Existing Data

Your present level box will look like the box above, and be editable only by you.

Always begin your Present Level statement with your name, title and the date. You may want to bold this in order to visually designate your Present Level. Your name does not automatically show above your Present Level on the printed IEP, even though you see it in the online database. If you want to further delineate your present level, you could add a row of asterisks to provide a visual boundary.

For students who have an elopement plan, health plan, crisis plan or a safety plan as part of his/her BIP, please type this statement in bold at the beginning of his/her Pertinent Information Section of the present level:

Xxx has an elopement plan/safety plan/crisis plan as part of his/her BIP. Please refer to his/her IEP at a Glance for the specific procedures you are expected to follow to ensure student safety.

For students who have a health plan or evacuation plan, please include this statement in bold:

Xxx has a health plan/evacuation plan as part of his/her IEP. Please reference the attached document for the specific procedures you are expected to follow.

Your present level should pass the "Stranger Test". This information should be comprehensive enough that anyone could pick up the IEP and know where the student is functioning in all academic and functional areas. Refrain from using curriculum specific descriptions that another teacher would not understand (i.e. "student is reading at level F")

There are SEVEN COMPONENTS to the Present Level. It is recommended that you use the headers listed below as you complete your present level, as they will guide you to provide a complete and compliant picture of the student, and make it easier for the receiving teacher to find pertinent information.

You can copy the list below and paste it right into the Present Level box on your IEP, and then add information under each heading. Descriptions for each are listed in the next section.

• General Introductory Statement

• Pertinent Information

• School Skills and Work Habits

• Social, Behavioral and Functional Skills

• Academic Progress

• Cognitive Functioning, Speech, Language

• How does the student's disability affect learning and progress in the general education curriculum?

General Introductory Statement

Include the following information in your introductory statement

1. Grade level and school name

2. Indicate if student has been retained

3. Previous evaluation date (if applicable)

4. Current eligibility/level of service, and setting (if applicable)

   1. • If student is OHI- describe the health impairment

      • If student is SLD- what is the area of the learning disability?

      • Go back to the student's psychological testing to find this information.

5. Reason for referral (for initials only)

Pertinent Information

Begin your present level with any very important information a receiving teacher needs to know. This will include any vital information staff needs to know about this student, including:

• Allergies

• Glasses, hearing aids

• Equipment (wheelchair, etc)

• Medical diagnoses

• Mental health diagnoses

• Medication and dosage

• If student has therapist, probation officer, case manager and/or skills trainer (and include their name and contact info)

Any other information that is critical for staff to know

If the student has a Health Plan, you should note it here.

Only note the items that apply, and then say no other health concerns were noted at this time.

School Skills/Work Habits

Summarize the student’s work habit, including:

• Attendance

• Attention skills

• Class participation

• Organization

• Self-advocacy

• Work ethic

• Homework completion

Here are some examples:

• D’Metri, has been functioning well in his co-taught classes. He attends school on a regular basis and during instruction time is generally on-task. He is reluctant to raise his hand to ask questions in class, but will approach the teacher individually to ask questions or gain clarification. He is regularly using his planner, bringing necessary materials, and coming to class with his homework either complete or attempted. The special education support in his class has been successful in helping him attain this level of proficiency.

• Despite regular attendance, general education teachers report that John’s grades are lacking due to missing assignments and do not reflect his true ability. He comes to class unprepared, without his books or materials, but he does participate in class discussion, and is generally on-task. His oral responses demonstrate that he has knowledge of the content. His grades on written tests are average but he scores higher on in class project-based assessments. He does not use his time in class wisely, and often doesn't bring his textbook or supplied with him to class.

Social Skills/Behavior/Functional

• Interaction with peers and adults

• Discipline data

• Behaviors of concern

• Supports/behavioral strategies in place

• Personal care**

• Independent living skills

• ** If some are not relevant for the student, indicate that student appears to be functioning adequately in these areas and there are no concerns.

Emotional Disability

If a student has an emotional disability or a behavior intervention plan, you must include information about their socio-emotional progress, their behavior intervention plan, any write-ups, ISS/OSS, etc. Share how their behavior impacts their progress in school

(See BEST Sample below for an example).

Life Skills

If a student is in Life Skills, you must include information about their personal care needs and independent living skills. Here is an example:

Tommy has a moderate cognitive disability and is able to feed himself independently, indicate when he needs to use the rest room, and dress himself. He is involved in adaptive home economics for simple meal preparation. He does need assistance using PCS to wash and dry towels from the adaptive home economics class. He needs to be monitored while out in the community due to his inability to verbally communicate his personal information.

Academic Progress

• Credit status/GPA (For high school students)

• Grades for all subjects

  • • mClass data

    • Teacher input for SNAP and KG

    • Skill set information for LifeSkills

    • Summarize input received from teachers on questionnaires

    • Include information from classroom data sheets

• Reading—include “present level” statement that is used for each goal

• Math--include “present level” statement that is used for each goal

• Written expression-- include “present level” statement that is used for each goal

• Science/Social Studies Skill level for students with services in these areas.

