Special Education Academy: Writing SMART Goals in the IEP

ANGELA HAYNES: I welcome you to the Special Education Academy, Part 6 of 10. My name is Angela Haynes, I will be presenting today. I am an education advocate here at DREDF, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

I do have two children that are adults now. They did go through the public school system and I have one child who did have an IEP.

Today’s agenda: We will be talking about identifying all areas of needs, and this is an important part that allows you to start to look at, okay, what goals do we need to have in that child’s IEP? And turn your needs into SMART goals. And then at the end, we will have questions, have time for questions.

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, we have a vision of a just world where people live full and independent, free of discrimination. So, we are here, this is the Parent Information and Training Center, and we help you understand the parent education process and we help advocate for your child. It’s a free service and funded by the Department of Education. And there is a PTI in all of the U.S.

Some states have more. California has a lot more than other states. Some states might have just one or two. So, you will get a copy of the slides.

This is a great resource here: Center for Parent Information Resource to let you know what is the PTI in your area. The education advocates are not attorneys. We do not advise you as attorneys would. We do not represent you. What we can do is hear what’s going on and discuss advocacy strategies. We help we can help you review your IEP, help you prepare for an IEP meeting, and even debrief after the IEP meeting. And help you review your IEPs.

And on some occasions, we can attend IEP meetings with you. So, we’ll talk about some of the expectations today. With the SMART goals, as mentioned before, we’ll talk about the SMART goals. You know, it is not a magic solution.

We can give you some information on how to develop these goals, but it’s not going to happen sometimes when you’re asking for something, it is a process, right. Developing the IEP that works most appropriate for your child is a process. Sometimes you can get it right away rarely but sometimes you have to watch to see that the IEP that you’ve developed as a team is working, and if not, have to make changes. So, as we talk about goals, this is the area that you can take a look at to see if there are changes needed.

So, as I mentioned, we’ll keep the general questions at the end. Please be respectful with your questions. Assume positive intentions. And we all have something to learn from one another.

So this is a collaborative, judgment free zone. So, I want to, as we go on and talk about why we use “disability” and not “special needs.” When we use the term “special needs,” it’s important to understand that this language did not come from people with disabilities or the disabled community. Many adults with disabilities have been very clear that they find the term infantizing and it determines something excess or optional. Everybody has needs and there’s nothing special about needing ramps, captions, or other accommodations.

The term “disability” is clearly defined in the law and provides access to rights, services, and protections. Not all disabled students are in special education classrooms or receive special education services. And using vague language can erase those experiences. While parents may worry about labeling or stigma, naming disabilities is often what opens the door to support inclusion and meaningful access, rather than limiting it.

So, I want to read a quote from Rebecca Cokley: Special needs gives the impression that the rights of people with disabilities are “special” or “extra.” We have the same rights as everyone else. How we access those rights may differ, but disability rights are fundamentally the same civil rights as all people. When you imply that the act of accessing our rights is special, it gives the rest of the public a pass to treat us as though our rights are “special” or “privileged” and then we get harassed for it. So I want to take a pause and think about this statement.

As a parent, an advocate, we must be mindful not to fall into the patterns of thinking or suggest that children deserve less than other students in the school or community. Language like “specialty needs” can unintentionally give the impression that our children’s rights are optional or extra, rather than fundamental rights. I remember when my daughter went on a school field trip to Yosemite, she had a one on one aide during the school day and the school also provided a one on one aide during the school trip. At that time I was grateful that this support was provided so that she could participate.

But upon reflection, that framing is part of the problem. This was not a special privilege. It was her right to equally participate in the school activities, including field trips. This mindset can also show up when you’re advocating for goals, supports, and services, or concerns or your concerns are dismissed.

Sometimes as parents, we hesitate and think, “I don’t want to cause an issue” or “I don’t want to be difficult” but if a support, service, or goal is required for equal participation and access, that is not an unreasonable request. Parents have the right to ask for appropriate support and goals in the areas of need. When access is framed as “special,” it gives others permission to treat disability rights as optional. As an advocate for children, it’s important to remember and to remind others that equal access is not a favor, it’s not a privilege, and it’s a right.

So far we talked about the foundation of IDEA and rights of parents with students in the special education process. We also discussed the importance of evaluations and how assessments and reports help us understand our students’ needs. Now, we’re going to take the next step and talk about how to write IEP goals that truly works. A goal that is ambitious, but still allows a child to make meaningful progress at school.

