This guide is developed from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and reviews the 13 federal mandates that should be included in IEP goals. The SMARTER Steps® acronym is embedded to illustrate how we developed the process. This is a valuable IEP resource for parents, advocates, school staff, administrators, and university professors who teach college students in education majors and related services fields.

These three example goals illustrate the SMARTER Steps® process to developing legally compliant IEPs. The SMARTER prompting system is a guide to save time for teams when developing IEP goals. It includes all 13 federal mandates to ensure compliance. The guide can be easily communicated to staff and parents, removing the cumbersome jargon of special education laws. The SMARTER Steps process is helpful in preventing IEP stress and reducing disputes between parents and schools.

This one-page handout is a great visual for IEP meetings related to legally compliant goals. This is designed for parents, advocates, school staff, administrators, and university professors who teach college students in education and related services fields. The SMARTER Steps® prompting system contains the 13 federal mandates for IEP goals, written in user-friendly terms without the legal jargon that can be confusing to teams. The handout can serve as a checklist for IEP meetings, showing that each area has been addressed in the goal. The intent of this handout is to reduce IEP stress and improve school-family communications.

This four-page guide is a time-saver for IEP development! This is designed for parents, advocates, school staff, administrators, and university professors who teach college students in education and related services fields. The S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Steps® acronym is a prompting system that includes all 13 federal mandates to ensure compliance. The guide helps teams avoid common pitfalls of the frustrating IEP goal writing process and can be easily communicated to staff and parents, removing the cumbersome jargon of special education laws. The SMARTER Steps® process is helpful in preventing IEP stress and reducing disputes between parents and schools.

This handout from SMARTER Steps® is a great resource for parents, professionals, and advocates to understand language assessments in the schools.  This presentation provides information on the purpose, process, and value of language assessments. It breaks down common terminology associated with language assessments, the skills they assess, and the impact on learning. Learn about the various test scores used, interpretation of the scoring, and application of test results.  Statistical measurements are explained in user-friendly terms for all members of the IEP team to understand and use for educational program planning. 

This two-page checklist from SMARTER Steps® is a must-have item for both determining eligibility and IEP development! This is designed for parents, advocates, school staff, administrators, and university professors who teach college students in education and related services fields. The checklist helps you make sure you have completed a thorough language assessment. It also helps troubleshoot any potential problems in the language assessment. It serves as a check-balance system as well as a means to simplify explaining scores and interpretation to parents. It controls for reliability and validity of the test results.