What Is an IEP?

hi I'm Laura colloid I'm the public policy director at the National Center for learning disabilities I'm also the parent of a child with a learning disability thank you for joining our ask the expert series today and today we're going to talk about what is the IEP the IEP comes from the federal special education law or the individuals with Disabilities Education Act the IEP is the individualized education program that's developed for the student once the student has been found eligible under the law for services so today we're going to talk about what is the IEP who

develops the IEP and what to put in a good eye so the IEP is a framework that basically outlines what the eligible child will receive from the school the people that develop the IEP include you on a team with the school this is the meeting when you go in to develop the IEP where you bring a binder organized with all of your child's school information relevant things that you've noticed that you want to discuss and that will help you make the decisions about the educational challenges that your child has so that you can set goals

for them to make academic progress there is a list of who's on the IEP team in our idea parent guide and you can look at chapter 7 of the parent guide and it walks you through this IEP meeting we also have something called the IEP meeting planner and it helps you prepare for the meeting and then come in ready to discuss how to write goals and provide the information that you need to provide in the meeting so let's move to the heart of it what's in the IEP the law is very specific there are three

major components that need to be included in the IEP one is related to the present how was the child doing now this is where you list and discuss your child's strengths and weaknesses and their areas of need you may also put in here that they require some kind of assistive technology the most important element of this is what we call the present level of performance or plop and this is where you use the test scores the assessments that we're done during the evaluation to really document and show the areas of need and where the child

is presently related to where they should be according to their grade level the second area is about the future that we want for the child where do we want them to grow and what goals do we want to set for them and have the school support them achieving those goals in very specific ways these are called measurable annual goals they need to be written in a way that are very clear and explicit about how we want the child to make progress and how we're going to measure how they do this can take some time and

unfortunately some schools write inappropriate goals and so we've actually provided for you on our website examples of appropriate and inappropriate goals in a variety of areas so that you can look through some examples and help your team right very good goals for your child so the third part includes the components that are always in an IEP and this is where your child will receive their instruction in general education in a combined special and general education setting or possibly in a contained classroom and the other part includes how you they will be provided accommodations for testing

if they need them where they will be given the tests and the types of support and services that we'll be giving them during the tests the IEP meeting can be tricky at times especially because the law requires that you update it every year and that it's signed and agreed to by everyone at the meeting including you including your child if they're in middle or high school you should bring them with you we have a tool on our website called IEP conversation Stoppers this can help you if you'll review it know how to anticipate some of

the things that might happen in IEP meeting that will make you feel uncomfortable and help you navigate and work with the school to have a better outcome oftentimes you'll feel rushed and the goals may not feel just right you need to know you can stop the meeting at any time do not sign anything you can reconvene the meeting at another time go away reflect meet with an advocate or bring other people back to the meeting with you to help you get the goals and the list of services and accommodations that should be in the IEP

to get them just right the most important thing for you to remember is always participate in the IEP planning process even though it feels a little overwhelming you are your child's best advocate you know them the best and you know how to help set a standard for the highest of expectations for your child hold the school to that standard I promise you'll have a better outcome and remember we have all kinds of information on our website on LD data work related to making this IEP meeting a success thanks for joining us and our ask the

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