Guest Author - Kristie Melkers
With the winter holidays behind us, we find ourselves well over halfway through the school year at this point. The month of February is a good time to take stock of student achievement. Reviewing progress notes, report cards, and portfolio work is useful in making a determination of how much actual progress has been made toward the goals written in the IEP.
Educators are required to collect data throughout the school year that reflects student participation on IEP goals. Often this data is collected on a daily basis, which can be helpful to drill-down to the student's day-to-day successes and challenges. If the student's progress notes do not provide enough detailed information on student performance, these data sheets can be requested and reviewed together either in a parent-teacher conference, or even in an IEP meeting.
IEP meetings are not limited to one a year. Parents or educators can request an IEP meeting at any time for the purpose of reviewing progress and modifying the IEP if necessary. Writing IEP goals can be challenging. Some goals are written that are not meaningful for the student. Those goals may be unrealistic—either set beyond the student's ability level or far below. Meetings can be scheduled, especially with enough of the academic year having been completed now, to discuss progress towards the goals and to modify or completely change the goals if needed. Benchmarks (short-term goals) are useful in helping the team spot objectives that are out of reach or already mastered and could be replaced by a new goal to keep the IEP appropriately rigorous.
This is also the time of year for the team to make a determination of eligibility for Extended School Year services (ESY). Determination is based on demonstrated regression/recoupement patterns that a student has demonstrated recently or consistently over a period of years. The winter break provided educators and parents this information, as well as other periods of absence the student may have had from school. Please see the article “The Basics of Extended School Year Services” for more specific information. Determination for ESY should not be made in the Fall semester.
For more information on special education issues, please see the links on the homepage.
