Exceptional Student Education - Understanding the Eligibility Process

Lecture Notes

Step 6: IEP is Drafted by the Team and Must Include. There are components of the IEP that are critical for you to understand and become familiar with. These areas are as follows: 1. Strengths of the student: In this section it is important to focus on what your child's abilities are. 2. Concerns of the parent: This is where you can document your concerns for your child. They can be academic concerns and/or behavioral concerns. 3. Results of performance on district or state assessments: This is where your team will document your child's performance on evaluations, district assessments, or state assessments like the FCAT. 4. Present level of performance: This section should capture information about how your child is currently doing in school and how his/her disability affects his or her performance in class. 5. Measurable Goals and Objectives/Benchmarks: Once a child's needs are identified, the IEP team works to develop appropriate goals to address those needs. Annual goals describe what the child is expected to do or learn within a 12-month period. Benchmarks or Short-Term Objectives are required only for children with disabilities who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards. 6. How progress towards the goals will be measured: Each child's IEP must also contain a description of how his or her progress toward meeting the annual goals will be measured and when it will be reported to parents. Typically this is reported on a quarterly (nine week) basis, through progress reports and report cards. 7. Supplementary Aids and Services: Supplementary aids and services are intended to improve your child's access to learning and his or her participation across the spectrum of academic, extracurricular, and nonacademic activities and settings. The IEP team must determine what supplementary aids and services your child will need and specify them in the IEP. This is typically where a team would document the need for a 1 to 1 paraprofessional to support your child while he / she is in class.