Lynn Heile

Educ 230-The Exceptional Child

Dr. Henderson
November 22, 2015
IEP Assignment

A child named Jesse was referred for special education assessment. Jesse is a
ten year old male who had trouble paying attention and focusing in school. He also
had trouble staying in his seat, and showed impulse control problems by blurting
out answers and calling other students names. Jesse shows high anxiety and does
not like to be watched by other students. At home, Jesse yells a lot, will not do as
his parents ask, and is aggressive with his siblings. Jesse also performs lower than
his peers in written expression and in math. Due to the problems at home, his
parents had him assessed through his primary care physician using the Vanderbilt
test. This test showed he had ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. He also
tested high for anxiety. Jesse requires an IEP because the symptoms of his ADHD
are affecting his academic performance. An IFSP was not used because Jesses
family seem to be handling his diagnosis and symptoms adequately at home, and
have the support they need. Jesse receives no in home services and instead sees a
psychiatrist and psychologist for his medicinal and counseling needs.
The required contents of his IEP include:
A statement of the childs present levels of academic achievement and
functional performance, including how the childs disability affects his or her
involvement and progress in the general education curriculum;
A statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals;
A description of how the childs progress toward meeting the annual goals will be
measured, and when periodic progress reports will be provided;
A statement of the special education and related services and supplementary
aids and services to be provided to the child, or on behalf of the child;
A statement of the program modifications or supports for school
personnel that will be provided to enable the child to advance appropriately
toward attaining the annual goals; to be involved in and make progress in the
general education curriculum and to participate in extracurricular and other

nonacademic activities; and to be educated and participate with other children with
disabilities and nondisabled children;
An explanation of the extent, if any, to which the child will not participate
with nondisabled children in the regular class and in extracurricular and
nonacademic activities;
A statement of any individual accommodations that are necessary to measure
the academic achievement and functional performance of the child on State and
districtwide assessments;
(Note: If the IEP team determines that the child must take an alternate assessment
instead of a particular regular State or districtwide assessment of student
achievement, the IEP must include a statement of why the child cannot participate
in the regular assessment and why the particular alternate assessment selected is
appropriate for the child; and
The projected date for the beginning of the services and modifications, and the
anticipated frequency, location, and duration of those services and
modifications.
Description of IEP Process:
Step 1: Pre-Referral
The IEP process is initiated through a series of pre-referral interventions. The
interventions implemented vary depending on the kind of problem the student is
exhibiting. The major purposes of this stage of the IEP process are to

Document and explain students' difficulties and challenges

Test the effectiveness of classroom accommodations and modifications

Assess the power of various instructional interventions

Monitor students' progress (NASBSE & ILIAD Project, 2002).

Pre-referral activities are employed to screen students before more formal
identification procedures are implemented. In general, before any formal referral to
special education is made, teachers and family members work together to see
whether educational or behavioral difficulties can be resolved in the general
education classroom. The assessments used during this step of the IEP process are
intervention-based and are made in the student's general education class using

