Parents Concerns Are Not Allowed In IEP
This district has not allowed my son's evaluation scores to be put into his IEP. How is anyone ever going to know his deficits if they don't include those in his IEP? I put them in the parent concerns. They denied my right to have my concerns in the IEP. They decided to edit them. See below the comments that they wrote on his IEP.
Attaching 4 pages of parent concerns in PLAAFP without specific test scores and diagnostic interpretations.
IEP Goals & Objectives:A Tactics and Strategy Sessionwith Pete & Pam Wright
Print this page
Question: As an LDA President from a midwestern state, I coach parents about how to write Present Levels of Educational Performance (PLEP) for their children's IEPs. We tell parents that standard scores from evaluations and reevaluations should be included as present levels in the IEP.
Some schools resist. They insist on using "teacher observations" instead of using objective information from standardized tests for the present levels. In my experience, teachers often "observe" a higher level of performance than tests show. If parents disagree or find themselves in due process, does it matter if the PLEP has objective "measurable facts" or subjective "teacher observations?" Present Levels of Performance
From Pete: It's great to hear that you are training parents how to write IEPs. In regard to your question about present levels, I wouldn't advise parents to fight a pitched battle alone on this issue.
If parents get a comprehensive evaluation by an evaluator in the private sector who has expertise in the child's disability, they will have data - facts that will go into the record (into evidence). If the school insists on using subjective teacher observations, an independent observer (the hearing officer, for example) will conclude that the school is not interested in monitoring the child's educational progress. This is exactly the conclusion you want this person to draw.
From Pam: The other thing to keep in mind is that IDEA 2004 changed many of the requirements for IEPs.Previously, IEPs were required to include "a statement of the child's present levels of educational performance ..." Under IDEA 2004, the IEP must include "a statement of the child's present levels of academic achievement and functional performance ..." Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance require objective data from assessments. IDEA 2004 also requires IEPs to include "a statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals ..." (Wrightslaw: IDEA 2004, page 90; Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, 2nd edition, page 161
Integral to the design of IDEA is the substantive involvement of parents in assessing student needs and planning how to address those needs. In its Finding section, IDEA 2004 states that:
(5) Almost 30 years of research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by...
(B) strengthening the role and responsibility of parents and ensuring that families of such children have meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children at school and at home... (20 U.S.C. $ 1401 (c) (5) (B).)
State education agencies and local school districts must have in place policies and procedures that ensure the opportunity for parents to participate in meetings related to the identification, evaluation, program and placement of their children (20 U.S.C. $ 1415 (b) (1)). Participate is the operative term. The school must enable meaningful participation in discussion and decision making. Mere attendance at meetings satisfies neither the spirit nor the letter of the law. The requirement applies to all meetings in which decisions will be made except for routine meetings among staff to discuss day-to-day instructional planning necessary to implement an existing IEP.
Recent decisions affirm the essential role of parents in designing their children's special education. Precluding parent participation through staff predetermination of services or placement egregiously violates IDEA. School districts should be aware that courts have become more alert to this problem and less likely to excuse it (Deal v. Hamilton Co. Bd. of Ed.; Knable v. Bexley City Sch. Dist.).
Better IEPs How to Develop Legally Correct and Educationally Useful Programs
Barbara D. Bateman and Mary Anne Linden
Attaching 4 pages of parent concerns in PLAAFP without specific test scores and diagnostic interpretations.
IEP Goals & Objectives:A Tactics and Strategy Sessionwith Pete & Pam Wright
Print this page
Question: As an LDA President from a midwestern state, I coach parents about how to write Present Levels of Educational Performance (PLEP) for their children's IEPs. We tell parents that standard scores from evaluations and reevaluations should be included as present levels in the IEP.
Some schools resist. They insist on using "teacher observations" instead of using objective information from standardized tests for the present levels. In my experience, teachers often "observe" a higher level of performance than tests show. If parents disagree or find themselves in due process, does it matter if the PLEP has objective "measurable facts" or subjective "teacher observations?" Present Levels of Performance
From Pete: It's great to hear that you are training parents how to write IEPs. In regard to your question about present levels, I wouldn't advise parents to fight a pitched battle alone on this issue.
If parents get a comprehensive evaluation by an evaluator in the private sector who has expertise in the child's disability, they will have data - facts that will go into the record (into evidence). If the school insists on using subjective teacher observations, an independent observer (the hearing officer, for example) will conclude that the school is not interested in monitoring the child's educational progress. This is exactly the conclusion you want this person to draw.
From Pam: The other thing to keep in mind is that IDEA 2004 changed many of the requirements for IEPs.Previously, IEPs were required to include "a statement of the child's present levels of educational performance ..." Under IDEA 2004, the IEP must include "a statement of the child's present levels of academic achievement and functional performance ..." Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance require objective data from assessments. IDEA 2004 also requires IEPs to include "a statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals ..." (Wrightslaw: IDEA 2004, page 90; Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, 2nd edition, page 161
Integral to the design of IDEA is the substantive involvement of parents in assessing student needs and planning how to address those needs. In its Finding section, IDEA 2004 states that:
(5) Almost 30 years of research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by...
(B) strengthening the role and responsibility of parents and ensuring that families of such children have meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children at school and at home... (20 U.S.C. $ 1401 (c) (5) (B).)
State education agencies and local school districts must have in place policies and procedures that ensure the opportunity for parents to participate in meetings related to the identification, evaluation, program and placement of their children (20 U.S.C. $ 1415 (b) (1)). Participate is the operative term. The school must enable meaningful participation in discussion and decision making. Mere attendance at meetings satisfies neither the spirit nor the letter of the law. The requirement applies to all meetings in which decisions will be made except for routine meetings among staff to discuss day-to-day instructional planning necessary to implement an existing IEP.
Recent decisions affirm the essential role of parents in designing their children's special education. Precluding parent participation through staff predetermination of services or placement egregiously violates IDEA. School districts should be aware that courts have become more alert to this problem and less likely to excuse it (Deal v. Hamilton Co. Bd. of Ed.; Knable v. Bexley City Sch. Dist.).
Better IEPs How to Develop Legally Correct and Educationally Useful Programs
Barbara D. Bateman and Mary Anne Linden
Comments