Today we’re going to focus on SMART IEP goals, goals that are specific, measurable, meaningful, and time bound. If you missed any of the earlier training sessions, one through four are posted on our site, and the fifth will be posted soon. To get started, let’s first review how goals are chosen and how they connect back to the areas of need identified through the evaluations. As you it just says, review the needs that you can drive through the assessments and the grades and the tests, that’s where you find those area of needs and then you will look at the goals.

And, you know, the goals can be in academic, social, emotional, behavior, or daily living skills. And SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, yet ambitious, relevant, and time bound. And then once you have identified the goals, you look to see the supports that will allow you to achieve those goals. But that will be on another training.

The questions we should be asking is: How does the student’s disability adversely affect the access to education? This comes in the data evaluations, report cards, parents documented patterns, and once the team agrees there’s an area of need, the IEP goal can be created to address that concern. We also receive calls from parents requesting advocacy support for obtaining one on one aides. When this comes up, the first question we need to ask is: What is the area of need the service is meant to address?

And what goals are we trying to accomplish? As an example, some students have difficulty remaining on task and require support to help redirect them, so they can understand or complete assignments. In this situation, we have identified an area of need related to attention and task engagement. The area of need should be addressed through an IEP goal.

The discussion about services, such as one on one aide comes later. So, considering where do we begin? The baseline for goals should come from present levels. So, we look at the present levels and see where your student is at this moment.

The present levels of academic achievement and functional performance statement, there’s a statement and a page on the IEP that can let you know where your student is. And it describes the student’s need in the academic and functional area, that includes speech, fine motor, health, vision. It should explain how the student’s disability impacts the involvement in the general education curriculum. This information not only helps identify appropriate goals, but also serves as a baseline for measure and progress.

For example, if a student is able to count consecutively in each trial, that should be documented as part of their present level of performance. Pay close attention to how the disability affects the student’s ability to participate. If the student has difficulty with attention or impulse or self regulation, and this is impacting their involvement in the general education, this should be included in the IEP. Remember, goals are not just for academic growth.

They also address social and emotional and functional development. As a parent parents have rights to ensure that all areas of need, academic, functional, social, and emotional, are clearly documented in the present levels. This is what gives the IEP team the information needed to create meaningful, measurable goals for the child. All right.

I did neglect to do something, I’m going to do now, is… Is to release our polls. So, we do have polls. I have launched the polls.

If you can answer, take some time, I will give a quick pause to allow you to answer the polls. This is how we get our baseline. We have the initial polls and we want to see what you knew at the beginning and then, you know, it helps us understand whether or not the presentation provided was helpful. And if you you know, yeah, if it was helpful for you, for the participants, so I thank you for completing the polls.

And those, if you haven’t finished it, please do that. And I’m going to continue on. So, in the goals, the goals for the IEP should be with a measurable baseline. Baselines must match what is being measured in the goal.

The data you use must measure the exact skill you’re trying to improve in the goal. If the goal is will the student independently read grade three level sentences with 90% accuracy, the level needs to show that the student’s ability to read third grade level sentences. So, where are they at now? You know, are they, you know, are they at 50%?

Are they at 30%? If the and then the sorry yeah, considering where is the student at now to help you know what the measurable baseline is, and then when you create the goal, the goal should be measured with the same units, right. So, if you’re saying the student would be able to identify the color blue, four out of four trials, then the baseline should also say that the student concurrently identified the blue zero out of four trials, right. If you’re doing, you know, zero out of four trials but then have a goal that measures the percentage, then that’s not easily to easy really to look at to determine if the progress has been made.

And at what level of progress did they meet their goal. The baseline the assessments results from the triennials or the annuals or the standards testing are not appropriate data for the baseline. You really need to take a look at where the student, going back to the analogy of using blue, you know, identifying the color blue, really check to see where they are at right now, right. You know, how many times are you presenting this and can they identify it?

And this is where we’re going to start, this is our starting point, this is our baseline. And it must be real data about the skill and the goal. You need to you need observations, trial runs, teacher collected data that directly measures the skill in the goal. Count how many times the student can independently complete a math problem correctly in a few trials and that becomes a baseline.