direct measures of performance (McNamara & Hollinger, 2003). The point here is to
avoid unnecessary assessments and placements in special education, which are
costly in time; money, and resources. During this pre-referral period, teachers try
different validated teaching approaches to determine whether faulty instruction is
the source of the problem (Barnett et al., 2004). They also make basic
accommodations to the instructional program and systematically differentiate
instruction more intensively. General education teachers receive both assistance
and consultation from specialists. Students whose learning remains challenged are
referred to special education and the next step of the IEP process.
Step 2: Referral
If pre-referral interventions are unsuccessful, an individual is referred for special
education services. Referrals can come from many different sources. For infants,
toddlers, and preschoolers, IDEA '04 stresses the importance of an activity it calls
"child find," where those with disabilities are actively sought. In these cases,
referrals can come from parents, a social service agency, public health nurses, day
care professionals, or a doctor. Young children who are at riskof having disabilities
because of improper prenatal care, low birth weight, accident or trauma during
infancy, or child abuse are referred for special services. Also, those with visible
indications of a disability (e.g., a missing arm or leg, facial differences resulting from
Down syndrome) or other signals of significant developmental delay (e.g., an 18month-old not walking independently or a three-year-old not talking) are usually
identified early and receive early intervention services during infancy or their
preschool years. Typically, the referral process begins sooner for children with
severe disabilities, because their disabilities are obvious at birth or during infancy.
As children grow older, other signs often trigger referrals. For example, a toddler
who is not walking by age two and a preschooler not talking by age three are both
candidates for early referrals. As children get older, reasons for referrals change as
well. Students whose academic performance is significantly behind that of their
classmates or who continually misbehave and disrupt the learning environment
often draw the attention of their teachers.
Step 3: Identification
Assessment is one foundation of the planning process. The purpose of this step in
the IEP process is to determine whether a youngster has a disability, whether
special education is required, and what types of services are needed. Evaluations
are conducted by multidisciplinary teams made up of professionals who have
expertise in each area of concern. Each member helps to evaluate the student's
unique strengths and needs. For example, if a language impairment is suspected,
an SLP is a member of the team. If there may be a hearing problem, an audiologist
participates, and so on. For students who are 16 years old or older, evaluation
includes assessments related to the need for transition services.
Information can come from a broad range of sources, including the youngster's
parents and family members. The professional who coordinates the identification
process varies by state and district. In some states, the assessment team leader is a
school psychologist, an educational diagnostician, or a psychometrician. In other
states, a teacher from the student's school leads the team's efforts.
At this step, many different types of data are used to inform the team about the
student's abilities. Medical history, information about social interactions at school

and at home, adaptive behavior in the community, educational performance, and

other relevant factors are considered. Evaluations include an array of assessment
instruments and procedures. Information should be collected, perhaps from family
members, about individuals' major life activities: performance at home, at school, in
interpersonal relationships, and during leisure time. Formal teststests of
intelligence, academic achievement, and acuity (e.g., vision and hearing)are part
of the information used to make decisions about students and their potential special
education status. Tests about a student's learning style are often included to help
identify accommodations that may be effective to support the individual's
successful access to the general education curriculum. Less formal assessments
(school observations of social behavior, examples of academic assignments, direct
measurements of academic performance, and portfolio samples of classroom
performance) are also important pieces of evidence for this step in the IEP process.
One result of the evaluation step of the IEP process can be determination that the
individual does not have a disability. In these instances, the IEP process is
discontinued. For those individuals who do have disabilities, this phase of the
process results in a baseline of performance that guides the development of the
individualized program plan and later will help evaluate the program's effectiveness.
Step 4: Eligibility
The information from the assessment step is used to identify students who actually
have a disability and qualify for special education services. For those students, the
IEP committee then determines what components of the full range of special
education and related services are needed so that an appropriate education can be
planned for and ultimately delivered. The education of those students who do not
meet the eligibility requirements remains the responsibility of general educators.
Step 5: Development of the IEP
After thorough completion of the pre-referral, referral, evaluation, and eligibility
steps of the IEP process, it is time to develop the actual individualized program plan
an individualized family service plan (IFSP) for infants and toddlers or an IEP for
preschoolers and schoolchildren and a transition component of the IEP for those
students with disabilities who are 16 years or older. For those students who qualify
for special education, the next step requires that parents and the IEP Team make
decisions about appropriate education, services, and placement. The assessment
results are used to help make these decisions. It is at this point that the IEP Team
begins its work to outline the individualized education needed by the student of
concern. Collectively, the team membersincluding parents and the individual (if
appropriate)now use the knowledge they have gained to identify resources
needed for that student to access the general education curriculum, determine the
appropriate goals for that individual, and then turn all of that knowledge into a good
educational program for the student. Of course, goals must reflect having greater
success with the general education curriculum or preparing for independence and a
community presence later in life. Now is the time when the constellation of services
and supports that become part of the student's appropriate education are
determined.
Step 6: Implementation of the IEP
Once the IEP is developed, the student's services and individualized program begin.
The IEP now lays out what constitutes an appropriate education for the student, the

