Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)

Once initial eligibility has been determined the team needs to create an Individualized Education Program (IEP) within 30 calendar days of determining eligibility. Goals, services, accommodations and/or modifications, etc., should be considered uniquely based on the needs of the student. Services under an IEP MUST NOT start until the initial IEP meeting is held and parent has signed Initial Consent for Placement in special education. That signed form should be uploaded as an attachment to the finalized IEP in EDPlan and the original submitted for filing. The date the parent gave consent for placement needs to be indicated using the green "Response" button next to the proposed IEP on the Documents page in EDPlan.

Important note regarding special education staff involvement in general education interventions/supports

Special education staff must not provide services, intervention, or instruction to any student who has not been found eligible for special education through a comprehensive evaluation process, and placed on an IEP with parent consent. This includes progress monitoring, small group teaching, check-ins/check-outs, or implementing behavior plans. 

Special education staff can lead field trip groups, be an Exhibition or Personal Project mentor, and similar functions for general education or special education students as those are not specific special education interventions or services but part of optional or required teacher responsibilities.

General education students who have an educational need for intervention or supports need to have this addressed in general education processes such as academic intervention or behavior intervention. While a special education team member may be part of staff meetings held to discuss these needs, special education team members MUST NOT be responsible for implementing, monitoring, or providing any interventions or supports.

This is a prohibition based on IDEA--a parent of a student who is not in special education has not provided their informed consent for any special education actions to be taken regarding their child. It is a violation of parent and student rights under IDEA to remove a student to a more restrictive environment without following appropriate processes.

This is also an important safeguard for the Network Schools' special education staff, who have demanding caseloads and teaching responsibilities. Assigning them additional responsibilities related to interventions and supports for general education is not appropriate to their job responsibilities. Additionally, because special education staff are paid with funds earmarked for special education and/or counted in the formula for the Network Schools' special education maintenance of effort, adding such responsibilities to their workday risks running afoul of federal and state funding laws, which can have serious repercussions.

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE FROM ANOTHER STUDENT’s IEP. It is likely to result in wrong student names, pronouns, etc. in the body of the IEP. This violates confidentiality and appears careless and unprofessional.

For Annual IEPs--Once the IEP meeting has taken place, scan and upload all IEP pages with original parent signatures or alternate participation indicated and meeting notes to the student's EDPlan record and turn in signed originals for filing. IEPs must be finalized within 5 days of the meeting.

Annual IEP Update

IEP OVERVIEW

Meeting Purpose- PAUSE and CONFIRM the correct purpose. Once you select and save an option, the system is SET. The IEP can be an initial (only offered as an option on-screen when initial eligibility has just been determined), annual review, or amendment.

For an Annual Review:  Enter date of meeting. - Begin date is the date of IEP meeting. For 2023-24, IEPs written from now until March will have an end date, goal end date, service end date TWO DAYS short of one year away due to the extra day in February 2024 for Leap Year.

IEP Type: Use Dropdown and choose accordingly.

NOTE: The ONLY data that remains for new Annual IEP:

 Post-Secondary Transition - keeps a cumulative record

 Specialized Transportation

 Accommodations

All other data will be cleared.  Complete a new Annual IEP following instructions outlined below.

Understanding and Using General Education Standards

Review the student's grade-level expectations and standards in the identified area(s) of need.

Identify the skill(s) needed for the student to meet grade-level expectations.

Assess the student's skills related to the standards.

Determine how the student's disability prevents him or her from mastering the standards.

Although the student may be working at a level far below his or her grade level, you will always need to cite the current grade level standard. By doing so, the team is always keeping progress in mind and working towards moving the student closer to grade level.

Depending on the student’s need and grade-level, standards may be chosen from the Idaho Content Standards, Idaho Early Learning E-Guidelines, Workplace Skills for Career Readiness Standards, and the Idaho Extended Content Standards Core Content Connectors (Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, pg 30).

Writing the PLAAFP (Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance)

PLAAFP Example: 

Shelby has begun to correct her own errors when participating in a reading fluency curriculum based measures. She is also paying attention to punctuation and pausing when necessary (STRENGTH).

