Individualized Educational Plan(IEP)
Objectives: You will be able to know and identify
- What an IEP is.
- Who needs an IEP.
- Signs that a student may have a learning disability.
- How IEP services are delivered.
- How an IEP is created
- IEP team members
- Basic components of an IEP
What an IEP is
- An IEP describes your child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional skills. These skills include communication, social skills, self-care skills, motor development, language development, and vocational skills.
- an IEP clearly state annual goals and short term goals, including accommodations and modifications required for each student.
- Accommodations: Accommodations are alterations in the way tasks are presented that allow children with a disability to complete the same assignments as other children. Accommodations do not alter the content of assignments, give students an unfair advantage or in the case of assessments, change what a test measures.
Who needs an IEP
- Students with learning disabilities
- Students on the Autism Spectrum
- Students with emotional disorders /cognitive challenges / developmental delays
- Students with ADHD
- Students with physical disabilities….etc.
Signs that a student may have a learning disability
- Poor results even with significant effort.
- Lack of problem-solving steps.
- Poor memory of spoken or written content.
- Disability, or real challenges to read (Dyslexia), write (dysgraphia), or do simple math operations(dyscalculia) at his\her grade level.
- Difficulty with communication and language.
- Frustration with finishing simple tasks, or starting a new one.
- Difficulty mastering tasks or transferring academic skills to other tasks.
- Frustration attending school or nursery might be a very significant alarm.
How IEP services are delivered
- The services outlined in an IEP can be provided in regular education classrooms, at nurseries, schools, or even at the university level. In other cases, IEP services might be delivered in separate resource classrooms, and separate learning environment, depending on the students’ needs. Some students may have an IEP for one subject area only, while others may have one for all academic subjects in addition to social skills instruction.
How an IEP is created
Data Gathering comes first……It can happen through:
- Conferences with parents, students, or any other stakeholders that are relevant to the learning process of the student, should take place on a regular basis
- Analysis of the student’s performance and assessments (attention, behavior, work completion, tests, classwork, homework, etc.) Samples of assessments may include Woodcock Johnson, Stanford Binet5, Wechsler —etc.
- The information gathered helps all stakeholders, apply instructional and teaching strategies, that are relevant and specific to the student`s needs. To determine eligibility, a multidisciplinary team of professionals will evaluate the child based on their observations, the child’s performance on standardized tests, specialized assessments and other daily work such as tests, quizzes, classwork, and homework.
IEP team members
- Parents\Guardians
- Educational Supervisor
- Learning Support Teacher
- Service Providers
- Students if cognitively aware
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