Preparing For Annual Reviews

1. Preparing For Annual Reviews April 10, 2013

2. Agenda • The Process • Letters of Notification • IEP Development • Progress Monitoring • Summary/PWN • Special Reviews vs Annual Reviews • Transition Planning

3. Letters of Notification

4. Letter of Notification IEP meeting notifications must include the purpose, time, and location of the meeting and who will be in attendance. This is why an email asking the parent to attend a meeting doesn’t suffice (even if they attend).

5. Letter of Notification • So there has to be documentation that a formal invite that included all of the above was provided. • Which one shows that proper notification was provided: • “Email” • “Email with invitation attached?” • Does this make sense? One notification method that says “phone.” • What if the parent does not attend and one of the two notifications were “phone?” • Even if the parent attends, the meeting could be determined null and void if proper notification wasn’t provided.

6. The IEP Process

7. The following slides were adapted from a presentation conducted by the SC Department of Education, Office of Exceptional Children.

8. Four Goals for Meeting the Needs of Students with Disabilities • Provide accessto the general education curriculum • Provide involvement and participation in the general education environment • Implement individualized interventions • Show progress in the educational standards of the general education curriculum to the greatest extent possible

9. IEP Section IStudent Information • The percent of time the student spends in the regular education environment auto populates from Placement History.

10. IEP Section IStudent Information • “Date of IEP Meeting” reflects: • Date of Initial IEP meeting or; • Date of Annual Review • “Date of Special Review” changes whenever additional meetings are held throughout the school year • Remember that the IEP Initiation Date is either the first day of the following school year (If Not Birthday IEP) or reflects a change during the school term and you MUST provide PWN to explain the reason for the change

11. IEP Section IParent/Guardian Information • This section of the IEP is updated through Power School • Check frequently to ensure that Parent/Guardian Information is current and accurate

12. IEP Section II“The Foundation” This is the basis from which all other Individualized Education Program (IEP) components are developed

13. IEP Section IIAcademic and Functional Strengths and Needs • Describing Academic and Functional Strengths and Needs provides an overview of factors that impact performance and the development of services and programs designed to meet the student’s unique learning needs

14. IEP Section IIAcademic and Functional Strengths and Needs Example Questions What is Josephina’s area of weakness? What is Josephina’s area of strength? What type of Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance might be developed? Might Josephina require any instructional accommodations?

15. IEP Section IIAcademic and Functional Behavior • If a Functional Behavioral Assessment is warranted, this must take place as part of an evaluation or reevaluation of the student unless it is the practice of the district to conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment for any student to include students without disabilities.

16. IEP Section IIPresent Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) • The (PLAAFP) • Identifies Educational Need • Serves as a baseline or starting point • Is directly connected to goals and services

17. IEP Section IIPresent Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) Example • Recalling Josephina’s description of Academic and Functional Strengths and Needs, does the PLAAFP address all areas identified?

18. IEP Section III Accommodations to the General Curriculum • Accommodations : • Do not reduce learning expectations • Provide access by enabling the student to participate more fully in instruction and assessment • Permit the student to better demonstrate skills • Must be part of daily instruction • Should never be introduced for the first time when a student is participating in state-wide or district assessments

19. IEP Section III Modifications in the General Curriculum • Modifications: • Change learning expectations • Must be clearly described

20. IEP Section III Supplementary Services • Supplementary Services: • Aids services and supports that can be provided in general education, education-related settings and in extracurricular and nonacademic settings • Supplementary Services: • Might include parent training, providing the student with a one-on-one assistant, or providing staff with professional development to assist in meeting the unique needs of the student

21. IEP Section IVIEP Goals and Objectives • Annual Goals must: • Directly link to the Academic and Functional Strengths and Needs, PLAAFP and when applicable, the Transition needs of the student • Annual Goals tell us: • What we expect the student to learn or be able to do in 1 year; and • How we will know when the student has learned or demonstrated that he can do it

22. IEP Section IVIEP Goals and Objectives • The essential characteristics of IEP Goals are that they must be measurable and be measured • If an IEP Goal is not measurable it violates the IDEA and may result in the denial of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) • If a Goal is not measured that violates the IDEA and may result in the denial of FAPE • Bateman & Herr, 2006

23. IEP Section IVIEP Goals and Objectives • Every Measurable Goal Must: • Allow a clear yes or no determination of whether or not it has been achieved • Pass the “stranger test” (IEP Team Members can agree if the goal has been achieved)

24. IEP Section IVIEP Goals and Objectives • Objectives/Benchmarks • “Spell out” what the student will need to do to complete the annual goal. • Are the same skill in each benchmark with degree of proficiency to which the student performs the skill changing from benchmark to benchmark

25. Measurable Annual Goals Critical Components • Behavior – clearly identifies the performance being monitored; “Jeremy will read aloud” • Condition – describes what must be present for the student to demonstrate the skill or behavior at the expected level of performance; “when presented with a passage from the 2nd grade curriculum” • Level of Proficiency – how many, how often, to what standards the behavior must occur; “48 words per minute with less than 2 errors” • Measurement – as measured by; “as measured by weekly one minute oral reading fluency probes” • Timeframe –may be included; “In 36 weeks”; “by the end of the 2012-2013 school year”

26. IEP Section IVIEP Goal Example • In 36 weeks, when presented with a passage from the 2nd grade reading text, Jeremy willread aloud from 38 to 48 words per minute with less than 2 errors as measured by weekly one minute oral reading fluency probes. • Location of Services • Special Education Classroom • Virtual Special Education Classroom • Not “virtual classroom”

27. IEP Section IVIEP Goal and Objectives • Remember, for any student that participates in the SC-Alt (Alternate Assessment), the IEP team must develop goals AND objectives for any area of need identified in the PLAAFP.

