Ashleigh Nesselt

December 12, 2014

IEP Case Study

Part I:

At Ronald McNair the process for the IEP process includes documentation of
intervention (DOI) which lasts for about six weeks, parent and teacher observations, and
then finally the screening process for special education services. If a teacher feels that a
student is at risk or needs services they are brought before an educational management
team (EMT). When brought before an EMT it will typically include the special educator,
the classroom teacher, an administrator, and any other specialists the student may work
with or need to work with; this could include the speech pathologist, the psychologist, or
an occupational therapist. During an EMT meeting the student is discussed at length
and what concerns are presenting themselves in the classroom. Potential concerns
could be reading comprehension, writing, math computation, and behavioral or social
skills.
I was fortunate enough to observe a few different IEP meetings during my time at
Ronald McNair. The first meeting was an annual review after the student had been

tested for their triennial review and this occurred at the end of September. During the
meeting the students mother, assistant principal, the special educator, the classroom
teacher, the speech pathologist, the psychologist and two student interns were all
present for the meeting. The meeting was very productive and helped create goals for
the student which will be in place from the time of the meeting until the beginning of
sixth grade which is when the next annual review will occur. Discussed at the meeting
was the students progress in the areas of the classroom, achievement, speech and
behavioral areas. The first person to speak was the classroom teacher and he went over
the teacher report which tells the last three grades in the areas of reading, writing, and
math. Also discussed by the classroom teacher was the current reading and math levels
of the student which are both right at grade level with the help of different interventions.
The speech pathologist was next to speak about the student and his progress within the
pull-out speech group; there has been progress made but the student is still working on
the s and z sounds with the speech pathologist. The psychologist discussed the
improvements he had seen within the student when it came to frustration tolerance and
ability to preserver through difficult situations. The mother was very supportive of the
student and happy with the progress being made and discussed what was being done
at home to help with the speech and behavioral trouble spots.

The next IEP meeting that was observed was for an annual review of a student
who had just transferred to the school recently from another MCPS school. The main
concerns for this student was his raspy voice and his pronunciation of certain sounds. At
this meeting the classroom teacher, principal, special educator, and the speech
pathologist were present. The classroom teacher again discussed the teacher report
and how he had adjusted to the new school very well, making friends and doing well
within the classroom environment. The speech pathologist discussed the raspy-ness of
the students voice and asked the parent if there were allergies or a constant cold that
could be affecting the voice quality. The mom stated that the student had always had a
low raspy voice that was often difficult to hear due to year-round allergies and the
draining from his nose into his throat. After the speech pathologist and the mom
discussed the voice issue, the team went over the goals for the remainder of the school
year and the beginning of the fourth grade and everyone on the team agreed that the
speech goals were appropriate for the student and feasible to show growth.
The student being discussed for this project has learning needs in the areas of
reading comprehension, math problem solving, and speech. The need for special
education services will help the student to be able to attain the curriculum and be able
to be a successful student with the help of accommodations and interventions.

Part II:

The student was first brought up through the infant and toddlers program by his
mother due to delayed speech. It states that he would babble when he was about 10
months old but and continued to have language delays. The initial referral occurred in
May 2008 and found that the student had significant delays in the areas of fine motor
skills, and receptive and expressive language while also of concern was following adult
direction and eye contact. When the student was age 3 he was eligible for special
education services which were documented in 2009. The student is coded as speech
and language impaired with difficulties in the areas of reading comprehension, math
problem solving, and articulation. The special education services began to help this
student in March of 2009 with many services being provided to the student. The
services included read to, time and a half, reduce distractions to self, mathematical
tools, and graphic organizers.
As stated in the infant and toddler program report, the student was born at 38
weeks via cesarean section due to the mothers gestational diabetes. The student has
one older sister and three younger sisters, he lives with his sisters, mom, and dad.
During his second grade year, there were concerns about how much the student was
absent due to illness or fatigue while in third grade, the issues with fatigue have been an

issue. The student learns best in small group instruction which provides less distraction
to the student because of the fewer number of students in the group. He is also the first
student to volunteer to help another student out or to get them back on track. The
student has improved in his speech but still has a tendency to speak extremely fast and
has a week tongue which results in the misunderstanding of some words spoken by the
student. Despite these limitations, he is a very intelligent student who is able to
articulate majority of the time what he is trying to get across.

Part III:

The IEP notice included all relevant information including the name of the
student, the time of the meeting, signed by the principal, and a copy of the IEP. In
attendance at the meeting were the principal, the classroom teacher, the special
educator, speech pathologist, myself and the intern for the classroom teacher. At 11:15
am the participants of the meeting including the principal, teachers, and the speech
pathologist then at 11:25 the mother of the student was brought into the meeting. The
very first item on the agenda was the introduction of all the individuals at the meeting
after that information was shared, the safeguards and the habitual services since the
student does receive medical assistance through the state. After the introductions, the

safeguards, and the habitual services the teacher report was discussed. Mrs. Hogan is
the classroom teacher and discussed how the student has been preforming in the
classroom and some strengths he has shown as of recent. Next on the agenda was
finally time to go over the IEP with the parent, first was to check that all the information
was the same and nothing had changed since the last IEP. After the present levels of
performance were discussed about each area that the student has an IEP goal and then
a positive remark was shared with the parent about the student in both his reading and
math abilities. Following the present levels, the current goals and objectives were
discussed with the team and the parent; the goals and objectives were paraphrased in
simple terms for the parent so that she would understand exactly what her son was
trying to achieve in the next school year.
The meeting was held in the conference room of the school which is where all
EMT meetings are held and it did start on time thanks to the other teachers and
professionals being on time! The conference room has a circular table and at the head
of the table was the principal who was taking notes on the meeting and to her right was
the classroom teacher, her intern, and the speech pathologist while to the left of the
principal was the parent, myself, and my mentor teacher. The roles were very simple in
the meeting, the classroom teacher went over the teacher report and talked about the
MAP-M and MAP-R scores and where the child fell in the range; the speech pathologist

talked about her concerns and improvements the student has made, and my role was
the leader of the meeting and presenting the information about the goals and objectives
to the team and parent. The amount of collaboration really took place during the meeting
when discussing the number of hours of service the student should and would receive
which was very effective and agreed upon by the team to be 15 hours a week.
During the meeting I was the main person in charge of running the meeting. I had
sticky notes on each page so that I was able to inform the parent of what each was
saying in easier to understand terms for her. I feel that I was very prepared for the
meeting and had plenty of positive things to say about the student after having worked
with him for nearly four months. The meeting went very well respectfully speaking
because of the amount of preparation I was able to put into my meeting and the interest
I had in helping the student become successful.