Questions about IEP goals, evaluation methods, etc....

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Hi again,

I have developed some new questions over the course of the day. I have been reading some cases found at Wright’s Law about IEP’s, how schools handle them often incorrectly. One of the cases, “Evans v. Board of Education of Rhinebeck Cent. Sch. Dist., caught my attention.

In the Judges decision, he discussed Dyslexia and the educational technigues used to treat this condition. Quoting Appendix C of the Code of Federal Regulations, he discussed the problems of vague IEPs where the child’s progress cannot be measured objectively:

He states,”The IEP Wholly failed to identify the child’s particular areas of deficit and was based on information that was at least ten months old, I still find that the IEPs did not adequately set forth strategies for evaluating progress, in violation of 20 U.S.C.blah, blah, section, section…and so forth. He also states the Act’s requirement of periodic and individualized assessments of each handicapped child evinces a recognition that children develop quickly and that a placement decision that may have been appropriate a year ago may no longer be appropriate today.”

Our school district here in good ole Lexington, SC, has printed in their special education handbook, that they will conduct evaluations every three years. Does this law mean that if we request them to, they must test our daughter before three years pass to see if she is progressing in an objective way? I know I may sound stupid asking, but NOT to ask a question is truly unwise right?

Also, later, in the same Judges statements which you can find at Wright’s Law.com, somewhere, I printed this all out weeks ago, that the child in question’s IEP included only broad, generic objectives and vague, subjective methods for monitoring his progress. For example, the first goal in his IEP provided that he would be evaluated on the listed objectives by reference to “teacher observation” and “80% accuracy”. The second goal, evaluated by “teacher observation” and “80% success”. The Judge states because there is little indication of the child’s level of success when the IEP was written, it fails to specify strategies for adequately evaluating his academic progress and determining which teaching methods are effective and which need to be revised. He also notes that a later IEP used the same mantra to a large extent, that did not set forth measurable criteria to assess progress.

The reason I have subjected you to this entire tyrade/court case, is that my daughter’s IEP Short Term Objectives are written exactly like the child’s in the court case! Her’s say 80% correct, 80% Accuracy, the speech goals just say vaguely 90% under the section called Criteria for Mastery!!! I am curious to know if any of you have similar IEP Short Term Criteria for Mastery? What exactly should the criteria state? Also, the Annual goals are always written with her completing 5 of the 7 short term objectives, or similiar statements, is this kind of Annual Goal the Norm? I am also puzzled by their Evaluation Method descriptions/abreviations. I understand that “TO” means “Teacher Observation”, but what does “IAT”, or “CBA” mean? Also, we get only nine week regular class interim reports ever quarter, even though the IEP says we will get updates quarterly. The only Special Ed. class update we have received came at the end of last school year. It had under Annual Goal, both Reading in one section, and Math, in the other, then for the Progress Reporting section, they all have P’s, which the key says stand for Progressing. It didn’t really tell me which short term objectives she met and which she didn’t anywhere. She has had two IEPs thus far, and neither has anything listed in the Results Column on the IEP-Goal Objectives page. It does list Review Dates, but again, I don’t know what these Evaluation Methods are, so it seems pretty vague to me, am I wrong to think so? It seems to me you have to be mightily educated in the extreme specifics if you are at all to be effective at monitoring your child’s progress, and what about the poor parents that work two jobs and don’t have time to read volumes of court cases etc.?

Again, I may sound silly for asking these things, but since I have an IEP meeting in the afternoon, tommorrow, for my son, I think I should go ahead, sound silly, and ask!(: I also wanted to ask if any of you have run into the “teacher observation” being the only evaluation method used and what if anything could, or did, you do to get that changed? I know I am in need of one of the excellent literary sources about IEP’s, desperately in fact, but as we have been struggling financially, haven’t been able to afford anything yet. Sorry to have rambled on, but any info you can offer to me, I will be, again, most grateful.
Sincerely,
Deb

