What is an IEP?

What’s the IEP’s purpose?

The IEP has two general purposes:

• to set reasonable learning goals for a child, and
• to state the services that the school district will provide for the child.

Who develops the IEP?

The IEP is developed by a team of individuals that includes key school staff and the child’s parents. The team meets, reviews the assessment information available about the child, and designs an educational program to address the child’s educational needs that result from his or her disability.

When is the IEP developed?

An IEP meeting must be held within 30 calendar days after it is determined, through a full and individual evaluation, that a child has one of the disabilities listed in IDEA and needs special education and related services. A child’s IEP must also be reviewed at least annually thereafter to determine whether the annual goals are being achieved and must be revised as appropriate.

The IEP is both a document and a process.

What’s in an IEP?

Each child’s IEP must contain specific information, as listed within IDEA, our nation’s special education law. This includes (but is not limited to):

— the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, describing how the child is currently doing in school and how the child’s disability affects his or her involvement and progress in the general curriculum

— annual goals for the child, meaning what parents and the school team think he or she can reasonably accomplish in a year

— the special education and related services to be provided to the child, including supplementary aids and services (such as a communication device) and changes to the program or supports for school personnel

— how much of the school day the child will be educated separately from nondisabled children or not participate in extracurricular or other nonacademic activities such as lunch or clubs

— how (and if) the child is to participate in state and district-wide assessments, including what modifications to tests the child needs

— when services and modifications will begin, how often they will be provided, where they will be provided, and how long they will last

— how school personnel will measure the child’s progress toward the annual goals.

Can students be involved in developing their own IEPs?

Yes, they certainly can be! IDEA actually requires that the student be invited to any IEP meeting where transition services will be discussed. These are services designed to help the student plan for his or her transition to adulthood and life after high school. 

So–who’s on the team? Here’s a list, as specified in IDEA, our nation’s special education law. Note that the order in which the IEP team members are going to be listed and discussed has nothing to do with their priority on the team. Every member has an equal say and important expertise to contribute.

The IEP Team, Short and Sweet

IDEA (at §300.321) describes the IEP team as including the following members:

• the parents of the child;
• not less than one regular education teacher of the child (if the child is, or may be, participating in the regular education environment);
• not less than one special education teacher of the child, or where appropriate, not less then one special education provider of the child;
• a representative of the public agency who is qualified to provide, or supervise the provision of, specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities; is knowledgeable about the general education curriculum; and is knowledgeable about the availability of resources of the public agency;
• an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results;
• other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child, including related services personnel as appropriate (invited at the discretion of the parent or the agency); and
• the child with a disability (when appropriate).

When the members of a child’s IEP team sit down together and consider how the child will be involved in and participate in school life, they must be sure that the resulting IEP contains the specific information required by IDEA, our nation’s special education law. Here’s a brief list of what IDEA requires:

A statement of the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, including how the child’s 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 child’s 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.

Extra IEP Content for Youth with Disabilities

For students approaching the end of their secondary school education, the IEP must also include statements about what are called transition services, which are designed to help youth with disabilities prepare for life after high school.

Overview of the First IEP Meeting

After a child is found eligible for special education and related services, a meeting must be held within 30 days to develop to the IEP. The school system must notify the child’s parents of when and where the meeting will take place, so they have the opportunity to attend and participate.

What Happens at an IEP Meeting?

During the IEP meeting, the different members of the IEP team share their thoughts and suggestions. If this is the first IEP meeting after the child’s evaluation, the team may go over the evaluation results, so the child’s strengths and needs will be clear. These results will help the team decide what special help the child needs in school.

After the various team members (including the parent) have shared their thoughts and concerns about the child, the group will have a better idea of that child’s strengths and needs. This will allow the team to discuss and decide on the statements associated with each IEP’s component listed above, especially:

• the “present levels” statement;
• the educational and other goals that are appropriate for the child; and
• the type of special education services the child needs; and
• what related services are necessary to help the child benefit from his or her special education.

The team must also make decisions about whether or not any of the “special factors” identified in IDEA need to be considered, including the child’s needs for assistive technology.

Goals, special education services, and related services are all discussed as part of the IEP Contents page. We would refer you there to learn much more about each of these IEP components and the discussions that the IEP team will have as part of specifying each in the IEP. These are critical parts of an IEP, so the IEP team will probably spend a lot of time focused on how the child’s needs can be addressed through the goals that are written and the special education and related services that are appropriate for the child.

What is not discussed in the IEP Contents page are the “special factors” that the IEP team must also consider. So let’s have a look at what these are.

Special Factors to Consider

 Depending on the needs of the child, the IEP team may also discuss the special factors listed below:

If the child’s behavior’s interferes with his or her learning or the learning of others: The IEP team will talk about strategies and supports to address the child’s behavior.

If the child has limited proficiency in English: The IEP team will talk about the child’s language needs as these needs relate to his or her IEP.

