¶ … Optimal Individualized Education Program for a Special Needs Student Special education leaders today are required to fully understand the optimal approaches to developing individualized education programs (IEPs) in general and IEPs for special needs students in particular. Developing optimal IEPs also requires a comprehension of the team operation, eligibility criteria, assessment procedures, and community support systems. To determine the facts about these issues, this paper reviews the relevant literature as it applies to a young learner in a middle school who is struggling to overcome his behavioral and learning deficits. This review is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning IEP development in the conclusion.

Discussion concerning the student, current placement, and the school

Like a growing number of other young learners, 12-year-old Johnny Morris, a sixth-grade student, is experiencing behavioral and learning problems that have required special accommodations in the classroom. To date, though, these interventions have proven largely ineffective. Specifically, the existing individualized education program (IEP) for Johnny addressed his articulation difficulties with limited success, but has virtually ignored his behavioral issues that have detracted from his ability to learn as well as causing a disruptive influence on the rest of his mainstream middle school classmates. The fact that Johnny has been forced to repeat two grades is also evidence of his ongoing need for special educational interventions (McBride & Dumont, 2011). Notwithstanding the efforts by Johnny's teachers to provide him with the academic support he needs to overcome these learning deficits, it is clear that his existing...

In Johnny's case, the existing measureable goals and method of measurement are as follows:
Measurable Academic/Functional Goal: Johnny will demonstrate competence in speaking and listening as tools for learning and communicating by producing targeted phonemes with 80% percent accuracy.

Short-term Objective: Johnny will speak intelligibly when producing targeted phonemes in sentences with 80% accuracy.

Method of Measurement: Observational Data

As can be seen from the above-listed goals and measurement method, Johnny's current IEP fails to address his behavioral problems that are likely related to his clinically diagnosed but untreated Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder that are adversely affecting his ability to learn (Darden, 2013). Moreover, the observational data does not include a specific quantifiable element that can be used to track this student's progress in achieving this academic/functional goal and these issues are discussed further below with respect to controlling legislation and best academic practices.

Evaluation of the noncompliant points of the plan to include procedural and substantive issues while specifying laws, state and local…