So, we’ll go over this. SMART is an acronym, right, it’s specific, being specific to exactly what the student will be working on. It’s measurable, how will you measure the progress. How will I know if the goal has been achieved?

It’s achievable. It will be clear when the goal is complete. And, you know, achievable isn’t something that the student can can achieve, right. And is this something that the student can achieve in this specific amount of time?

And it should be relevant. Relevant to, you know, where the student’s at, what the student is learning during this time; relevant to maybe grade level curriculum, you know, what’s the third grade learning. So, and then time bound, how long should it take to accomplish this goal? The goal should specifically say how long it should take to accomplish this goal.

But and when will you check in on the goal to see if this if the progress is being made? And we’ll talk a little bit more about it further down. But with the time bound, for the there should be there can be you don’t have to have it, unless the child has an intellectual disability. However, it’s very helpful to have short term goals.

And we’ll talk about that a little bit more. But that’s where also you can look at the at those time bound, short term goals. Generally speaking, the IEP goals, they should be able to achieve those goals within a year. Here is a kind of setting formula for creating the goal.

By, this gives it like a timeframe. The student will… well, what is the goal that we want the student to achieve? I had mentioned identifying blue, so, you know, we can say identify the color blue, right. And then in what setting, right.

Will this be will this be in the general education classroom? What setting will this be? And how are they going to measure it, right? Are they measuring it by looking at the sample trials?

Will it be measured by the class assignment, the class work? Will it be measured by teacher observation? How will it be measured? And how accurate must a child be to have accomplished the goal?

So, if the child is starting off at zero and, you know, now maybe the child is it might take a while to learn the skill and, you know, by the end of the year, maybe they can get it two out of four trials, or maybe the child learns really quick and, you know, by the end of the year, it will have mastered it, right. But with what with accuracy and with supports, this is important, you want to see goals that you want your child to achieve, but what supports do they need? What type of supports or accommodations do they need to learn and achieve this goal? So here is an example of a goal: By March 12, 2026, after listening to a grade level passage read out loud, Maria will identify the topic of a text when using multiple choice response options 80% of the time as measured by student work samples and teacher observation in the general education classroom.

So, as you see, when you’re reviewing the goals, when you are sitting at the IEP table reviewing the goals, you may want to take a look at is this specific, right? This one is saying what they’re asking for Maria to identify, right. Is it measurable, right? And they’re saying maybe 80% of the time.

Is it achievable and ambitious and appropriate? And she’s learning listening comprehension or auditory comprehension. Depending on the baseline, you know, depending on what we don’t really know in this context what the baseline is, right. Is this an ambitious goal, right?

Because if we’re thinking, you know, well, this is also if we’re using the current time, we’re saying okay, March, they’re going to be learning this in one month. So, let’s say right now she’s doing it at 70% of the time, right. Is this ambitious for her to be able to get the skill within a month? What is her baseline?

So, if it’s, you know, 70% and she’s been working on this for a while, maybe this might be the right place, you know, it might be a bit ambitious enough for her. Or maybe she’s already at 70% and she learns quite quickly or maybe she’s most of the time at 80%, she teeters between 70 80% and maybe this is just not ambitious enough. Maybe this has already maxed it out, her baseline is at 90% and maybe it’s not ambitious enough for her. So looking at the baseline really helps you determine, and the students’ assessments and their abilities to know, is it appropriate?

Is it ambitious? And, of course, you want to make sure it’s relevant, right. And it is English language arts standards for listening and comprehension, so it’s relevant. And is it time bound, we do have a date, March 12th, right.

So, think about what else have you noticed about this goal and where, like, where would it be worked on, right? If we worked on in the general education classroom. And who’s overseeing the implementation of it? Well, it’s the teachers.

There may be other people as well, and I will show you when you look at the goals of where you can see that as well. Is it important to keep in mind that students don’t magically meet their IEP goals on their own. They need explicit teaching and support to acquire the skills required. Adults in the classrooms or support settings must provide strategic strategies, excuse me, such as social skills, training, or modeling.

Access to pre drawn models or notes, visual schedules, or access to a wellness, like, you know, a wellness center or preferred adults for mental health supports, the use of a student’s accommodations is important on how the goal will be implemented. Assuring that they have the tools needed to succeed, parents can play an important role by understanding the methods being used to teach a skill. If they notice the goal is not being met, they have parents can request an IEP meeting to evaluate whether or not the goals or supports need adjustment. When planning goals, consider the level of prompting required to aim to aiming to and fade to independence whether possible.