Parent indicated that Shelby is below her peers in reading ability and would like to see her increase her ability to read with confidence at a higher grade level (PARENT CONCERN)

Shelby's pattern of weaknesses as indicated in her cognitive profile include limitations in fluid reasoning, short-term memory, and processing speed. These cognitive weaknesses impact her ability to use inferential/predictive skills while reading, grasp the main idea, identify author's point of view and purpose, develop vocabulary, and answer questions from text. As a result, Shelby is not able to independently read and comprehend grade-level text, complete assignments, and participate in discussion/activities as meaningfully and successfully as her same-aged peers (DISABILITY IMPACT)

Developing the Annual Goal 

(Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 26-31)

Student Need

What skill(s) does the student need to learn in order to make progress in this skill area? The skills listed should relate to the annual goal that is developed for the student.

Baseline Data

What is the student’s current ability to exhibit the target skill or behavior? The baseline statement should link directly to the annual goal (They must match).

Annual Goal

What should the student be able to satisfactorily achieve within one year? Consider the student’s rate of acquisition and input from all team members.

Annual Goal Components

1. Specify the Condition

Under what circumstances will the student perform the skill? The condition should not state a grade level of content, but can indicate that a task will be provided at the student's instructional level.

Examples:

• Given a verbal direction from an adult... 

• Given 10 multi-digit division problems...

• Given a multi-step assignment...

• Given a shopping list and budget...

2. State the Target Skill or Behavior

What is the targeted skill or behavior the student is expected to perform? (Ties to Student Need statement)

Examples:

• ...will correctly spell…

• ...will indicate agreement or disagreement using her communication device...

• ...will sort items by shape…

• ...will correctly answer who, what and where questions...

3. Determine the Criteria

At what rate/accuracy/frequency is the student able to exhibit the target skill or behavior?

Examples:

• ...with 80% accuracy on three consecutive trials

•  ...across 7 classroom assignments

• ...in 9/10 opportunities presented

•  ...in 4 consecutive peer interactions

• ...for three consecutive months

4. Specify the Procedure

How will the student’s progress be monitored?

Examples:

• Observation

• Rubric

• Work Sample

• Assessment

5. Specify the Schedule

How often will data on progress be collected?

Examples:

• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Bi-Monthly

Benchmarks and Short-Term Objectives 

For students who are eligible to take alternate assessments, your team must identify short-term objectives or benchmarks as part of the annual goals. All goal areas, academic and otherwise, require objectives. For all other students, your team may decide that the annual goal needs to be broken down into small steps or milestones in order to measure progress throughout the year.

Short-Term Objectives- Individual skills needed to achieve the annual goal. Examples:

• Steps for toileting

• Correct use of conventions

• Add, subtract, multiply, divide decimals

Benchmarks- Measure the progress toward the annual goal. Examples:

• Increase in percentage

• Decrease in prompts

• Increase in number of words, steps, etc. learned

Assistive Technology and Accessible Educational Materials (Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 32)

For each annual goal included in the student’s plan, the IEP Team will need to determine whether or not the student requires Assistive Technology (AT) or Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) in order to successfully participate in his or her educational program and attain the goal. 

Assistive Technology can be a device or a service, depending on the individual needs of the student. An AT device could be any item, piece of equipment, or product system used by the student to increase, maintain, or improve his or her functional capabilities.

Examples of AT devices you may see in schools:

• “Big key” keyboards

• Speech recognition software

• Jumbo grip pencils

• Weighted vest

• Bookmark timer

• Communication board

AT Services could include:

• School-based consultation to select an assistive technology device

• Support in acquisition of necessary devices

• Training and support to assist the student and team in understanding use of the device

 Services

The IEP Team must use the information from the PLAAFP and annual goals to determine the services, activities, and supports the student needs in order to make progress in the general curriculum. Each service, activity and support that is identified by the IEP Team during the IEP meeting must be described in detail. The description should be clear enough that a stranger could read the description and understand the service, activity or support as it is intended.

