Individual Education Plan

The Individual Education Plan, or IEP, is a very important step in providing services to a child with a diagnosed disability.  The IEP is developed prior to the child's third birthday and within 90 days of when a referral is made.  The goal of this time frame is early intervention, so that the child can begin receiving services as soon as possible to help facilitate learning and enlist the help of professionals for the disability.  Referrals could come from the Child Find referral process (conducted by each state), from a parent, teacher, doctor, or any other professional who has interaction with the child and has had cause for concern regarding the child's abilities.  It is important to note that the parent must consent to screening for the disability, and the parent is always invited to participate in the IEP meeting. The parent is a crucial IEP team member, as they know their child's strengths, interests, and how their child learns best. 

The parts of the IEP are future planning, present level of academic and functional performance, specialized areas to be addressed, annual goal(s), the goal description, the need for assistive technology, and how progress will be measured.  The IEP also details what services are needed (such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, etc.) and where these services are to be rendered.  The services are to be rendered in the LRE (Least Restrictive Environment) and the participants in the IEP meeting decide where that LRE is.  It is great if the services can take place in the general classroom, but sometimes children are removed into special education classrooms or even a separate school or residential facility. 

The goals of the IEP should flow smoothly with the classroom curriculum.  I teach at Headstart, and we must confidentially post the IEP goals, along with individual objectives for all students (based on outcomes from LAP-3 (Learning Accomplishment Profile-3) testing) on our lesson plans, so we can be in accordance with these goals during the writing and implementation of our lesson plans.  For my student with a diagnosed disability, I will not have to adapt the curriculum often or use adaptive equipment because his is a speech delay with more than one domain of language development.  However, it has been reported that children with speech-sound disorders have demonstrated poor reading outcomes during their early school years (Rvachew, Chiang, Evans, 2007).  Therefore, personal short term goals for my student with an IEP may be to increase literacy and letter sound activities to help him reach his IEP goal.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services points out that the purpose of the IEP is to be a "truly unique" document and not just a generic form (2000).  The IEP's goal is to improve the educational outcome for students with disabilities.  The IEP is to guide the delivery of services from support professionals, as well as measure progress and outcomes.  The IEP is the crucial piece of the puzzle in getting from a diagnosed disability to having services provided in the LRE.

Cook, R.E., Klein, M.D., & Tessier, A. (2008). Adapting Early Childhood Curricula for Children With Special Needs (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education (2000).

Rvachew, S., Chiang P., & Evans, N. (2007). Characteristics of Speech Errors Produced by Children With and Without Delayed Phonological Awareness Skills. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38, 60-71.