And that’s really important. Sometimes they do need prompting to help them learn, okay, this is what I’m asking from you, this is what I’m doing, so they don’t get overwhelmed or frustrated of, you know, needing that extra support from the task. And giving a lot of supports when giving instructions such as hand over hand in writing and sometimes giving a specific model of what you’re asking for and slowly fading that away, this helps them to be able to focus on what you’re teaching rather than the frustration of not being able to understand, remember, or access the information that you’re providing. So here is an example of different well, this is a resource you will receive these slides that provides knowing know what the common core math standards are, what the English language standards are.

For dyslexia, there’s guidelines. If your student has dyslexia, what is the curriculum? They need to have a specific curriculum, evident based curriculum. And so this is a resource.

I encourage you to take a look at it. You know, it helps you when you’re developing the goals and understanding where your child is, where the student is, in relationship to the grade level So, best practice, this includes short term goals and objectives in the IEP goals. Giving multiple opportunities to benchmark on progress throughout the year and check if your child is on track to meet the goal. Progress monitoring is essential and families can receive updates on goals at each short term objective date, as well as the general education progress reports or report cards.

Goals should be clear and free from jargon. If you don’t understand what is being measured, ask for clarification. And do not a parent does not have to consent until it’s clear. And consider whether next year’s teacher or therapist or other professionals will know exactly what’s expected in the student, and how to measure it when implementing the goal.

So, I have an example of writing the goal, that students will improve symbatic (sp) and working on writing probes and I pulled that out as an example of some goal that would have jargon in it, right, where that may be clear for the person who’s writing it, it may not be clear for all, and it may not be clear for the parent. The parent has the right to the parent has the right to participate and being clear on what is being measured, how it’s being measured, what are you looking for, is part of being able to participate. So, when writing the short this is the same goal, you know when writing a short story, the student will complete sentences, include a beginning, middle, and end, and connect ideas using words like and or because in four out of five written samples. So, this is written more in a way that allows you to have a clear understanding of specific targets of what is being looked at.

And I do want to mention a little bit about, again, about the short term goals or objectives, and we’ll show in a little bit an example. So, you have your long term goal and there are some short terms under it. Those are some ways that you could see if this support is being faded away or if they’re being prompted, sometimes those are some of the areas that you may see those are happening. The short term objectives are not are really more best practice and it can really help the parent participate and know what’s going on, know when to look back and say, wait a minute, we’ve been working on this part of the goal for two or three months and they’re not understanding it, what else can we do?

Maybe we have to go and revisit the IEP and create maybe more supports into that goal so that progress would be made. Here’s some examples of turning the goal into SMART goals. So, here you do see some goals that’s written and it does have a date. The student is going to write an essay.

However, we don’t know what type of support the students will receive, we don’t know it’s not measurable. We’re not, you know, we won’t see you won’t see if the student has met the goal. And now this is by November 2, 2021, when given a fifth grade writing topic and a graphic organizer, the students will write two five sentence paragraphs including correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, with 75% accuracy. Each paragraph will contain a topic sentence, sentence with supporting details, and a conclusion sentence.

So, this goal is not specific and what is expected of the student and measurable and clearly defining accuracy level, and here it says the accuracy level of 75% and before it did not. To determine whether this goal is achievable and appropriately ambitious, would need to look at the student’s present level of performance. The student’s grade level also helps us determine whether the goal is relevant and appropriate and be challenging. The second one, by June 2nd, this one, once again, has a time date, however it says the student’s social interactions with peers and adults will improve.

So, the goal, the SMART goal, gives also the time, date, by June 2nd, and more specifically that time and date, provided with Michelle Garcia Winner, thinking about you, thinking about me, social skills curriculum and instructions, student will demonstrate pro social skills with adults and peers by initiating positive conversation with adults and peers at least two times each day, measured by daily data collection. So, in the SMART goals, this goal clearly identifies the evidence based social skills curriculum, so that will be used. So it identifies thinking about you, thinking about me social skills. It’s important to note that the curriculum is being referenced and whether the person responsible for implementing is trained to do so.

