IEPs and 504s

The Problems with Quarterly IEP Measurements

Whether it is a functional or an academic goal, waiting a quarter is waiting too long, because the goal might need to be adjusted sooner. Why not assess whether the goal needs narrowing or expanding as soon as possible?

I’ve never understood why Individualized Education Programs (IEP) include goals for quarterly measurements. As a parent, if my kids failed to do their chores for a week, I wouldn’t wait until the end of the quarter to assess the situation. Why wait an entire quarter to address a problem that’s clearly getting worse? Why not assess sooner and narrow the goal until it can be expanded in full—or expand the goal if the student achieves the goal sooner than expected?

Language of IEPs and 504s-All and Before

The Language of IEPs and 504s: The Importance of “All” and “Before”

Imagine your child has the following on his IEP:

“The IEP will share reading data with parents on a monthly basis.”

After six months of meetings, your internal parent alarm starts going off because the data provided by the school doesn’t match what you’re seeing at home.

You submit a FERPA request for all reading data related to your child.

The FERPA response provides you negative reading data that the school didn’t previous share with you.
You want to complain to the school and/or submit a complaint to the state, but . . .

The school followed the IEP. It did share reading data on a monthly basis. There wasn’t anything in the IEP that stated all data had to be provided.

The Language of IEPs and 504s: The Problem with “Engage”

Imagine an IEP with a goal along the lines of the following:

Teachers will engage with student to ensure student understands and accurately records all assignments in student’s planner.

Now imagine attending an IEP meeting at which this goal is being discussed. You push for more details, but the staff member helming the meeting insists that engage means the following:

“It’s not that they’re waiting for to come to them. They’re going to engage with .”

What could go wrong?

Prince William County Public Schools Found at Fault for Systemic Noncompliance; Must Change Independent Educational Evaluation Practices

May 3, 2024, Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) found Prince William County Public Schools (PWCPS) at fault for failure to implement federal and state special education regulations at a systemic level.

VDOE identified four counts of noncompliance related to PWCPS’ division-wide independent educational evaluation (IEE) practices, to include failure to follow U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) June 2020 required changes to Virginia Administrative Code (VAC).

Writing Goals: The Problem with “Measured Quarterly”

Quarterly measurements invite skewed and misleading data. Imagine the following goal is being proposed for your student: “Given content-area vocabulary (English, History, Science, Math), STUDENT will earn 85% accuracy on 3 out of 4 vocabulary assessments per quarter.” In the case of vocabulary, students are provided content-area vocabulary on a daily basis. Depending on the type of assessment (more on this below), the student could be assessed on vocabulary once-to-a-few times a week during each grading quarter. Which assessments count toward the goal? The first four consecutively administered assessments? The last four consecutively administered assessments? Four randomly chosen assessments administered throughout the grading quarter? Four cherry-picked assessments administered throughout the grading quarter?

It’s the Law: IEP Implementation

IEPs are contracts.

IEPs are the responsibility of the school to implement from day one of the school year.

If you run into issues with the date of implementation and implementation by teachers, you’ll want to look at some of these regulations.

The Language of IEPs and 504s: Ban “As Needed”

If “as needed” appears on any IEP or 504 plan put in front of you, request that the words be removed.

If you’re advised “that’s how we do it”, ask for documentation citing this to be true, and pull out IDEA or Section 504, and point out “as needed” doesn’t appear in either.

A child doesn’t need an IEP plan or a 504 plan as needed.

Children need everything in their IEPs or 504s period.

Students Must Meet These Requirements to Qualify for Special Education

Your child is struggling in school. You suspect he or she might need special education.

Are your child’s struggles and your gut feeling enough for your child to qualify for special education?

No. However, your gut feeling and your child’s struggles shouldn’t be discounted either.

Category: IEPs and 504s (page 2)