If the child is blind or visually impaired: The IEP team must provide for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille, unless it determines after an appropriate evaluation that the child does not need this instruction.

If the child has communication needs: The IEP team must consider those needs.

If the child is deaf or hard of hearing: The IEP team will consider the child’s language and communication needs. This includes opportunities to communicate directly with classmates and school staff in his or her usual method of communication (for example, sign language).

If the child needs assistive technology devices and services.

Putting It All Together—and in Writing

As you can see, there are a lot of important matters to talk about in an IEP meeting! Based on those discussions, the IEP team will then write the child’s IEP, bearing in mind that it must include specific types of information, including a statement of the child’s present level of academic achievement and functional performance, annual goals, the special education services that will be provided, and much more. 

The resultant IEP will then guide how services are provided to the child in the coming year. Before the school system can provide the child with special education for the first time, parents must give written consent.

Parents are entitled to a copy of their child’s IEP at no charge, and all school personnel responsible in some way for implementing the IEP must know what their roles and obligations are and be given access to the child’s IEP.

Deciding Placement

Placement—where the child receives his or her special education and related services—is a complicated issue and is the subject of a suite of pages called Placement Issues. It’s also the subject of an entire module in the Building the Legacy training curriculum (Module 15, LRE Decision Making). While we refer you to both of these sources of detailed information, this summary remark puts placement within its proper context:

Placement is directly connected to the child’s IEP, is based on the child’s IEP, must be decided by a knowledgeable group of persons, including the child’s parents, but is not necessarily decided by the IEP team.

Who decides placement, based on what? The IEP forms the basis for the placement decision, which is made by a group of persons, including the child’s parents, and other persons knowledgeable about the child, the meaning of evaluation data, and placement options.

As the summary remark above indicates, the placement group may or may not be the IEP team, but in all cases, the parents are members of that group and participate in making the determination of placement for their child. (§300.327)

Placement can be in a range of settings (see §§300.114 through 300.120)—in the regular classroom, a special education class, a pull-out program, or a separate school.

Once the IEP is written, it is time to carry it out—in other words, to provide the child with the special education and related services as listed in the IEP. This includes all supplementary aids and services and program modifications that the IEP team identified as necessary. Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss in detail the many issues involved in implementing a child’s IEP, but several points are worth noting. These are:

Point 1: IDEA states that, as soon as possible following development of the IEP, special education and related services are made available to the child in accordance with the child’s IEP. [§300.323(c)(2)]

Point 2: IDEA also requires that the school system ensure that “each regular education teacher, special education teacher, related services provider, and any other service provider who is responsible” for the IEP’s implementation:

• have access to the IEP;
• are informed of their specific responsibilities; and
• are informed of specific accommodations, modifications, and supports to be provided to the child, in accordance with the IEP. [§300.323(d)]

Beginning services. IDEA does not give a specific amount of time between finishing development of the IEP and beginning the services described in the IEP. The regulations do require that the IEP be implemented “as soon as possible following development of the IEP. …” [§300.323(c)].

Generally, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education has said that each child’s IEP must be implemented without undue delay.

 Accessibility of the IEP to those implementing it. It certainly makes sense that all service providers responsible for implementing the child’s IEP have access to that IEP and are informed of their specific responsibilities. This includes being informed of the “specific accommodations, modifications, and supports that must be provided for the child” as determined by the IEP team and as specified within the IEP. The Department of Education’s Analysis of Comments and Changes published with the final Part B regulations contained the following explanation of this provision:

The purpose of this requirement is to ensure that teachers and providers understand their specific responsibilities for implementing an IEP, including any accommodations or supports that may be needed… However, the mechanism that the public agency uses to inform each teacher or provider of his or her responsibilities is best left to the discretion of the public agency. (71 Fed. Reg. at 46681)

Thus, the school system has an affirmative obligation to inform teachers and providers of their responsibilities to implement the IEP , but how it does so is a matter left up to the discretion of the state and the school system. 

At least once a year a meeting must be scheduled with IEP team members to review the child’s progress and develop next year’s IEP. The meeting will be similar to the IEP meeting described above. The team will talk about:

• the child’s progress toward the goals in the current IEP,
• what new goals should be added, and
• whether any changes need to be made to the special education and related services the child receives.

The IEP team may also meet periodically throughout the course of the school year, if circumstances warrant it. For example, parents may feel that their child is not making good progress toward his or her annual goals. Or–on the positive side–the special educator on the team may want to write new goals, because the student has made such great progress! If this isn’t the annual meeting to review the IEP that IDEA requires, it’s possible that the IEP can be modified without actually physically meeting. That’s a new provision within IDEA that we’ll talk about later in this article.

Parents must be notified of each meeting in plenty of time to arrange their participation. If a parent needs an interpreter at the meeting to ensure full involvement and understanding, he or she should inform the school system ahead of time, so that arrangements can be made to have an interpreter present. This includes sign language interpreters.