IEP CASE STUDY 1

IEP Case Study

Emily Mills
Towson University
Special Education

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PART I:
1st Meeting
This first meeting was the students annual review. Lucky for me, it was shortly after
winter break and I was able to observe and present at the meeting. The IEP chair, special
educator (my mentor), the guidance counselor, and general educator (math teacher) were all
present. The IEP chair began by first making two phone calls to the mother. My mentor and I
have a relationship with the mother and were under the impression that she was planning on
attending. We waited about 15 minutes then tried one last time to contact her but were not able to
get her on the phone. Due to time constraints, we had to begin the meeting. The IEP chair started
by having everyone introduce themselves then sign the participant form. After that, the general
educator spoke about the students behavior/progress in her math class. She said that the student
gives on grade level work when he actually tries. She said that he shows little to no effort and
rarely turns things in on time. However, when he does turn in work it is great. After the general
educator spoke, it was my turn to present. I first started with the students PLAAFP. I said that his
behavioral performance level was still below age level expectations based on classroom
observations and teacher reports. I expressed how the daily classroom observations and teachers
report that the students needs proximity in order to initiate tasks and needs an average of 2-3
reminders per class period to maintain a task. His strengths are that he is polite and participates
verbally, however his needs are work habits and task completion. Then I moved on to his
academic PLAAFP. Based on informal assessments (the Brigance), his instructional grade level
of performance is on grade level. Based on the Brigance assessment of basic skills, the student is
writing is at an eighth grade level. However, teachers indicate that the student shuts down when
extended writing is involved and is more engaged in oral participation. His strengths are sentence
structure, subject/verb agreement, and transition usage. His needs are extended time needed to
complete writing tasks and chinking of extended writing assignments into single step tasks.
Based on his PLAAFP, the student's disability has an impact on his academic achievement and
functional performance.
After I presented the new information I moved on to discuss the only other changes to his
IEP at this time. That was his goals and the service description of his supplementary
aids/services. I said that all of his supplementary services would be provided periodically as
needed starting 02/10/2015 and ending 02/10/2016. I then said that the student is not eligible for

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ESY services. Finally, I said the new goals given to the student. The behavior goal was now
focused on the students ability to increase his on task behavior.

Based on informal procedures and observation records, the student will initiate tasks
within 2 minutes targeted trials.

Given instruction, reminders, and proximity control, the student will complete and turn in
assignments targeted trials.

Given a grade level writing prompt and listed supplementary aids, the student will be able
to dictate, draw, or write a response to text, such as response logs and journals targeted
trials.

Given a grade level writing prompt and listed supplementary aids, the student will be able
to write and express personal ideas using drawings, symbols, letters, or words targeted
trials.
After finishing the new goals, it was then time for my mentor to speak. She briefly

discussed the students behavior based on her personal observation. She discussed his increased
lack of effort and how he has become more vocal about not wanting to do his work. In other
words, he has grown lazier compared to last year. However, his writing has improved which is a
sign of progress.
2nd meeting
The next meeting was a progression meeting to discuss the students progress and his
transition plans. The IEP chair, special educator (my mentor), the guidance counselor, and
general educator attended the meeting. It was relatively brief and started on time. The mother
was contacted by my mentor prior to the meeting and she said that she would not be able to
attend. The IEP chair proceed with the same formalities and introductions as the first meeting.
Everyone expressed their concerns for the student and the areas of progress. My mentor also
shared the most recent progress report that she and I came up with on 3/24/2015. She said that
using language arts written assignment data and classroom observation, the student completes
written assignments 90% of the time, when given proximity control and 1-2 verbal prompts to
initiate tasks. He also earned 86% accuracy average on 6 written assignments in Language Arts.
Everyone was very pleased to hear this and that meant that the student achieved his goal for
written language. For behavior, he has made sufficient progress to meet the goal, but has not yet

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achieved it. My mentor then read the progress comment and the general educator expressed how
much she agreed.
After we discussed the students progress we then discussed his transition plan. It has
already been decided that he is diploma bound and that he will be attending a high school in his
district. After all of the teachers agreed, everyone signed the participation form and the meeting
was over.
My mentor and I spent some time discussing the students individual learning and
behavioral needs. With this student in particular his needs are more behavioral. He has a difficult
time focusing for long periods of time. His other major need is self-motivation and putting for
the effort with assignments that require a lot of focus and time.

