The
individual education program (IEP) serves as a planning document that provides
guidance for both placement decisions and instruction. The individual education
program summarizes information on the child's current levels of performance and
identifies specific goals and objectives for each child. Second, the individual
education program involves parents as equal partners in the educational
planning process.
The IEP also
provides a means of accountability. The IEP sets forth in writing, a commitment
of resources necessary to enable a child with a disability to receive needed
special education and related services; it establishes evaluation criteria and
procedures used to assess progress toward meeting objectives; and it serves as
a compliance document for the Nebraska Department of Education.
A written
IEP must be completed before a child is placed in a special education program
or provided services. After the initial placement, an IEP must be in effect for
each year the child receives special education services.
The IEP is a
written statement that includes the following components:
The
statement of the present level of performance should describe the effect of the
disability on the child's educational performance. This includes both academic
areas such as reading, math, or communication and nonacademic areas such as
daily life activities or mobility. The statement of performance should contain
information provided in objective, measurable terms. If test scores are
included, they should be self-explanatory or an explanation should be included.
Test scores should reflect the impact of the disability on the child's
performance. Raw scores alone are not sufficient. Whatever problems the
multidisciplinary team identifies in the statement of educational performance
should then be addressed in both the objectives of the IEP and in the services
proposed for the child.
Annual goals
should describe what the parents and the rest of the IEP team expect the child
to accomplish in the next twelve month period. The goals should focus on the
special education and related services that the school employs to offset or
reduce the problems resulting from the disability. The individual educational
program does not address the total education of the child. For example, the IEP
of a child with a mild speech impairment might focus
only on correcting the impairment or minimizing its effect.
The IEP
short term instructional objectives are measurable, intermediate steps between
the child's present level of performance and the annual goals established for
the child. Short term objectives are not intended to include the detail
necessary for daily, weekly, or monthly instructional plans. IEP objectives
provide general benchmarks for determining progress toward meeting annual
goals.
The IEP is a
commitment by the school to provide all the services listed, even if the school
does not provide the services themselves. The IEP must also include a statement
of the extent to which the child will be able to participate in the regular
educational programs and any modifications necessary for the child to
participate in these programs.
Nebraska Rule 51,
Section 007.01 describes the IEP and provides the requirements for its
content.
The school
district is responsible for conducting conferences to develop and update each
student's IEP. Parents and school personnel develop the IEP during this
conference. Parents should be active and equal participants in the development
process. The conference is used to gather relevant information and describe the
educational services which are to be provided. The school must hold the
conference within 30 days of the time in which the child's disability is first
verified. In each subsequent year, the school must hold a conference to update
the IEP. Conferences may be held at any time during the year but an IEP must be
in effect at the start of each school year. For more information on Nebraska
rules regarding IEP conferences see Rule 51, Section
007.03.
Parent
participation is an important aspect of the individual education program. Both
federal and state laws require that the school make an effort to involve
parents in the planning and development of the IEP. These efforts include
providing adequate notice of the meeting, scheduling of the meeting at a
convenient time and place, and providing an interpreter as necessary. Notice of
the meeting must indicate the purpose of the meeting, the time and location of
the meeting, and who will be in attendance. This information should include the
name and position of each person who will attend. Parents should also be
informed of their right to bring other participants to the meeting. Notice also
includes a full explanation of all procedural safeguards available to parents.
If the school cannot persuade the parents to participate, they must carefully
document their efforts to involve the parents and the parents’ responses.
Parent signatures
are not required on the individual educational program. Many schools do use
parent signatures to document attendance at the meeting and as a means of
indicating that parents approved the special education program. Parents have a
right to a copy of the individual educational program. When
signatures include that of the school representative, this provides parents a
signed record of the services that the school has agreed to provide.
Parents do
have a right to appeal if they disagree with the individual educational
program. The IEP enables school personnel and parents as equal participants to
jointly decide what the needs of the child are and what goals, objectives, and
services are appropriate. If parents and the school cannot agree, the parents
have a right to seek a hearing and to invoke their other due process rights.
If a child
has no parents, a surrogate parent is appointed to represent the interest of
the child. This surrogate parent has all the rights and responsibilities of a
parent.
Nebraska rules
regarding parent participation are found in Rule 51, Section
7.04.
A team of
persons develops the individual education program at the IEP conference. The
team must include at least the child's teacher, one or both parents, and a
representative of the school other than the child's teacher. The child may be
present when appropriate. At least one member of the multidisciplinary team
that evaluated the child must also be present when the initial IEP is
developed. When children receive services from an outside agency, a
representative of the agency must also participate. Parents or the school
district may also designate other persons to attend the meeting.
The school
counselor may be one of these other persons when they provide information
regarding the child's current performance or when the evaluation determines
that the services of the school counselor should be provided to the student.
The counselor, psychologist, or social worker may also serve as coordinator or
case manager of the IEP process. Activities carried out by the case manager
might include coordinating the multidisciplinary evaluation, collecting and
synthesizing the evaluation reports needed at the IEP meeting, communicating
with parents and participating in or conducting the IEP meeting itself.
Nebraska
rules regarding IEP team participants are found in Rule 51, Section
7.05