An Article Review: Are Rural Students Receiving FAPE?
By: Merissa Cochran
Liberty University
Reference
Hott, B. L., Jones, B. A., Rodriguez, J., Brigham, F. J., Martin, A. T., & Mirafuentes, M. (2021).
Are Rural Students Receiving FAPE? A Descriptive Review of IEPs for Students With
Social, Emotional, or Behavioral Needs. Behavior Modification, 45(1), 13–38.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445518825107
Introduction
This article review will be on an article titled: “Are Rural Students Receiving FAPE? A
Descriptive Review of IEPs for Students With Social, Emotional or Behavioral Needs.” In the
article, the authors explained free and appropriate public education (FAPE), present level
academic and functional performance (PLAAFP), and the individualized education plan (IEP).
Their study was conducted to analyze if PLAAFP and students’ annual goals were congruent and
to determine if the IEP was either procedural or substantive while being developed in a rural
setting. The methodology used was a vast amount of data collection from 5 rural schools. Data
collected included demographic information, PLAAFP, goals and objectives, and progress
monitoring information. The schools had a total of 2,715 students and 126 of them were eligible
for special education services. The research questions that the team attempted to answer through
the data were whether the PLAAFP had social, emotional, or behavioral needs, if these needs are
present do PLAAFP and goals presented align, do the goals have a technique to monitor
progress, and if they do what types of data is collected. The results of the data collected indicated
that although the five rural schools' IEPs were somewhat compliant they still did not align and
failed to address students’ needs.
Summary
The Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) was created to ensure that children
received a FAPE. For FAPE assurance within school systems, an IEP should be developed for
each child identified as needing one. The IEP should include PLAAFP, measurable goals,
appropriate program placement, a process to monitor and collect data, and to what extent a child
should be in an inclusion classroom. For an IEP to be substantive it must include measurable
goals, appropriate assessment, the ability to address students’ needs, accurate implementation of
services, and appropriate program monitoring. For an IEP to be procedural it must follow the
laws laid out and afford a student a meaningful educational benefit. To start the authors did
reviews of other studies. One study mentioned in the article analyzed students’ IEPs for
compliance, content, and congruence. That study consisted of 120 IEPs from eleven school
districts and the results was similar to what this study also showed; the study showed that there
were substantial deficits in the IEPs.
The study collected data on the 126 IEPs regarding demographic information, PLAAFP,
goals and objectives, and progress monitoring. Demographic information consisted of the date of
the re-evaluation, age, grade, gender, disability, and ethnicity. PLAAFP data collected was
reviewed for inclusion results, needs of a student, and assessments used to identify needs. The
goals collected showed the number of goals, area of need, condition, learner, behavior, and
criteria. Progress monitoring data was used to show whether monitoring was present and if so if
it was carried out. Alignment between these was described in 3 ways, full alignment, partial
alignment, or does not align.
Results showed that out of the 126 IEPs that 95 of them qualified as meeting the criteria
for the study of social, emotional, and/or behavioral needs. 70 IEPs did include behavioral goals
but not all of them were aligned. 17 IEP had needs but did not have goals. Eight had goals but no
needs identified and only 4 of them included all aspects of needs, goals, and monitoring. Most of
the IEPs included at least one behavioral goal and were in general compliance followed by study
skills. 16 IEPs were missing two or more required components. It was determined that 67 IEPs
were in partial alignment and 43 IEPs had missing goals to address the student’s needs. Progress
monitoring also showed that teacher observation was the main method used which is not an
evidence-based measure. It also showed that more than half of the IEPs were out of compliance
with the frequency of midterm data measures.
Critique
The article focused on answering whether children are getting a FAPE through their IEP
if they had social, emotional, or behavioral concerns. The study eliminated the needs of other
students that also have an IEP. Within the data that was collected in the study, the authors were
able to explain the answer to each research question. With the review of already present data,
there seems to have been an assumption although not written and only interpreted that their data
would also show that students were not getting a FAPE. The concepts of the study were clearly
described as they detailed what exact data was collected and incorporated it into their
explanation of the research questions answered. The data clearly shows that there are deficits in
properly developing, implementing, and monitoring the IEP of students with social, emotional,
and behavioral needs. It would be helpful to see the data on all students and not to limit the data
to only the one’s with these specific needs. It would also be helpful to widen the range of rural
schools used within a particular area as the limitations do state that it was only six percent of the
total schools in the participating districts.
The school system in the United States has grown quite popular regarding special
education and how we are utilizing the tools given to us through policy and law. Research for
how the IEP process is working and if it is adequate to give our children a FAPE. Further
research can be determined as needed based on the study completed in this article. The study
arises questions regarding if the paperwork required is too much for any school personnel to
follow. The paperwork was attempted to be reduced through a computer-generated IEP process
with drop-down options however; this explanation begs to question whether this method of
reducing paperwork also reduces the individualized part of an IEP. It also helps to ask whether
the drop-down options themselves are appropriate and evidence-based to provide a child with a
FAPE.
Conclusion
The study conducted in this article along with the literature review presented in the article
shows a clear deficit in our IEP process and our ability to give our children a FAPE. The article
presents data clearly to show deficits in all areas of an IEP including writing the IEP and goals,
implementing the goals, measuring the goals with evidence-based measures, and following up
with progress monitoring when required by law. It shows that schools are attempting to write
measurable goals for students but may lack knowledge on how to measure them or relate them to
the specific needs of the student. The article leaves questions for further research to be
conducted and developed. Whether the IEP computer-generated method has hindered our
students even further by making it less individualized, how we could reduce the amount of
paperwork for schools to help them ensure a student's FAPE, and if funding in rural towns
restricts the amount of help that a school can provide a student. Further research helps determine
the deficits in a policy and identifies ways that we can develop or modify the process in which
we do things. In this instant, further research into how the IEP fails or succeeds at meeting a
child’s educational needs will help policymakers determine where our gaps are in the IEP
process and identify ways to fill these gaps.
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