28. IEP Section VTime • Special Education and Related Services must be denoted in MINUTES • Subtract the total MINUTES in special education and related services from the total amount of minutes in the school week

29. IEP Section VRelated Services • Related Services are: • Supportive services provided to students with disabilities to assist them in benefiting from Special Education • Like the need for special education, determined on an individual basis as part of the IEP process • Connected to other parts of the IEP to include, Functional Strengths and Needs and the PLAAFP • Accompanied by measurable annual goals that are denoted in section IV IEP Goals and Objectives

30. IEP Section VRelated Services • The IDEA regulations contain a list of related services IEP teams can consider and they include: • Audiology, Counseling Services (including rehabilitation counseling), Early Identification and Assessment of disabilities in children, Interpreting Services, Medical Services, Occupational Therapy, Orientation and Mobility Services, Parent Counseling and Training, Physical Therapy, Psychological Services, Recreation, School Health Services and School Nurse Services, Social Work Services in Schools, Speech-language pathology services and Transportation

31. IEP Section VIParticipation in Statewide Testing • Consideration for the use of Accommodations and/or Modifications for Statewide Testing should: • Be based on individual student need and; • When selected, must be clearly reflected in IEP Section III – Accommodations to the General Curriculum

32. IEP Section VIIISpecial Factors The Team Must Consider In The Development of the IEP

33. IEP Section IXLeast Restrictive Environment (LRE) • LRE Considerations • The team must document the extent, if any, that the student WILL NOT participate with non-exceptional students in the general education classroom

34. IEP Section IXReporting to Parents • The IDEA requires every IEP to include a description of how the child’s progress toward annual goals will be measured and when periodic reports will be provided. • If your district chooses to send reports home, determine how often they will be sent and be sure to adhere to this timeline • Many districts report on progress for students with disabilities at the same time they report progress for general education students (quarterly).

35. IEP Section XTeam Members

36. Summary and PWN

37. Meeting Summary • Required per District Policy • Not meant to be a transcription • Purpose is to capture the gist/flow of an IEP meeting • Purpose is to discuss requests/disagreements • Every parental request needs to have closure • Parent asked for a in-home teaching assistance. The team discussed and determined that based on present level data, the child is able to receive FAPE through the proposed services of virtual services. • Common mistakes noted: • Wrong date of the meeting • Not noting proper meeting membership • Tips for Taking Notes – See Handout

38. PWNs • Let’s talk about what these questions mean: • As a result of the IEP/Staffing meeting, the IEP/Staffing Team proposes or refuses to. • Explanation of why the school district/agency proposes or refuses to take this action. • Description of each evaluation procedure, assessment, record, or report the school district used in deciding to propose or refuse the action. • Description of any other choices that the IEP team considered and the reasons why those choices were rejected. • Description of any other reasons why the school district proposed or refused the action.

39. PWNs • The parent MUST have a copy of the PWN prior to implementing the IEP. • If the parents attends the meeting and does not leave with a copy of the PWN, the IEP cannot be implemented until after the PWN has been sent. • If parents did not attend, the IEP cannot be implemented until after the PWN has been sent to the parents. • What does this mean? • Give the PWN at the meeting (along with the IEP) • Wait 5 – 7 days after the meeting to initiate the proposed FAPE • Initiation date must reflect this on the cover page of the IEP) • Cannot extend past the expiration date of the IEP to “wait” to give the PWN.

40. Progress Monitoring

41. Progress Monitoring • Using the PM report in Excent • Documenting progress towards each annual goal • Provided to parents on the schedule dictated in IEP • At least as often as gen ed, but not less than every 9 weeks

42. Purpose “When the cook tastes the soup, that formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative.” Robert Stake

43. “As the cook, or teacher, we need to stop and taste the soup before we move forward with instruction. We need to design instruction so students can press the reset button and go back to learn what they missed the first time. We can use many techniques to assess student achievement and understanding.”

44. If you wait until the end of the year to monitor progress, you have run out of time to change instruction. • Collecting progress monitoring data drives/guides instruction.

45. Examples • Updates of baseline data from PLPs • CBMs • Data sheets for time on task, assignments completed • Discipline referrals • Description of progress (more than “progressing”) • Answer the question “Where is Robbie now?”

46. Special Review vs Annual Review

47. Special Review vs. Annual Review Special Review Annual Review Updated 100% of the present levels with CURRENT present level data • Can be done with an agreement to amend an IEP (with your LEA’s prior approval) • Only update certain areas of present levels • Something needs to be changed (updated) for EVERY special review (most likely in the PLOP)

48. Questions? • Your school’s special education coordinator • Your school’s regional coordinator • CFPCS, YLA, SCS, YPA  Mariann Carter • mcarter@sccharter.org • 803-960-9686 • District Staff:

49. Transition Planning and the IEP

50. Who does this apply for?