Category: IEP Development

Annual IEP goals determine which services will be implemented to support the student’s progress during the school year. If those goals can’t be easily measured, how will the team know if the student met them?

If you’re an IEP team member, you already know that IEP goals drive everything to help students with disabilities. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Endrew vs. Douglas County School District (2017) stated that IEP goals must be “appropriately ambitious.” Now, IEP teams may be wondering how to ensure compliant goals in light of this […]

Creating IEP Goals: 3 Tips to Get Started We want your school year to begin on the right foot!  As each IEP is annually reviewed, begin to develop S.M.A.R.T.E.R goals for your students.  Tips on updating specific features are available throughout the webinar series in your membership portal. Tip 1:  Start by examining student strengths. […]

IEP Goals Beyond the 3 R's Today we received this question from a subscriber: All the IEP goals I see are linked to the 3 R's and I teach Science. How do you suggest getting science and other subjects considered when admins are pushing for better 3R test scores in IEP meetings? This is something […]

SMARTER Steps IEP Goal Development:  The SMARTER method for IEP goal development was developed by Kelly Ott and Lara Wakefield and published in 2016. The SMART acronym was first coined by George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham in 1981.  The November 1981 issue of Management Review included an article titled, "There's a S.M.A.R.T. way […]

Building A S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Future for Students with Disabilities. Building a name and reputation as a caring and compassionate educator occurs spontaneously when you are truly client centered. This involves so much more than developing IEP goals or providing therapy services to students. It means, providing the therapy or instruction, ongoing analysis of student’s needs, counseling […]

Momentum: READY... SET... GO! Momentum for a continuously positive school year! Even if you did not have access to a calendar, you can tell that the school year is fast approaching by watching social media discussions. The topics have a hint of excitement and show eagerness to get rooms, lesson plans, and theme ideas underway! […]

Student Led IEPs: Putting Proposals Into Practice Have you ever encountered a really great idea, program, or activity but are not sure how to get started?  Even though student led IEPS are best practices, how do we implement them? Where do we begin and how are educators effectively putting these proposals into practice? Student led […]

            Breaking Down 5 Barriers to Student Led IEPs Schools often have difficulty breaking down 5 barriers to student led IEPs. While evidence suggests that conducting student led IEPs can be beneficial, it has not become a mainstream practice across the nation.  In fact, many schools do not routinely involve […]

Student Led IEP Meetings 2 Essential Benefits of Student Led IEP Meetings The concept of student led IEP meetings is growing momentum. There has been a growing discussion about including students and allowing them to lead the development of their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). While it seems sensible enough to include the student in his […]