Individualized Education Programs: design and implementation for students

Individualized Education Programs (IEP) are designed to give child with special needs the services they require in order to benefit from formal education. Without these IEPs the children are not "playing on a level field" so to speak. The determination of the goals for a child in an IEP is briefly discussed.

An Individualized Education Program (IEP) must be developed within 30 calendar days after a child in the classroom according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IEPs are not static, but every year after the IEP is developed the IEP team must meet to review the progress of the child towards their specific learning goals and develop new set new learning goals if needed (Volpiansky et al. 2010). The team would consist of the parents of the child, at least one of the teachers, at least one special education teacher of the child or one special education provider, a qualified representative of the school who is qualified to supervise the specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities, an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results (typically a school psychologist), other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child (if needed), and when appropriate the child with the disability.

In the case of a fifth grade student with average abilities who is reading at a mid second grade level and demonstrating discipline problems in class the IEP would need to formally measure the child's present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, including how the child's difficulties currently affect his involvement and progress in the classroom (Ormrod, 2008). This would involve the use of the school psychologist or an outside school psychologist to formally assess all aspects of the child's intellectual and academic abilities in order to determine the child's strengths and weakness. Once the formal assessment is completed this would provide a guideline for the development of specific educational goals tailored for the child. I believe that the formal assessment is appropriate to determine the child's abilities as well as to also determine any motivational effects that may be contributing to the child's academic performance.

Discipline difficulties would require special assessment. A functional behavioral analysis would require observation of the child in the classroom to determine how these discipline problems manifest themselves in the classroom. This would require a full explanation of the antecedents, the specific behavior (discipline problem), and the consequences of the behavior the child is exhibiting (the ABC's). Discipline problems in the classroom cannot be addressed until they are understood in all these contexts.