extent to which the student participates in the general education curriculum, the
accommodations the student receives both for instruction and for testing, and the
array of multidisciplinary services from related service providers that support the
student's educational program. For students who are participating in a different
curriculum or whose goals differ from those of the general education curriculum, the
IEP has specified alternate assessment procedures as well.
Minor adjustments in students' goals or in the benchmarks that indicate their
attainment do not signal a need for a new IEP or another IEP meeting. Services
continue. However, major changes in goals, services, or placement do require
parents to be notified in writing. Some changes, particularly if they involve a more
restrictive placement, may necessitate a meeting of the IEP Team and the family.
Most often, this situation arises when issues surrounding discipline are the reason
for the change in placement or services.
Step 7: Evaluation and Reviews
IDEA '04 requires accountability for each IEP developed. In most states, students'
IEPs are reviewed annually. Under an IDEA '04 pilot program, which is attempting to
reduce paperwork and administrative burdens on educators, 15 states conduct
these reviews every three years. The purpose of the IEP review meetings is to
ensure that students are meeting their goals and making educational progress.
Because accountability measures determine whether the student is making
progress, educators are careful to describe expectations for tasks and skills the
student needs to learn in terms that can be evaluated. Whether the IEP process is
for an infant or toddler (an IFSP) or a schoolchild (an IEP and possibly a transition
component), the expectation is that frequent assessments of the individual's
performance will occur, even if major IEP reviews occur once a year or only every
three years.
NCLB and IDEA '04 require that all students participate in annual state- or districtwide testing or in alternate assessments. Alternate assessments are made available
to students learning English as their second language and to students with
disabilities whose IEP goals focus less on accessing the general education
curriculum and more on skills related to independence, life skills, and community
presence. Most students with disabilities participate in these high-stakes testing
situations with supports from accommodations like those they receive when they
are accessing the general education curriculum. For example, students who use
enlarged print or braille to read classroom materials receive these accommodations
in the testing situation as well. Remember that in addition to annual assessments,
students with disabilities frequently receive less formal evaluations of their
progress. Sometimes these assessments are even daily or weekly. The purpose of
such measurements of progress is to guide instruction and be sure those
interventions scheduled are effective.
Goals for Jesse:
Goal: By (date) , Jesse will increase in written language skills from being able to
write sentences with correct punctuation to being able to also use correct
capitalization, spelling and grammar with 1 or no errors per sentence in 3 of 4 trials
as measured by daily work and or teacher made tests.

Objective: When given a writing task, Jesse will use the basic writing conventions of
punctuation and capitalization in writing sentences with 1 or no errors per sentence
in 3 of 4 trials as measured by daily work and/or teacher made tests.
Objective: When given a writing task, Jesse will use the basic writing conventions of
punctuation, capitalization, and spelling in writing sentences with 1 or no errors per
sentence in 3 of 4 trials as measured by daily work and/or teacher made tests.
Objective: When given a writing task, Jesse will use the basic writing conventions of
punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar in writing sentences with 1 or no
errors per sentence in 3 of 4 trials as measured by daily work and/or teacher made
tests.
MATH: Jesse will learn and be able to solve multiplication problems using 2 and 3
place numbers with 80% accuracy. (That is, he will get 8 out of 10 problems correct
in his homework assignments, class assignments, and in testing situations.)
Objective: When given 30 single digit multiplication problems, Jesse will be able to
complete them within 3 minutes with 100% accuracy.
Objective: Given 10 homework problems, Jesse will solve multiplication problems
using 2 and 3 digit numbers with 80% accuracy across 3 consecutive weeks.
Objective: Given 10 problems during daily class work, Jesse will solve
multiplication problems using 2 and 3 digit numbers with 80% accuracy across 3
consecutive weekly samples.