• For initial evaluations: Compare student’s class performance and standardized results—use skill specific data

State the student’s academic skills in each subject (Math, Reading, English, Social Studies, Science). Provide the name of the TOS for each subject and SUMMARIZE their comments from the General Education Teacher Questionnaire. There are several different options below.

• GE Teacher Questionnaire 1*

• GE Teacher Questionnaire 2

• GE Teacher Questionnaire 3

• GE Teacher Questionnaire 4

• GE Teacher Questionnaire 5*

• GE Teacher Questionnaire 6 (Google Doc)

Example for Language Arts:

William did not pass the 2011 English/Lang Arts portion of the Spring 2011 ISTEP+ Assessment. William scored 348 (12 points below the overall passing score); however, his scores fell close to the required passing scores in the subtest for reading comprehension (just 7 points below the state passing score) and exceeded the required state passing score by 9 points in writing applications.

His English teacher, Mrs. Jones, reports that when writing to a prompt, William writes in simple and compound sentences, consistently using correct grammar and punctuation. He typically writes three paragraph responses consisting of 5-6 sentences each.

William has had Language Arts in a READ 180 classroom all year to date. He has improved his Lexile from 700 (approximately beginning-5th grade level) on 9/21/2011 to a Lexile of 850 (approximately 6th grade level) on 1/11/2012. This is a growth of approximately 1.5 grade levels. William struggles with making inferences, drawing conclusions, and with citing evidence from the text to justify his thinking.

Example for Math:

William did not pass the Math portion of the Spring 2011 ISTEP+ Assessment. His score was 510 (54 points below the passing score). The assessment breakdown indicates that William’s weakness is in linear equations and inequalities. He scored 26 points below the required passing score. William’s strengths are in working with rational numbers and in statistical thinking.

High School

If a student is in high school, you must include information about the credential they are pursuing and the requirements for achieving this goal. Cut, paste, and modify a statement below:

Diploma Track:

(Student) must take and pass all courses necessary for a (core 40 diploma/general diploma), possess employability skills, and demonstrate postsecondary-ready competencies required for Graduation Pathways.

Certificate Track:

(Student) must achieve the requirements listed in this IEP in order to earn a Certificate of Completion.

High School Example:

Michael has earned 10 credits out of 12 attempted. In order to earn a Core 40 Diploma, he must take and pass all courses necessary for this course of study in addition to passing both the Language Arts ECA and Math ECA. Michael is currently on track to graduate on time but is now in jeopardy of falling behind. This semester, he has 26 unexcused absences and is in “no credit” status in 3 out of 6 classes (Algebra, English 10 and US History). He has been referred to after school credit redemption but has not attended any sessions to date.

Cognitive functioning/speech/language

Cognitive processing/Functional information can be found in the evaluation report.

• If cognitive assessments have been completed:

  • For example: "XXX has overall average cognitive abilities, however, short term memory difficulties are evident." Or, "According to his/her most recent evaluation report, XXX's overall cognitive ability lies within the mild range."

• If cognitive assessments have not been completed:

  • For example, "Although XXX has not had formal cognitive testing, he/she does not appear to demonstrate significant delays."

Speech articulation. language and communication:

• If the SLP is TOR, this section should:

  • reference the student's progress monitoring data, given a thorough summary of his/her progress, and identify the interventions provided in speech therapy for the previous year.

• If the SLP is not the TOR, this section should say:

  • "See SLP present level for speech and language concerns."

• If the student does not receive speech/language services, please say:

  • "There are no concerns regarding speech and language at this time."

Statement of how student’s disability affects his/her involvement and progress in the general education curriculum

Indicate disability (for SLD-indicate the specific areas) and how it affects the student.

Indicate which accommodations are effective—this should then correlate to the accommodations that are recommended later in the IEP

Examples:

• ___________ is a _____ grade student who qualifies for services with a ____________ disability. He/She is currently receiving services in the ___________________ setting for ______ of the core classes. Due to (his/her) disability, (student) struggles with ______________. The accommodations that work best for (student) are_________________________.

• Jerry is a 7th grade student who qualifies for services with a learning disability. He is currently receiving services in the general education setting for all but one of his core classes. Due to his disability in written expression, he struggles with getting his thoughts on paper in an organized and coherent way; therefore, he is in the special education setting for Language Arts. The accommodations that work best for him are using graphic organizers and editing checklist, use of word processing device, and additional time to complete written assignments.

• If the student is identified as SLD, please specify the academic areas affected by learning disabilities.

• For Life Skills students: Xxx is a student with a _____ disability. Due to his/her disabilities, Xxx struggles to acquire, maintain, generalize and apply academic skills across environments and significant individualized modification to the grade level content and performance expectations are necessary so that Xxx can access a functional curriculum to further develop his/her independence.