Could Someone Give me Advice on Navigating IEP Goals and Progress Monitoring?

[lanawatsonn]

Hello there,

I am reaching out because I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the current IEP process for my child. My child has been diagnosed with and we have recently updated their IEP to better address their evolving needs.

One area where I am struggling is understanding how to effectively monitor progress toward the IEP goals. We have set some ambitious goals; but I am finding it challenging to gauge whether we are making adequate progress and how to adjust our approach if needed. I am also concerned about how to ensure that the goals are both realistic and aligned with my childs abilities and needs.

Additionally; I am seeking advice on the best practices for collaborating with the school and educators. What strategies have you found helpful in making sure that the school team is aligned with the IEP objectives and that any adjustments are communicated promptly?

Also, I have gone through this post; https://forums.adayinourshoes.com/forums/topic/100-iep-goals-how-they-are-tracked-blue-prism-not-receiving-adequate-support/ which definitely helped me out a lot.

I am excited to learn from others who have navigated similar challenges and to find ways to better support my childs educational journey.

Thank you so much for your help and assistance.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Hi!  Yes, the IEP process, specifically IEP goals and progress monitoring, is very overwhelming.  In an ideal world, the school district should be ensuring the goals are realistic, aligned with needs, measurable, and adjusted as needed according to progress - all the things you mentioned.  Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen.  It sounds like you have some questions about the goals: 1) Are they realistic? 2) Are they aligned with my child's abilities and needs?  You also have questions about the progress monitoring:  1) How are we going to be able to tell if progress is made or not made and how much? 2) How are we going to know when adjustments need to be made to goals and services, and will I be made aware of this?  These are questions you need (and have the right) to ask the IEP team during a meeting.  So ask for a meeting (you can ask for one at any time - you do not have to wait until the next annual meeting) and ask these questions.  Make them explain it to you until you understand.  Don't let them make you feel like you are "stupid" - you, as a parent, have the right to understand what's going on with your child.  If you have a question, ask it.  I would suggest doing so in a nice, non-confrontational manner (that works best - at first, anyway - with school districts), but in a way that let's them know that you intend to be an involved and informed parent.

It's hard to give specific advice without knowing your child's disabilities, but in general (and I'm sure you read this on Lisa's website) goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Oriented, and Time-Bound (SMART goals).  Another website that might be helpful is below:

https://www.understood.org/en/articles/how-to-tell-if-your-childs-iep-goals-are-smart

Best of luck and reach out again if you need to!

[JSD24]

With goals, sometimes you need to trust the school.  They (hopefully) have worked with students similar to your child where they have a decent idea of how much progress to expect in the next year.  It's an annual goal so it's always where the student should be a year after the annual IEP meeting.  The truth is that with some skills, you expect a straight line but with other skills, the line might be somewhat level and then you get steep growth or you see exponential growth followed by a plateau.  If a goal is reached, you can always meet (or sometimes this is done via email) and change the goal to something that's more robust.  If they miss a goal by a mile, you might want to question if the school fully identified the issue and the instruction is something that is helping.  (In reviewing evidence based remedial interventions, they never work for 100% of students.  These students need a different intervention that will help them make progress.)  My son had speech therapy at school & made little progress.  It turned out that the school never identified his issue - he moved his tongue laterally.  I was frustrated and took him to outside therapy & he was cured in 4 months - after over 4 years of school group therapy.  With 1:1 therapy, the SLP had an idea what was going on by the 2nd appointment.

How often you get progress reports is going to vary with where you live.  I'm in PA & we get them when report cards come out so 4X a year in MS & HS and 3X a year in K-5 for my district.  The other thing that varies is what the teacher writes.  IMO (and I think there is case law to support this) 'progressing toward this goal' is not enough.  With a reading fluency goal of 90% words correct per minute and a baseline of 70%, you want the progress report to say that the student read 76% of the words correctly - there should be a number not words saying there was progress.  Also, you can put in the IEP that progress reports will come out more often for your child but it might be hard for the school to agree to this.

The other thing you can ask for is parent training so you can reinforce what the school is doing at home.  This can go in the IEP and it's a minor change so you can ask for this as a no meet revision to the IEP.

In looking at the link in your question, it does seem that assumptions are made - like if a child passed reading in 3rd grade, they can read at a 3rd grade level.  On this I say, grades are subjective and get inflated where effort gets recognized to encourage the child to persist on learning difficult concepts.  This is why you look to have SMART goals - where the M is measurable.  You also want a well-defined baseline.  If you need to fly to Paris and you're told to go to the airport's international terminal, that's not helpful if you don't know how to get to the airport or you don't know what airport to go to.

Lastly, with an older child, you want them to self-advocate.  If they are being taught 2 digit division and they don't know how to do one digit division, they should let the teacher know.  If they are embarrassed to speak up in class, they can let their parent know so they can tell the teacher.  And the special instruction in the IEP should be done by school staff & not a classmate.  You might have a group of students working together with a teacher toward a common goal or working together as a group with the teacher supervising this.

I almost forgot.  Will the school allow you to come in & observe?  Sometimes it's easier to come & see what they are doing than to call or email what's going on.  (Not all schools let parents observe - especially when it comes to special ed classes.)