There should be a clear thread through the IEP that aligns the content of the PLAAFP with the goals and special education services. For every identified skill area there should be a corresponding service. Special education and related services are defined in a table or grid in the Services section of the IEP. Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 53-54

"Related services" are any service that the student's IEP team determines are necessary for the student to benefit from their special education program. Related services include, but are not limited to: speech therapy, language therapy, occupational therapy, counseling services, and others. There is no qualifying score or cutoff for a student to require related services. The need for related services is a team decision based on what the student requires in order to benefit from special education. For example, a student who qualifies for special education as a student with an Emotional Behavioral Disorder needs language therapy as a related service. This student may not have scores on standardized language skill assessments that would qualify them under the disability category of Language Impairment, but if their IEP team determines that the student requires language therapy in order to benefit from their special education program, then language therapy must be provided as a related service.

New IEP services must not be discontinued (while other IEP services continue; this does not refer to a full exit from special education) without there being some evaluative step taken to provide evidence that the student's disability no longer has an adverse effect and/or no longer results in a need for specially designed instruction in that  area. On the flip side, new IEP services must not be initiated with there being some evaluative step taken to provide evidence that the student's disability does have an adverse effect and results in a need for specially designed instruction in that area. In these cases, where the student's overall eligibility for special education is not being considered through a comprehensive re-evaluation, Consent for Assessment for "additional assessments of the student (between three year eligibility determination."

See below for a sample IEP Services grid. The Network Schools prefers for service frequency to be listed as minutes per week or per month, not per day.

Optional Statement of Service Delivery

The service grid is where IDEA special education and related services are listed. The Optional Statement of Service Delivery allows the IEP Team to describe, clarify, and explain in greater detail the services listed in the service grid, as well as any activities and supports that the IEP Team identifies into one statement. It is the location to notate any statements or requirements necessary for Medicaid School-Based Services, as applicable (e.g., inidividual or group delivery, the qualifications of the service provider and their supervision if applicable, etc.). See the Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 55-56.

At the Network Schools, we have the following Optional Service Delivery Statements that may be used as a guide and individualized per student need. 

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) should be considered in all aspects of a child’s individualized education planning. LRE is part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA says that children who receive special education should learn in the least restrictive environment. This means they should spend as much time as possible with age-appropriate peers who are not disabled. Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) ensures an appropriate balance of settings and services that enable the student to make progress on his or her educational goals.

LRE is a provision of special education services, rather than a specific place, such as a classroom or school. The IEP Team makes the decision about the child’s educational placement based on the unique needs of the child. For children with disabilities, special education services and related services must be provided in the environment that is least restrictive.

Within EdPlan, after service minutes are entered, the LRE is self calculating.  If the populated LRE is not what was determined, contact the Special Education Director for further assistance.

Source: Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 62

Special Considerations

(Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 66-70)

IEP teams should consider any special factors that may interfere with the student’s learning and address all considerations throughout the IEP (e.g., the PLAAFP and any other areas deemed appropriate by the IEP Team). Outlined below are some guiding questions that IEP Teams can use to address special considerations.

• Does the student require special transportation?

• Are Extended School Year (ESY) services required for this student?

Extended School Year (ESY) services means special education and/or related services that are provided beyond the regular school year. The goal of ESY services is to assist students with disabilities with the emergence and maintenance of skills specific to IEP goals addressed during the school year preceding the ESY. 

There are three areas to consider when determining whether a student is eligible for ESY services:

1. Emerging Skill
   The student makes few, if any, gains during the regular school year. The IEP Team determines the skill is in the process of emerging and that the student would make reasonable gains with ESY services; or

2. Regression-Recoupment
   The student would regress to such an extent that the amount of time required to relearn a skill or behavior would be so significant that the student would be unable to benefit from his or her special education; or

3. Self-Sufficiency
   The Team determines that an interruption in services would threaten the acquisition of critical life skills that aid in the student’s ability to function as independently as possible, thereby continuing the student’s reliance on caretakers, including institutionalized care. Critical life skills are related to those skills that lead to independent functioning. Development of these skills can lead to reduced dependency on future caretakers and enhance the student’s integration with individuals without disabilities. Skills may include things such as toileting, feeding, mobility, communication, dressing, self-help, and social- emotional functioning.