While those details are typically addressed in the service section of the IEP, being aware of them at the goal writing stage helps identify areas that may need further discussion by the IEP team. So, in this goal, this is letting us know what curriculum is going to be used. You definitely would want to know, as the meeting continues, because we’re only focused on the goals, but after the goals, there will be services, and you want to know who’s going to implement this. And, you know, are they trained?

Because that might be another service you might need to ask for. So, here’s an example of a goal. You can take a look; we’ve gone through one thing I do want to mention out of this is we do have the baseline. And the student is at 0% accuracy on the baseline.

I will read this out. As of fall 2020, the student completes all of his assignments with the assistance of a para educator who assists him with breaking down assignments and meeting deadlines. Will need to develop planning and prioritizing skills in order to independently complete assignments in a timely manner. At this time, the student demonstrates 0% accuracy with independence.

He is not able to independently break assignments into smaller parts, and estimate the time it will take to complete the assignment, or part of the assignment, assign due dates, or track assignments. So, in this, you know, there’s a goal that they will meet 80% accuracy on all given opportunities. So, you can take some time to review this. I do want to mention that in the goals, it does have a part, the person responsible, and it will say who is responsible for these goals?

And that should not be the parent. So, and this one is RSP, para professional, and general education teacher. Here are some examples of short term objective goals. Where the first objective goal, and it does have a date of February 7, 2021, this one, he is being taught to break up break the assignments into smaller parts.

And then the next one, he starts he’s taught to determine and estimate the amount of time it will take to complete those assignments. So, these are pieces of the long term objective. And, once again, this really helps the IEP team watch this progress and know when to stop and say wait a minute, you know, maybe we need to work on something else to help them develop the skill to achieve this. Or maybe the student is moving right along and meeting all the short term objectives, and it looks like they’re on the path to achieving the long term objective.

So, Endrew F. standards, an appropriately ambitious IEP. This was a landmark decision that came from a parent taking the School District through a due process to fight for the child’s right to get an appropriate education. Officially the family lost the case but they appealed and ultimately won. The court found that the student who had an intellectual disability had been denied a meaningful education because the school did not believe he was capable of achieving stronger academic goals.

The Endrew F. decision clarified that IEP goals must be appropriately ambitious. In light of the student’s circumstances, students with disabilities are not entitled to minimal progress or goals that simply maintain the status quo. Instead, schools must set goals that allow students to make meaningful progress. Just as advancement from grade to grade is considered appropriately ambitious for students in general education class in education.

This decision, along with the guidance from the Department of Education also makes it clear that when a student is not making expected progress towards the annual goal, the IEP team has a reasonable has a responsibility to convene and revise the IEP. Even when a student is performing significantly below grade level, the goals must still be ambitious, achievable, and designed to help close the gap. So, I think that’s so very important, especially for students with intellectual for all students, right for students with intellectual disabilities. And yeah.

So, why do we know why the goal wasn’t met? Was the appropriate amount of intervention provided? So, as, you know, the services, once you have the goal established, you want the services to meet that goal. So, you know, was the student given the right support to achieve that goal?

Did they get the right services? Did they have the right accommodations? Did they have the right support? And this is where, once again, if you’re looking through, you have short term benchmarks, halfway through the year if you see the student is not making that, you can go back and take a look and say, you know, maybe we need to provide some more intervention.

Was intervention provided by people with the appropriate credentials or specialized training? You know, as we talked a little bit about a one on one aide, I mean, to have somebody to support the child can be great. However, are they trained on how to support your child? What type of unique needs does your child have?

What unique needs does the student have that the individual should be trained on how to support? Is it a specific curriculum that requires a certain amount of training and education? Are the professionals, do they have to required training? Was intervention provided in an appropriate setting?

Sometimes the setting, it might be too loud or too overwhelming for the child to focus. You know, the student may need a specific setting in order to be attentive. Were the student’s accommodations implemented appropriately? And do we need to adjust the services and accommodations?

Do we need to adjust the learning environment? These are things, you know, when you have an IEP, it’s established for the year. However, you know, things change, and so coming back to the IEP, to the table and reevaluating where, you know, are these goals being met? What type of additional support is needed for the student to achieve the goals?

And that can happen at any time. It does not have to happen at the end of the school year. And a parent can call an IEP team meeting, you know, if the parent sees, you know, these benchmarks or these goals or the report cards or the progress that’s expected is not being met. And should you should the parent ask for compensatory education?

