How To Get School To Implement Iep Services

How can school administrators support implementation of high-quality IEPs?

Page 5: Implementing the IEP

Procedural Requirements Guidelines

Implement the special education services as written in the IEP
Ensure that parents are meaningfully involved in the IEP process
Attach to required timelines

The purpose of the implementation stage of the IEP process is to deliver the services and supports outlined in a student'southward IEP. To ensure that these services and supports are implemented correctly, the schoolhouse administrator should make sure that:

Parents are meaningfully involved in the IEP'southward implementation
School personnel empathize their responsibilities and have the skills and training necessary to evangelize the supports and services as outlined in the IEP (i.e., with fidelity)

fidelity

The degree to which an intervention is implemented accurately, following the guidelines of its developers.

Legislation and Litigation

Schoolhouse leaders who do not attach to these procedural guidelines tin can confront serious consequences.

In Kay Williams v. Cabell County Lath of Education (1996), a school principal was removed in office due to failures to exercise leadership responsibilities, ensure that teachers implemented the IEP, and cooperate with parents.
In Van Duyn v. Baker School District 5J (2007), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a school commune had denied FAPE when it provided only slightly more than half the number of hours of math instruction per week chosen for in a student's IEP. Co-ordinate to the court, even if an IEP meets the procedural and substantive requirements of the Thought, a school may still violate a student's right to FAPE if a material or important role of the IEP was not implemented.

Engage Parents

The Supreme Court's decisions in Rowley (1982) and Endrew F. (2017) emphasized the importance of the collaboration between school personnel and a student's parents throughout the IEP process. These example decisions provide prove that meaningfully involving parents in the IEP process is vigorously protected past the courts. For parents to be meaningfully involved in the implementation of the IEP, the schoolhouse administrator needs to ensure that systems and processes are in identify to:

Establish and maintain open lines of advice—Considering parents are valuable resources, any information they share should be considered. For example, when a educatee is having difficulty at school, the parent tin can often offer insight and can be instrumental in identifying possible reasons and solutions.
Frequently inform the parents of their child's progress toward meeting her IEP goals and objectives.
Involve parents in any changes to their child's IEP.

Tip

About a week later on the meeting and once implementation begins, information technology is a skillful idea to check with the parents to come across if they have whatever questions.

Breanne Venios describes how her schoolhouse facilitates parent communication (time: 1:24).

Breanne Venios

Transcript: Breanne Venios

Our school facilitates parents' communicating any changes in student progress or beliefs by keeping the lines of communication open. Nosotros take teams here at our school so the parent knows exactly what teachers their child has. We encourage them to electronic mail if they take a business concern. Some of our students really have written in their IEP that the learning-support teacher will send daily updates. The regular ed teachers proceed a running document of what had happened during that day, unremarkably for behaviors, and then the parent is kept in the loop because they get a daily electronic mail, which I'm unremarkably CCed on merely and so that we tin can all see what's going on and see what next steps we have to practise. Our teams are highly encouraged to exercise team meetings throughout the year, not just when in that location is a concern. Nosotros try to exist more proactive rather than reactive. We also do what we telephone call circle of support meetings that some of our parents prefer to have quarterly meetings instead of just the yearly IEP meetings. Once per marking catamenia, they would be able to just come up in for a squad meeting and get updates that way or talk almost whatever concerns that they accept. So nosotros actually try to continue our lines of communication open up. Our teachers are besides reaching out to the parents, because sometimes parents don't know how to achieve out to our teachers.

Support Schoolhouse Personnel

For Your Information

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law, the purpose of which is to protect the privacy of a student's personally identifiable information (PII), such every bit educational records. To comply with FERPA, schools require a parent's or guardian's signature to release a student's educational record.

Idea requires that school personnel begin to deliver the services outlined in the IEP as soon every bit possible. To guarantee there is no delay, the school ambassador should brand certain all individuals involved in implementation:

Have access to the IEP: Although they are confidential documents, IEPs should be shared (either in hard copy or electronically) with anyone responsible for the provision of services. This includes the special and general education teachers, related service providers, paraprofessionals, and other relevant school staff (e.g., administrative staff, bus drivers, substitute teachers). Although sometimes misconstrued as such, sharing a student'south IEP with relevant parties is not a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Yet, because of confusion and misperceptions surrounding what is permissible and what is non, it's important that the school administrator remind those with access to the IEP that information technology is a confidential document and periodically meet with them to review their responsibilities regarding confidentiality.

Although school administrators might be tempted to provide a mere summary or overview of the IEP, it's important that everyone involved in the implementation of services and supports have the opportunity to read the document in its entirety. Similarly, just providing access to the consummate text of the IEP is non sufficient either. Information technology is crucial to make sure that service providers fully understand the information contained in the IEP and the connections amongst its many components (due east.g., PLAAFPs, goals, services).
Know their responsibilities for IEP implementation: To make sure that the IEP is implemented every bit intended—and thus to maximize the likelihood that the educatee will meet the outlined goals—every individual who provides services to the student must understand her or his responsibilities. These might involve providing specialized instruction for a specified portion of the mean solar day, providing accommodations, collecting and reporting progress monitoring data, or communicating a student's progress to her parents, among other tasks. If for any reason a member or members of the IEP team were unable to nourish the IEP meeting, school administrators might want to consider establishing a process past which those parties can indicate that they accept read the IEP and understand their individual responsibilities.
Are informed of the accommodations, modifications, and supports that must exist provided to the student: Because students sometimes require dissimilar accommodations, modifications, and supports throughout the twenty-four hours, each service provider should exist aware of those he is responsible for implementing. One way to practice this is to use a form to tape a student's IEP goals and the services and supports needed for the pupil to achieve those goals in different content areas. This form should be completed for each individual who volition be implementing these supports. Post-obit the meeting, it can exist shared with relevant school personnel to aid them understand their responsibilities to ensure the IEP is implemented as intended. Following is a form that school leaders tin use to attain this.

