IEP's

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Home : 2004 : January : 20

IEP's
By new teacher

I'm new at this myself, but this is my understanding of the system in our district. What goes on in other districts may be different.

A child is referred for testing/evaluation because there are concerns expressed by the
parent and/or teacher. Parents approval is needed for testing. The testing/evaluations should indicate the areas in which the child is lacking. At certain ages, in certain areas, criteria must be met which may indicate that the child may be identified as learning disabled (LD), as having a speech delay, motor problems, developmental delays, etc. Usually, the specialist in the delayed/problem

area writes up the IEP goals. The speech therapist would write speech goals, the physical therapist would write motor skill goals, the LD teacher would write academic goals, etc. Upon parental consent, the child is added to the therapist's caseload & the therapist works with the child to meet the goals set. Regular Ed teachers don't write IEP's although they may have input as to what goals the child should be working on. While they help reinforce the goals/skills the child is working on, they usually are not responsible for keeping track of progress; that's the therapist's job. If a goal is met, it may be replaced with a new one right away, or left untill the annual review of the child's IEP.
At the annual review, the current goals are reviewed and evaluated as to progress. Some may have been met & need to be expanded, made more challenging, while others may still need to be worked on, so they are carried over, perhaps changed to better align with the child's abilities in that area. In either case, it is the therapist/spcialist that writes up the goals, perhasp with input from the regular ed teacher.
That's it in a nutshell. For the actual writing of an IEP....every district does it differently. Some have it all computerized with a goal database from which to choose, others have a computer template that you fill in the blanks, while others are still doing it by hand on carbon paper forms.
Hope this helps answer your question!