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/30/2002 - 12:29 PM

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in response to the question reguarding evaluations… the law says that the division must evaluate at least once every 3 years, this doesn’t mean that there can’t be more. here in Va it is listed in the regulations under re- evaluation stating clearely that any member of the team (including the parent) can request an evaluation as deemed necessary. (Josh is evaluated 2x’s a year) (parent requests) also i have a complaint up in front of the VDOE and one of my many parts to this complaint is this goal and objectives area… (according to T.O. Josh mastered all goals and objectives, AT SCHOOL but at home he shows no improvement) parent requested detailed breakdown of all goals and objectives… the LEA ststed clearely that the DOE has no place interfearing in the implimentation of an IEP, what is concidered approperate, and so forth, the LEA said the parent must file due processto complain about how this is implimented. here is the best example i can give from Josh’s IEP ( behavior modification techniques, Objective Josh will use approperate techniques with 90% accuracy 80% of the time… Short term objectives NONE… Josh was removed from school for 29 days last year continuous.) check out the website IEP4U they have about 400 or more goals objectives, and how to’s in there. it covers each area of disability from autism to speech.

Hope i helped some.
Hope

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/30/2002 - 1:33 PM

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federal regulations: 34 CFR 300.532 , 34 CFR 300.534
in subpart E of the procedural safeguards, states the Parent can request a Re Evaluation at anytime (if the condition warrents reeval.)
here is the address for the federal regulations.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html or you can call 1800-877-8339 and request a copy to be mailed to you. as far as i can tell this site doesn’t have the new accountability of No Child Left Behind regulations.

Hope

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/30/2002 - 3:16 PM

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You did Hope! Thank You very Much! Let me know what happens with Josh and the complaint. Sounds like you definitely have some illegal practices going on. I will go check out the website you suggested immediately, so I might make some copies in time for our meeting today. Will keep you posted on our situation.
Much Thanks,
Deb

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/30/2002 - 7:38 PM

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We had this trouble with one of my brothers IEP. (actually still are in a roundbout sort of way) We had to involve an atty, for other reasons, but he told us that teacher evaluation is the most useless way to determine if goals are met. Who is to say that a teacher can’t test a student and make it appear that they have met their goals. Also, the 80% accuracy is not always good at all, basically becuase it needs to say 80% accuracy of what!!??

We have added into my brothers IEP that standardized assessments must be used, Woodcock Johnson, speech and language evals, at the end of every year to see what concrete progress has been made!

My brother went all through elementary school with almost the same IEP goals. It wasn’t until we met an advocate and atty did we understand how they were saying he was making progress!!

K.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/01/2002 - 2:02 AM

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Exactly what are you trying to say Marycas? Could you be more specific, are you saying that my family is helpless????????????? If so, that isn’t exactly the kind of attitude I have become accustomed to finding on this board. I think the old saying applies, “Nothing good/helpful to say, say nothing at all”. That’s if you are inferring what it sounds like you are inferring. And by the way, YES, my family does need help, but are we helpless, NO. The fact that I spend hours pouring over information to help better my children’s education, come on this board and open up and expose myself and my feelings to all who might provide me insight and helpful advice, should be proof of that. I was very proud of how I handled myself today in our meeting and I will not let any impulsive, negative comments rob me of that. It might help you to know that in the past year my family lost three of our parents, my husband was laid off and suffered six months of unemployment, and has only recently begun to claw his way out of the financial hole we have been in. Yes, we need help, but are we helpless because we can’t afford online service that isn’t connected to our phoneline, I don’t think so.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/01/2002 - 3:25 AM

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Deb,
i was wandering how your meeting went. if you are anything like me i stay on the computer learning what i need to know to ensure a F.A.P.E. and believe me when i say the hours i spend on learning what Josh needs is worth the hours of meetings watching the division fumble through the books demanding i am wrong… all in all parents know the children best and we provide most of the services they slack on, i get so discusted to know if the divisions refuse to provide the approperate needs for our children they will be the ones to suffer the long term effects… living in poverty due to the slack of the educational system, and in some cases the parents inability to provide private pay services due to finances.

Normal is a setting on a hair dryer not a human!
Hope

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/01/2002 - 12:46 PM

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I think all she was saying was your husband was helpless–-he needed you!!!!
It was a cut at men in general—nothing at you or your family.

