Tag Archives: IEP

If schools could have IEPs…

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It has come to be my belief that IEPs are used far too infrequently. We have limited ourselves by only applying IEP’s to children. There are so many other places in life where they might be appropriate. I would like to suggest that some schools might benefit from having an IEP that sets in place goals that assist them in helping special needs children. I’m not suggesting that all schools need such a document, solely the ones who present some significant processing disorder that inhibits their ability to correctly and adequately teach the special education children that are a part of their community.

While the more angry and embittered in advocacy circles might argue that such schools could be qualified under the emotional disturbance category; I believe the correct qualifying condition would be to place such schools under the visually impaired category. The federal definition of “Visual impairment including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.” 34 CFR 300.7 (c)(13). If a student is found to have an impairment, the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team must also determine whether the student has a need for special education.

It is fairly clear that while many schools have a vision that includes proper educational services for special education, other schools seem to have a disability that prevents them from seeing that these children, given proper support, can receive an excellent education and go on to lead productive lives. Given this, as a society, we need to address these issues by providing these vision impaired schools a proper IEP.

Following are some suggestions for goals. The list is not inclusive, and I encourage readers to suggest additional goals. Since an IEP is a living document, as such proper goals are determined, we can revisit our IEP and add them.

ARTICULATION GOALS

Long Term Goal for Articulation/Intelligibility: Given a structured or unstructured educational setting, School will increase meaningful communication interactions by articulating a clear vision of inclusion for special education student within its educational setting to 100 % over 4 consecutive trials as measured by parent/advocate observation, other informal assessments and data collection.

Short term: School will use appropriate phrasing (pitch, volume, rate, stress) during IEP inclusion meetings or conversation in all trials.

FLUENCY GOALS

Long Term Goal for Fluency Awareness/Self-monitoring: Given a structured or unstructured classroom setting, School will increase awareness of own speech production by describing characteristics of fluent and dysfluent speech by school personnel with 100% accuracy over 175 consecutive trials.

Short term objectives/benchmarks: Evaluate speech of self and others as it regards the rights of special education students.

MATHEMATICS GOALS

Long Term Mathematics Goal: School will develop number sense sufficient to understand that funding special education is not encroachment,; it is dispensing dollars to help student have access to the curriculum that is offered.

Short Term Goal: As observed by parent/advocate, School will provide sufficient resources to fund an educational program meeting the needs of special education children.

SOCIAL SKILLS/PRAGMATICS GOALS

Long Term Goal for Social Skills: School will demonstrate appropriate use of conversational manners.

Short term objectives / benchmarks:

1. School will demonstrate understanding and use of appropriate tone of voice and volume with 90% accuracy given situational cues.

2. School will formulate single or multiple sentences on a given special education topic with appropriate and clear meaning and increasing accuracy.

ORGANIZATION SKILL GOALS

Long Term Goal for Organization: School: School will demonstrate ability to complete work by delivering the items agreed to in IEP’s.

Short Term Goal: Through observation by parent/advocate, all areas of IEP’s will be fully delivered without exception.

TECHNOLOGY GOALS:

Long Term Technology Goals: School will proactively ensure that all special education students have access to the technology necessary to benefit from their educational experience.

Short Term Goal: As observed by parent/advocate, School will provide modern technology and software that is designed to meet student instructional needs in 100% of cases.

TRANSITION GOALS

Long Term Goals for Transition: School will transition from an adversarial role in dealing with parents to one in which parents are equal partners at the table with a wide range of experience in helping their children.

Short Term Goals/Benchmarks: School will receive training to better understand the role parents within the IEP process. As measured by parents/advocates, School will demonstrate increased cooperation in IEP meetings during 5 out of 5 meetings.

Once again, I encourage readers to suggest their own goals. I hope to garner enough to create a second blog posting with the entries.

What is a manifestation determination meeting?

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If you are seeking out this information, your child is likely in trouble with his school district. Additionally, your child is in special education, because this issue deals with children under the umbrella of special education. A manifestation determination meeting is very serious because it means that the school district is attempting to change your child’s placement or place your child on a lengthy suspension .

What is an manifestation determination? If a school district wishes to force a change of placement or suspend a child for an amount greater than 10 days, it must conduct a manifestation determination. The term itself means that the district must decide (determination) if the conduct which was the reason for the sought after discipline was a result (manifestation) of the child’s disability. If it was not, then the suspension/change of placement may proceed. If it was, then it may not. The reason for this is simple. If the behavior was caused by the child’s disability, i.e. impassivity, then the child was really not in control of their actions and the discipline would be unwarranted.

What is the process? A manifestation determination looks like an IEP team meeting, although there will likely be more school district personnel in attendance.

How will the decision be made? The district will investigate the incident itself. In order to do this, it will look at evidence, talk to witnesses, interview any victims, talk to the administrators and school personnel who have knowledge of the incident and its surrounding circumstances. Second, the district will review relevant information regarding the child and his disability already known to the district. In other words, they will review the student’s educational records, including the child’s cumulative file, their special education documentation, any information from  Student Study Team meetings and the like. Once this step is completed, the IEP team must then make its determination.

What questions are asked to determine if the behavior is a result (manifestation) of the child’s disability?There are two questions that must be answered.

(I) if the conduct in question was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the child’s disability; or

(II) if the conduct in question was the direct result of the local educational agency’s failure to implement the IEP.

If the local educational agency, the parent, and relevant members of the IEP Team determine that either subclause (I) or (II) is applicable for the child, the conduct shall be determined to be a manifestation of the child’s disability.

(F) Determination that behavior was a manifestation.–If the local educational agency, the parent, and relevant members of the IEP Team make the determination that the conduct was a manifestation of the child’s disability, the IEP Team shall–

(i) conduct a functional behavioral assessment, and implement a behavioral intervention plan for such child, provided that the local educational agency had not conducted such assessment prior to such determination before the behavior that resulted in a change in placement;

(ii) in the situation where a behavioral intervention plan has been developed, review the behavioral intervention plan if the child already has such a behavioral intervention plan, and modify it, as necessary, to address the behavior; and

(iii) except where there are special applicable circumstances, return the child to the placement from which the child was removed, unless the parent and the local educational agency agree to a change of placement as part of the modification of the behavioral intervention plan.

Are only special education children subject to manifest determination requirements? No, in limited circumstances, children not in special education may also be protected.  If the district has knowledge that the child has a disability, then a manifestation determination is necessary before a lengthy suspension or change of school placement.

When does a school district have knowledge that a non-special education student is disabled? A district is attributed such knowledge under three circumstances: 1) when a parent has in writing expressed to the district that the child needs services; 2) when a parent has made a written request for special education testing for the child to the district; and 3) when school personnel have expressed specific concerns about a problematic behaviors directly to the director of special education for a district or supervisory personnel.

If your child has an upcoming manifestation determination meeting, it would be wise to consult with an attorney in order to protect your child’s rights. You may contact The Law Office of Gregory R. Branch at its website, by email, gregorybranch@edrightsadvocate.com, or by phone at (714) 856-1166.