•  Does the student have limited proficiency in English?

Idaho Training Clearinghouse/SESTA module: Development of Effective IEPs for English Learners

•  Is the student deaf or hard of hearing?

Resources and support may be considered through Idaho Educational Services for the Deaf and the Blind (IESDB).

• Does the student have unique communication needs?

• Is the student blind or visually impaired?

Resources and support may be considered through Idaho Educational Services for the Deaf and the Blind (IESDB).

• Does the student have health care needs?

The school nurse must be a part of the IEP team if there are any concerns in this area. Areas that require Nurse input include, but are not limited to, toileting, medication, seizures, diabetes, medication management, and other medical conditions.

• Does the student’s behavior impede the student’s learning or the learning of others? 

Placement Considerations

As the IEP Team works to identify the most appropriate placement for the student, each of the following questions must be considered and answered. If the team answers “no” to any question, a rationale for removing the student from the general education environment must be provided.

• Is this placement based on the student's educational needs documented in this IEP?

• Is the student able to be satisfactorily educated in the general education environment for the entire school day?

• If removal from the regular environment is necessary, is it based on the nature and severity of the student's disability and not the need for modifications in the general curriculum?

• Is the educational placement as close as possible to the student's home?

  1. • • The Network Schools are schools of choice (charter schools), meaning that they may not be the closest placement to the student's home. An appropriate rationale for this Placement Consideration is: "SCHOOL is a public school of choice.  STUDENT’S parents have made the decision to enroll HIM/HER at SCHOOL, which may not be the educational placement closest to HIS/HER home."

• Is the educational placement in the school the student would attend if the student did not have a disability?

• Did the IEP team consider any potential harmful effect of the educational placement?

• Does the student have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular and nonacademic events with nondisabled students?

Accommodations and Adaptations

Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 72-74

The following definitions are from the Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook regarding Accommodations and Adaptations.

Accommodations: Accommodations are intended to make educational opportunities more accessible. This may involve the setting, communication modality, equipment, and/or supplemental aids and services. Examples include Braille editions, large print, pencil grips, tape recorders, note takers, and computers with spell check. Accommodations are changes in the curriculum, instruction, or testing format or procedures that enable students with disabilities to participate in a way that allows them to demonstrate their abilities rather than disabilities. Accommodations are generally considered to include assistive technology as well as changes in presentation, response, timing, scheduling, and settings. Accommodations do not invalidate assessment results and do not fundamentally alter the requirements or course expectations.

Adaptations: Adaptations are changes in educational expectations for the student with a disability compared to peers without disabilities. These adaptations include actual changes in the general education curriculum and instruction or the use of an alternative or supplemental curriculum. Adaptations include strategies such as reading aloud the reading portion of a test, using spell/grammar check for language arts assessments, substituting out-of-level testing. Adaptations fundamentally alter requirements and invalidate assessment results and provide non-comparable results. Adaptations should be considered in an IEP meeting with input from all members of the IEP Team, including the parents.

Any accommodation considered for the general education classroom should be considered for district and state assessments (as allowed).

Statewide and Districtwide Assessments

Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 75

As part of the IEP process, each student’s IEP Team will need to determine how the student will participate in statewide and districtwide assessments. Depending on the strengths and needs of the student, he or she will participate without accommodations, with accommodations, with adaptations, or by means of the alternate assessment. It is important to understand that the IEP Team considers how the student will participate in state/district wide assessments, not if the student will participate.

Consider the full one-year duration of the IEP when thinking about which assessments a student will take. For example, if an annual IEP meeting is held for a current 4th grader in May, ISAT testing is likely over for the current school year--but the team needs to consider how the student will participate in the ISAT ELA, math, and science assessment during the upcoming school year in 5th grade.