So, compensatory education, in some cases, is a lack of progress or the regression may result in a need for compensatory education. Compensatory education is provided when a student did not make the progress that was that they should have, because the IEP was not appropriately developed or not properly implemented, and resulted in denial of FAPE. The purpose of a compensatory education is to place the student in the position they would have been had they received their appropriate services. This may be provided through additional education services or hours or financial compensation to support the student’s education in a specific area where the services were missed.

So, next month, March 9th, please join us for Part 7; we’ll talk about how we determine the services and accommodations in the IEP that supports the goals and support our children in reaching the goals and making progress through the IEP. We are now getting to the offer of FAPE. So, I’m going to talk a little bit about some of the advocacy tips, and then we can look at some do some more polls and some questions. As you navigate, special education is important to learn your district policies, and the California Education Code, while also remembering that remembering the IDEA, ADA, and Section 504, the Rehabilitation Act.

Advocacy is, in special education, it takes, you know, it does take some time. But as you, you know, start to look to see if there is a need, that you create the goal to support it. And understanding the excuse me understanding the organization chart allows you to know, you know, who do I go to next? Right, if you’re identifying something that you need additional support in and if the parent is making a request and asking for support or asking for a goal and received the prior written notice, knowing the organizational chart allows you to know where to go next.

Ask Learn the policies in the California Education Code, remember IDEA, Section 504, that supersedes state and local codes and school district policies. Sometimes you’re developing and they say well, our school policy, we don’t do that here, right. If it’s, you know, appropriate for the unique needs of your student, you know, I mean, you definitely can look at the policy and find out find the policy and understand the policy. If this is what’s needed for your child to access education, then you can have that a parent can have that discussion in the IEP team, or, you know, you may need to go to the special education director.

If it’s appropriate, make sure that the student can join the IEP meeting and contribute to the decisions. Self advocacy is so important. You know, we, as adults, we have to speak up for our needs. And so a student with a disability will may become, you know, will be an adult who needs to request for accommodations at college, request for accommodations in the workplace.

And so starting off with those, being able to be part of the IEP team allows them to understand how accommodation supports help them. Let them speak up and speak out to the team and know what works for them. How they would like to see things happen. And the team can really take their worries and concerns and participation because it involves them.

This is a skill that they that they will use for a lifetime. If you didn’t put it in writing, it didn’t happen. I think that’s very important. Keeping a trail, a paper trail, a computer trail, having notes, document things that happen.

Sometimes parents ask, please pick up your child, and maybe, you know, this goes on, you know, a couple times in a week, or for three or four months. You can have documentation showing this. Now, then now you have a log that’s showing how frequently this is happening. Maybe you need a goal and maybe you need supports to help the student so that the student can remain in the classroom.

Overcommunicate with all members of the team. Speak to the team and have those conversations. You know, the school the speech therapist, occupational therapist, and teachers, everybody is there to support the student. And they have their concerns as well.

So, you know, overcommunication is so important, to be able to share your concerns. Maybe there might be something that’s happening in one classroom that’s not happening in the others or maybe you’re seeing it across the board in other classrooms. But being able to share and request all of that. Request all student records, you have five business days, and they have five business days to provide you with the records.

And when you see concerns, a parent can ask for an IEP meeting and that is 30 days to provide that meeting. And in an IEP meeting, a parent can record the meeting. Just let the school know 24 hours in advance that they will be recording it. And if a parent chooses to record or request to record the meeting, record it yourself, right.

If you record the meeting if the parent records the meeting, they will probably record it too. However, it’s, you know, you have the recording the parent will have the recording themselves. And keep a hard copy of the IEP, the assessment forms, and have it labeled in a folder. And if you have a computer, label all the documents the same way, so that you can easily find what you’re looking for and helps you organize it.

So if there is a concern that arises, you can find that information and that documentation that shows the data, you know, this is a need and this is why. And some examples of some questions to ask: Can you please help me understand? If they’re asking for a goal, you know, please help me understand. You know, why is this goal needed?

You know, this goes with the services. Have we considered this service as an area of need? Why? Why not?

This allows everyone to have that conversation, to be on the same in the same place, on the same page, and it also allows you to have some information from what the school or the district is thinking, and how they’re, you know how that discussion of, you know, whether or not that’s an appropriate support or goal. And what other options what are the concerns and what other options are available? If, you know, what other options are available that you can have that discussion? Because maybe what is being offered and presented is a true need.

