education services as well as community based
services.
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References
Gibb, G., & Dyches, T. (2015) IEPs: Writing Quality Individualized Education Programs 3rd E.
Unites States of America: Pearson Education
