The importance of the IEP and how it is used.

How important is the Individual Education Plan (IEP)?  Well, the IEP is the legal document defining services that are to be provided to a child with special needs.  It incorporates information from a broad selection of sources such as observations, formal and informal assessments, parental input, and medical records.  It reflects the strengths of the child as well as his needs.  It reflects the concerns of the parents.  Before an initial IEP can be written, a significant amount of information must be gathered on the child.  The IEP team should have at their disposal an entire portfolio of information reflecting the child's strengths and weakness.  For a young child coming into special education, all areas of the child's life need to be addressed:  self care skills, communication skills, fine and gross motor skills, social/emotional skills and cognitive skills.  Medical records are examined.  The IEP team must determine to what extent the child's delays are affecting his education.  In addition, the team must determine how to identify the disability.  Do the behaviors of the child fit the criteria for developmental delays, or speech impairment, or autism spectrum disorder, or other health impairments?  In essence, the IEP should provide a comprehensive view of the child.  Then, it can be molded into a plan for driving the child's education.

Writing goals and objectives for the IEP can be time intensive.  First the IEP team must have a good understanding of the skills and behaviors of typically developing children for that age. Then the team can write goals that reflect areas in which the child is delayed and needs extra support.  Depending on the range and degree of delays, there may be only a few goals or many goals.  The IEP is generally written with the expectation that the child will work on these goals for a school year.  The goals may be sequenced to reflect increasing levels of independence and increasing degrees of difficulty.  Each goal or objective must reflect in observable terms:  a) the expected behavior from the child, b) the conditions under which the behavior is expected, c) how frequent the expected behavior must be demonstrated (Cook, Klein, Tessier, 2008).  Once the goals have been determined and written, the IEP must reflect the extent to which the child will participate in a regular education setting vs. a special education setting.   This includes not only time in a special education classroom, but time with specialized services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, etc.  A clear statement of why a child must be served separate from his typical peers is required.  If any program modifications are necessary or extra supports such as supplemental staffing are required, these must be stated in the IEP (Cook et al, 2008).  The final product should be a working document that reflects the strengths and needs of the whole child and presents a clearly defined plan for how to address the educational needs of the child.

Cook, Ruth E., Klein, Diane M. and Tessier, Anette.  Adapting Early Childhood Curricula for Children with Special Needs.  Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and Columbus, Ohio:  Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall,  2008.