THIS ISSUE: Better Individual Education Plan (IEP) Writing

Dear Arizona Promising Practices Subscriber,

Welcome to another online addition of the Arizona Promising Practices forum. For those new to this service, each issue, which will now be sent to you on a regular basis, will focus on:

(1) Recommended National Education websites; and

(2) One promising practice article in condensed form. We welcome your recommendations for improvement to this forum or suggestions on future topics (these will be wide ranging so if nothing in this update interests you, hold on for future editions!)

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In this issue of the Promising Practices Forum we have been asked to provide a series of articles that deal with better Individual Education Plan (IEP) writing. The first in this series will deal with the Present Level of Performance portion of the IEP.

National Website focusing on Promising Practice – Arizona Families Online Coalition is a group of children, parents and families who network via the internet. Many interesting resources and topics are presented here – check out this website at: http://aztec.asu.edu/afol/index.html

Promising Practice Research and Teaching Tips

Writing a Better IEP

Present Level of Performance

Essential Elements

Key Question: What is the child doing now?

Purpose: To describe the unique needs of the child that will be addressed by special education and related services, and to establish a baseline of measurable information that serves as the starting point for developing goals and objectives/benchmarks.

Definition: The present level of performance specifies:

• the strengths of the child
• the unique needs of the child
• parental concerns
• how the child's disability affects their involvement and progress in the general curriculum

Key Characteristics:

• measurable
• objective
• functional
• current
• identifies any special factors
• describes both academic and non-academic areas
• includes the results of most recent evaluation or re-evaluation (e.g. formal and informal educational performance data, state and/or district assessments)
• establishes a baseline of information used in writing goals, short term objectives and benchmarks

Writing Strategy: Describe the behavior the child is doing in objective, measurable terms.