However, what’s being offered and presented might not work for the need of your child. And so sometimes for individuals, if you you know, if they’re upset and you come too close to their space, it might agitate them and it might cause them to become more upset. So, if you’re asking, you know, why are they choosing that method when the student is upset, to guide the child out of the classroom, which definitely sounds very reasonable. But that may not work for the unique need of your child, right.

So asking why or why not, having that conversation, allows, you know, the behavioral specialist maybe to speak up and say, well, maybe if we give them time to calm down before we direct them, or maybe if they’re taught ahead of time where to go. So there’s options. Can you show me a copy of the policy? And they say, well, this is what we have to do with all students, if they have behaviors, they have to go home immediately, please show me a copy of the policy.

And once again, you know, the IEP is to create support for the unique needs of your child. And then also, please send me that in writing after this meeting. Please send me a prior written notice in response to my request. So if you’re asking for anything and it is if the parent is asking for support, a service, a goal, if the parent is asking for it and it is denied placement, if it’s denied, then the parent can ask, please send me a timely prior written notice.

A prior written notice is if something is started, so the district is planning on making a change, it’s prior written notice. Or if they’re denying a service, that can be written in a prior written notice. Okay. Thank you.

Now it’s time for questions. And before we do that, I’m going to go ahead and try to launch these polls again. Okay. I think the polls…

I’m going to launch the polls. However, I will take some time to answer some questions. So, I have a question: If your child is behind, how is grade level an appropriate measurement tool? Should grade level be defined?

For example, a child reads at third grade level in fifth grade by a date, they will be at X grade level. Well, yeah, it is the unique needs of your child. So, I mean, grade level helps you understand where what’s being taught at that grade. A student should always have exposure to grade level.

So even if they are not you know, if maybe they’re learning about, in the grade they’re learning about the anatomy of birds, the child, the student may not be at the same level that their class is at. However, they should be exposed to it, exposed to maybe learning about birds, so they can participate to that level. But in regards to the goal, the goal the grade level works to allow you to know where you’re going to, but if that’s not where your student is at, then you create the goals specific to your student. And that’s where the present level is important.

If the goal is too high from the baseline, can it be revised and lower the expectation? Well, yes. I mean, you want it to be a challenging goal. And so the idea is that the they should be able to reach that within a year and make that progress within a year.

The short term goals, I will leave it to that, you know, to see them make the progress. But if the goal is to it looks like, you know, it’s unattainable, then, yes. However, you do want it to be ambitious, you do want them to make that progress. But you don’t want them to get frustrated or overwhelmed.

What is the best what is the best address to address behavior? IEP behavior goals or embedding the behavioral goals into a BIP? So, well, everything should the behavioral intervention plan lets you know how you will address this behavior. Well, not just how to address the behavior, but how to prevent it.

So I want to say that, it’s really important, how to prevent it when it occurs and how long it takes. You should have a behavioral intervention plan but you should also have goals. So the plan is the way of helping you and helping the student achieve those goals. Is there anything in the California federal law that prohibits triennial testing from being used for baseline?

The school has failed to maintain data for the last 18 months and wants to rely on triennial testing to create goals. Well, so, I kind of think that this is something specific in here that I would encourage you to contact us so you get the specific answer for you. So, the triennial, first of all, the evaluation should be should not just be a records review but actual assessments, so I want to say that. And, you know, it helps you understand what the strengths and weaknesses and accommodations and supports that you need.

So the evaluation is definitely a great it’s definitely something that’s needed, right. When you’re creating the goal, when you’re looking at something specific, now this is where you’re looking at where is the baseline for learning this skill. So, yeah, so you’re looking at I’m going to go back to the identifying blue I don’t know, we talked about it but you’re learning this or maybe being able to write your name, you’re learning this specific skill and so you want to use see where they’re at for the baseline for that skill. But however, the evaluations will help you understand, if you have spatial issues, right, you know, maybe you might need some guidance, if you’re writing your name, you might need some guidance to, I don’t know, some block, graphic organizers so you can write within a box.

Or maybe you might need maybe the OT did an assessment and the OT might need to be able to you have difficulty gripping a pencil. So, there is a place, the evaluations the triennial and those assessments are very important and needed for the evaluations. But when we’re looking at specific baseline for the skill that you’re learning, then this is where you want to see where they’re at right now. And to where they will be at, you know, the expectations and the goal.

