Individual Education Plan (IEP) Reflection

In class we undertook an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) task in which each student was assigned the role of one of the many adults who might be present. This ranged from parents, advocate and tutor to hearing, vision and orthopedic itinerants, to physical and occupational therapists, teachers and paraprofessionals. Our IEP had 17 people involved, not including the student, Felipe, for whom the IEP was being prepared. This number might not be typical, but certainly there could be more people present than in our example.
My first observation was that this potentially complicated meeting was highly structured, formulaic and managed to gather a large amount of data in a short period of time. As education is becoming increasingly data driven each of the professionals present came to the meeting with facts, figures and comments that could be used to assess Felipe’s current performance and make goals for the future.
The parents in this case seemed to play a major role in the meeting. They were strong advocates for their son and had aspirations for his future that didn’t necessarily agree with the views of the service providers. I can see that this has potential for being an issue in some IEP meetings. What parent doesn’t want the best for their child? Surely we all want our children to be successful, go to College, have friends and hold down a steady job. However, in the case of Felipe these goals would seem less likely to be achieved and some might need to be re-addressed. Felipe is still young and perhaps parents are more likely to re-evaluate their ideals the longer that their child stays within education. I am also aware that there will be occasions when parents, for whatever reason, may choose not to be present at the IEP meeting of their child.
I noticed that many of the reports from the professionals used very neutral language. There seemed to be little room for emotions in the room, and more a reporting of fact. I played the role of the adapted physical education teacher and I reported that Felipe only walked on 2 or 3 days in a month, despite the use of a gait trainer and regular use of the supine stander. There was no comment as to whether this was considered a good level of walking or not. Many of the comments had to be re-worded so that they were not open to misinterpretation. It is a sad fact that in this litigious society in which we live we have to be so careful of what we say.
It was clear in our meeting that the other significant person in the room was the general education teacher. Their comments seemed to carry more weight with the parents and perhaps her clear and concise commentary on Felipe’s poor academic performance hit home the hardest. The parents still wished for Felipe to remain in a general education setting but I could see that it is more likely that he will move into a self-contained situation and perhaps even a specialized setting.
I can see that ultimately it is important for everyone to agree with the long term goals of the student and that the IEP will then allow short term goals to be set to ensure that they remain on target to achieve the bigger goal. However, I can see that the goals of the student are also likely to change as time goes on and that this then leads to a re-evaluation of all short term goals. The dynamic nature of the IEP ensures that all parties involved really need to know their role and also know their student very well.
Parents should be happy that so many adults are present in a room, all wanting the best for the child. While there might be some juggling between realistic needs and some fanciful aspirations it is evident that IDEA has created a system that goes some way towards ensuring that each child is given the best opportunity to reach their full potential. In our classroom situation I agreed with the final IEP report and felt that it was appropriate for Felipe at this stage of his life but can see that there will be future, more difficult IEP's in the future for Felipe and his parents.
For further information regarding IEP's in Illinois, and to download examples I would recommend the ISBE website.