Qualification for the Idaho Alternate Assessment

The Idaho Alternate Assessment (IDAA) is intended for only those students with the most significant cognitive impairments.

Idaho Alternate Assessment Participation Criteria

Idaho Alternate Assessment Participation - Decision Making Worksheet 

This worksheet must be completed annually by IEP teams for any student who is being considered for the Idaho Alternate Assessment, in addition to filling out the responses to the participation criteria on the student's IEP. This worksheet should be uploaded to EdPlan with the student’s IEP.

Progress Monitoring and Reporting

Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, pg 59-61)

Progress Reporting

It is important to identify how and when the parent/adult student will be informed of the student’s progress toward the annual goals, including the extent to which progress is sufficient to enable the student to achieve the goals by the end of the IEP time period. Periodic written progress statements related to progress toward annual goals will be reported, at minimum, concurrent with the issuance of report cards. It is not sufficient to only report the student’s grades.

Progress Monitoring

The definition of progress monitoring is a method of formative assessment used to measure a student’s progress toward meeting each goal. Progress monitoring procedures document how data will be collected on each IEP goal in order to make instructional decisions about the progress of the student (how well the student is performing) and whether or not instruction or strategies are effective or need to be changed.

Progress monitoring must be done frequently and regularly, e.g., daily, weekly, or at least monthly. Progress monitoring data must be documented in writing and kept in the special education file. The IEP should include a procedure and schedule for progress monitoring that answers the following questions:

1. How will progress be measured?

2. How often will progress be monitored?

3. How often will progress reports be provided?

The measure (assessment) used to determine the baseline in the Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) will be the same measure (assessment) used for progress monitoring.

How will progress be measured?

Progress can be measured a number of different ways depending on the skill the student is working on. Three of the most common methods of measuring progress are frequency count, percentage, and duration.

Frequency Count/Percentage/Duration

The number of times the behavior occurs during a specified time period (frequency count). Examples:

• “The number of words read correctly in one minute.”

• “The number of two-digit subtraction problems completed correctly in five minutes.”

•  “The number of prompts needed to complete an assignment.”

A comparison between the number of correct responses to the total number of possible responses (percentage). Examples:

• “Given 10 reading comprehension questions, answer 90% correctly.”

• “Complete 95% of his assignments on time.”

• “Retell the story with at least 80% accuracy.”

• “Spell 70% of her weekly spelling words correctly.”

A measurement of how long the behavior occurs between the start of a response until its conclusion (duration). Examples:

• “Remain on task for 4 minutes while completing seatwork.”

• “Given 15 minutes of free time, student will engage with peers for at least 10 minutes.”

How will data be collected to monitor progress?

The IEP Team must describe how often a student’s progress will be monitored. The Team will determine who will collect data, across what environments, and how often data will be collected. Although multiple Team members may collect data for a single student, the Special Education Teacher is responsible for reviewing the data to ensure accuracy, fidelity of implementation of instructional strategies, and to determine whether or not the student is progressing throughout the year.

Additionally, teachers should use progress monitoring data to determine whether the instructional plan for the student is effective. Using a progress monitoring graph can be very helpful for informing parents and others about the student’s progress.

During the 2023-24 school year EDPlan will be rolling out an embedded progress tracking tool called Progress Track. The Network Schools plan to begin using Progress Track when it is available to us.

Examples of Progress Monitoring Tools

• Behavioral observations

• Curriculum-based assessment (AIMSweb, CBM, DIBELS, MAP, Lexia, iReady)

• Rubrics

• Student self-assessments

• Goal attainment scales

• Charting progress

• Conferences with students

• Portfolios

• Student work samples

How often will progress reports be provided?

Written progress reports will be provided to parents concurrently with general education report cards. In the Network Schools this means by semester.

Written Notice

Idaho IEP Guidance Handbook, p. 77-80

Written Notice should never be completed in advance of a meeting as it is intended to reflect what transpires at the meeting, what options were considered/rejected, and what decisions were made.