So the evaluations are very important. So I don’t want in any way to sound that they are not. I think, yes, there are examples of goals to improve the executive functioning skills. And I think I actually gave an example that was but, you know, once again, what’s specific to your child.

But the example I gave was something that could help; yeah. Should baseline have ranges like 20%, 30%, or just one number? My team gave ranges for my son, baseline, saying that it depends on his mood. Well… that yeah, that can be difficult, because, once again, we want to know where they’re at now, to see if they’ve made any progress.

So, if the goal is to reach 50% and the baseline is 20 30, that doesn’t leave much that doesn’t sound ambitious. And it doesn’t we don’t really, really know where he started at, so…. You know, that may be something that you can consider getting a little clearer. And what are you really measuring, right?

What what is his real need? If it depends, then something else might be happening. If it depends on his mood, yeah, what is being measured, you know, because that’s just you may one can consider, you know, having it more specific, because 20 30, yeah…. But once again, you know, that is not my area.

You take it back to the team and you guys can discuss what is most appropriate for your child. However, if you’re specific, then you know to see where is progress. If the goal is proposed and you agree with the goal but not the way it’s written, will it be appropriate to sign an IEP with exception for those goals? What’s your recommendation?

A parent does have the right to sign with exception. And, you know, the thing when you have, you know, the SMART goals and a lot of things that we discussed, it helps you see understand where the progress is being made and why it is or is not. So, if you just have a goal that the student will raise their hand when they have a question and you don’t have a lot of the context, you’re not knowing if the progress is made or not being made, what is the teacher trying, right? And so that leaves the teacher may be trying some wonderful things that’s working or not working, but the rest of the team doesn’t know what it is.

So, and you won’t get to know what’s effective and what’s not effective. So, you know, a parent can sign with exception. And however, you know, I can’t tell you exactly which way you should go, but I do want to let the parent know that a parent can sign with exception if that’s what the parent chooses to do. And really go back to the IEP team and get a goal that’s going to work.

Can a person responsible just say education specialist/staff? So, the person responsible are the people who is going to implement and oversee the goal being implemented appropriately. So, you get clarification on how the education specialist is and if it’s appropriate, who the education specialist is and is it appropriate and that’s appropriate to the individuals and you definitely can call in to get some more to speak specifically to yours. Are the paras allowed to work on goals with the student?

The paras the para can support, you know, the para doesn’t teach but the para can guide, the para has instructions on how to support the student, and the para can do some things that will help the student achieve their goals. It depends on how it’s written and it depends on what is expected. So, yes, the para can. Yeah, you know, it just depends on what the goal is, what the objective, you know, how it’s being implemented.

The para does not teach, but the para can support the student and let the teacher know when the student needs help. So, that just depends on what’s the goal. I asked them to be clear, but they told me I don’t know how to write goals. Well, I am sorry that you went through that.

And, you know, that’s where those questions of, please explain to me how, please explain to me what are you, you know…. I will ask you, you know, you could call us and we can talk a little bit more about how to discuss your specific question and asking for support. But, you know, you’re part of the IEP team and it’s important that that is acknowledged and respected. Yes, we can help parents review goals.

There’s a question, can you guys are you guys available to help parents review goals? Yes, we can. I think I have answered all of the questions. So, I thank you for joining us again.

It looks like I did not get to… launch the second polls. So I’m going to relaunch the polls. If you could spend a few minutes completing the goals. And if there are any additional questions, I will be happy to answer them.

Are rotating paras allowed when a student needs a one on one? If you have a one on one, so sometimes if your IEP has a one on one, they’re supposed to provide that one on one. Sometime if there’s a concern of having different people, you know, you know, you can put that in the IEP. However, sometimes, you know, if someone calls out sick and they will need someone to replace it, so, you know, keeping those things in mind.

So, one of the things that parents can do is asking for, you know, the para to be trained, specific training for the para in understanding the needs of your child. You cannot often put specific people into the IEP; however, a parent can ask for, you know, for consistency and can ask for the para can ask for the individuals working with the student to be to be trained on supporting the student. All right. I think that ends the session today.

I thank you for attending; I thank you for coming. And I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. Goodbye. And have a good evening.

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