PART II
These meetings were an annual review and a transition plan/progression meeting so I was
not very familiar with the reason for referral. The student came to this school with an IEP already
so there were no pre referral strategies used other than formal testing (WJIII) and observations.
Timeline:

Date of Services Implemented: 02/10/2015-02/10/2016

Category: Other Health Impairment: ADD/ADHD

Types of Services:
o

Instructional Supports: organizational aids, have student repeat and/or paraphrase

information, use of work bank

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o

Program Modification: altered/modified assignments, break down assignments

into smaller units, chunking of texts, oral exams, reduce number of answer
choices

Social/Behavioral Supports: frequent eye contact/proximity control, provide

structured time for organization of materials, strategies to initiate and sustain
attention

Family History: The student lives with his mother and three other siblings. He has two
older brothers and a younger sister. The parent is a single mother who has a steady job
working for the government. She is also going to law school at night. The student has
expressed how involved he is with his family and how close they are. Due to his mothers
busy schedule, it is difficult for her to make it to most of the IEP team meetings.
Knowing this, my mentor will usually have a phone conference with her to discuss the
major changes to the students IEPs. Also, the student does not live in the Ridgely school
district but has special permission to attend the school. This means that every morning he
must take the MTA bus to a stop near the school and walk the rest of the way. He does
this every morning.

Behavior: The student has a very unique behavior pattern. Due to his ADHD he tends to
have difficulty focusing on assignments that take longer than 10 minutes. This is usually
followed by groaning noises and comments about how he doesn't need to go to school
because hes going to be a trash man. In other words, he has trouble focusing and putting
forth effort for long periods of time.

He does not have any linguistic differences. The only cultural difference is that he has a
different form of transportation than the other students at Ridgely which makes it difficult
for him to come to school when there is a delay or half-day.

His language has developed normally for his age.

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All of this information was found from his previous IEP, informal assessments
(Brigance), and classroom observations. I was able to observe the student a lot in his
language arts classroom and in the hallways at school. I was also able to gather a lot of
information through speaking to his teachers. I was then able to gather information about his
family history from his personal school records and through information from my mentor.

PART III
1. Yes, the IEP notice included all of the relevant information as outlined by IDEA. After
discussing with my mentor which student I chose for this case study, I was able to discuss
with the IEP chair about notification that was sent to the parent.
2. As outlined by the law, the appropriate people were present at the meeting. The IEP chair,
special educator, general educator and guidance counselor were present at the meeting.
The students mother was notified but was not present at the annual team meeting.
3. Yes, the timelines were followed in a very timely manner. All of the meetings were held
within the correct time periods. All notifications, draft documents, and other procedures
were followed within the legal timeline.
4. Yes, all procedural safeguards were followed and met.
5. The meeting did not start on time. There was another team meeting scheduled prior to
this students and it ran a few minutes over. The members of the team also wanted to
allow extra time for the students mother to make it. The mother was called a few times
from the meeting and therefore, started late.
6. Both meetings took place in the IEP conference room at Ridgely Middle School. This
conference room is in the corner of the school in a small room. There are no windows and
there is a heating fan in the room because it was very chilly. There is a large rectangular
table in the middle of the room with 10-15 chairs around the table.

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7. The seating arrangement was very casual. Again, because there was no parent present at
either meeting there was only staff members from Ridgely Middle School. So the IEP
chair sat at the head of the table controlling the laptop and leading the meeting. Then the
guidance counselor and general educator sat on one side of the table while the special
educator (my mentor) and I sat on the other side.
8. There was no clear agenda outlined at the beginning of the meeting. However, the IEP
chair did have each person present their information/observations by going around the
table.
9. The roles were pretty clear as far as who spoke and what they spoke about. At the first
meeting, I spoke as the special educator and mostly discussed the changes to the IEP and
any personal observations I had made while in class with the student. The general
educators role was to discuss the strengths and needs of the student from an academic
(more specifically math) point of view. The guidance counselor spoke about the students
behavior and any personal or family information she knew. And finally, the role of the
IEP chair was to move the meeting along and make sure that all of the important areas
were discussed.
10. There was definitely a certain degree of collaboration at the meeting. My mentor and I
spent a lot of time consulting with the general educator and guidance counselor about
their formal/informal observations of the student. I also spent some time talking to the
IEP chair about the IEP process and this specific students procedures that needed to be
followed. I wanted to learn more about the difficulty of following the timeline outlined
by the law.
Looking back on the IEP meetings I attended, I think that I played an important role. I
think that in the future I would try to be less formal and practice using less jargon words
when speaking. Even though there was not a parent present, I still want to practice speaking
to the parents in a way that is clear and to the point. Observing my mentor has taught me a lot
of ways to really connect with the parents and make the IEP process less difficult.