Beth

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/01/2002 - 12:55 PM

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I think she was referring to your husband asking you to get off the computer because he needed you!! You know the whole husband’s are helpless without their wives kind of thing!!

My husband always calls me when he know I am on the computer to find him things! He thinks they are going to jump out at him or call his name!!

K.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/01/2002 - 3:37 PM

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Thanks for writing K. and Beth,

If that is what she means then I am sorry that I over reacted, but her specific meaning wasn’t truly written and her comments were potentially, easily misunderstood. I appreciate both of you explaining what your interpretations were and I truly hope that is all she meant by what she said. As you surely can tell, I am feeling extremely battle worn, and sensitive. I try to keep a positive, Christianly attitude most of the time, but after you’ve had as many difficult, life altering events, as we’ve had this year, it starts taking it’s toll. I very much appreciate your posting responses. I will try to think more jovially in the future, at least where the husband comments are concerned. He is faily needy. Procrastinated about filling out his new employment papers until the last minute yesterday, and needed me to tell him when it was that we lived in a certain place ten years ago! You would have thought the man had been severely injured in some freak accident or something, the way he kept carrying on on here, and in emails. We are always suppose to be at their beckon call, but when their plans have changed, they are running late, etc., and they forget that there is an invention called a telephone, that is to be perfectly excusable and understandable.
Thanks again for being patient with me folks.
Deb

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/01/2002 - 3:56 PM

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Thanks for asking Hope,

Well, first the teacher couldn’t be there because her child was having Diarrhea over at Grandma’s House. I was glad to see that she has to admit to being human too though, and tried to let her off the hook, something I wish they would do at times when often judging the parents harshly.

The Speech Pathologist went to great lengths to explain to us that her IEP for Speech is completely unrelated to other testing. She would not be the person to handle that. She said that her testing didn’t cover any of those areas, which it didn’t, she is right on that, let her go with that. Still, when I told her we were concerned because very often Speech problems are early indicators of other sometimes more severe learning disorders or disabilities. She looked alittle like deer in the headlights on that one, and began peddling backwards. She was trying her best not to say the wrong thing, not to lie, but not to say anyting that would give us further concern or cause for requesting testing.

Also, the teacher’s assistant, who was drafted in the teachers place, was strangely tight lipped about academics. Both my husband and I noticed, she was almost avoiding our questions. All we got were glowing reports of his wonderful compliant behavior in class. Admittedly, it was good to hear that our son has a wonderful, above age level vocabulary, his expressive and receptive skills are on grade level, and his imagination is extraordinary, but of course, we must take all those wonderfuls with a grain of salt.

My husband and I both chose to allow his placement into the Speech Therapy for now, and we plan to have our teacher conference, get next weeks interim reports, and hopefully the real story will be shown about his academic abilities, social issues, etc. They all have been working with our son to help him feel more comfortable raising his hand when he has a problem. The scary teacher had him so frightened of her from the beginning, that he will sit and cry instead of asking for help. The guidance counselor is working with him too. Basically, we decided to have a real face to face with the classroom teacher, and then we will send our request sign receipt received through the US mail. That way, we don’t have to hear the complaints when they know they have to do what we ask of them.

We have also contemplated just going ahead and having the same local University Neuropsychology Specialty Clinic that is evaluating our daughter privately, do an evaluation on our son. The school will just charge their evaluation to his Medicaid, and then I can’t trust that their psychologist isn’t working with the school’s best interest at heart not my childs. At least when I go to the clinic for the testing, I can better trust the results. Besides, if I do that first, then the school will have to pay for the testing if they decide to do it also, and that is the way it really should be.

I was very proud that I was able to speak so knowledgably with the S.P. My husband barely had to say anything, which before, was never the case. This wedsite, the information, links, leads, have been such a source of power for me. I will always be eternally grateful for the help. I will keep you posted about our discussion with his teacher too, once her child is well, anyway.
Thanks again for everything! I better go get some of those undone chores out of the way!
Deb

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