IEP Implementation: School Personnel Responsibilities

Further, the school administrator is responsible for providing needed support for educators so that they can effectively evangelize the services and supports outlined in the IEP. She tin do and so by one) monitoring educators' professional development (PD) needs and providing training, and 2) creating structures and opportunities for collaboration.

Did You Know?

Providing instruction for students with disabilities necessitates special cognition and expertise. Unfortunately, a large percentage of general education teachers, in item those new to the profession, do non feel adequately prepared to teach these students.

Effective leaders ensure that school personnel have the knowledge and skills they need to effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities associated with the IEP procedure and the implementation of the services and supports documented in the IEP. One mode to accomplish this is to provide effective professional person evolution (PD). To determine PD needs, the ambassador can bear needs assessments and routine observations. The tabular array below lists a few areas in which educators might need preparation, although factors such equally prior knowledge, expertise, and level of experience will influence the type of PD they require.

IEPs	Education	Behavior
IEP process IEP content Implementing IEPs with fidelity Monitoring student progress and collecting data Submitting progress reports Inclusive practices	Prove-based instructional practices Instructional and testing accommodations Modifications Assistive engineering science	Evidence-based behavioral strategies Behavioral implementation plans (BIPs) Positive behavioral intervention and back up (PBIS)

Enquiry Shows

A meta-assay of 35 studies across three decades indicates that constructive PD—that which results in changes in teacher practices and improved educatee learning outcomes—consists of seven commonly shared features:

Is content focused
Incorporates agile learning utilizing adult learning theory
Supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded contexts
Uses models and modeling of effective practice
Provides coaching and expert back up
Offers opportunities for feedback and reflection
Is of sustained duration

(Darling-Hammond, Hyler, Gardner, & Espinoza, 2017)

Constructive PD consists of high-quality preparation and ongoing support that, ideally, involves a knowledgeable private who observes implementation and offers corrective feedback. The goal of ongoing support is to better and maintain the skills necessary for correct implementation, to maintain motivation and delivery, to address potential problems, and to prevent drift. Ongoing support should be provided frequently throughout the twelvemonth, both on a scheduled and every bit-needed basis. Educators who receive high-quality training and on-going support implement with greater allegiance than those who exercise not. Moreover, those who receive extensive training typically implement with greater allegiance than those who receive only limited training.

drift

In implementation fidelity, the inadvertent modification or omission over fourth dimension of the recommended procedures or activities that brand upwards a practice or program; usually occurs gradually and is considered a threat to fidelity.

For Your Information

In the upshot that training is non bachelor or is not feasible, educators can learn the implementation procedures on their own. They can practise and so by carefully reading and post-obit step-by-pace procedures outlined in an existing manual or set of guidelines. A manual helps ensure a caste of plan quality by increasing the day-to-twenty-four hour period consistency of implementation for an individual likewise as from person to person. The more specific the manual, the greater the potential that educators will implement a do or program with fidelity.

Tamara McLean, a special educator, describes a couple of means preparation is provided at her school to general educators regarding accommodations (time: 0:54).

Tamara McLean

Transcript: Tamara McLean

A lot of times when I add an accommodation, I really practice that adaptation myself in the classroom for probably the starting time month, and then they really come across how information technology plays out. This is what it looks like. Here's how we can do it. Aforementioned things for all-around centers. And then they can do it. In my schoolhouse, we take created a move and fidget library. And myself and another special educational activity instructor created training videos that the teachers have to view before they're able to cheque anything out. Because only taking these things into the classroom and handing them over creates actually more than problems than they solve. So everything with accommodations is taught explicitly to teachers. And and then how it plays out in the classroom definitely comes from us pedagogy the gen ed. teachers.

For more than data on providing effective PD, meet the following IRIS Modules:

Testify-Based Practices (Part 2): Implementing a Practice or Program with Fidelity (page 2)
The Fidelity of Implementation: Selecting and Implementing Testify-Based Practices and Programs (pages half-dozen, 7, and 8)

Collaboration: An organization in which two or more individuals work together toward a mutual goal of planning, implementing, or evaluating a specific aspect of an educational plan for a student or grouping of students.

Typically, multiple educators are responsible for providing services and supports to students with disabilities. School administrators can encourage collaboration by allocating fourth dimension for these educators to collaborate on a regular ground. Retrieve that the majority of students who qualify for special education services spend at least some portion of the day in general teaching classrooms. They might also receive services from a special education teacher, one or more related service providers, and a paraprofessional. For this reason, information technology is essential that these educators have opportunities to collaborate about how best to support these students. Whether in pairs, small groups, or large groups, educators might collaborate in regard to:

Adapting the full general education curriculum to see the educatee's needs
Aligning full general education and special education instruction
Identifying instructional practices and strategies that might benefit the student
Developing advisable assessments

Research Shows

When school leaders (in this example, principals) supported teachers' collaborative efforts, these efforts were associated with increased pupil achievement.
(Goddard, Goddard, Kim, & Miller, 2015)

Providing effective PD and opportunities for educators to collaborate is a great starting point for helping to ensure that a student's IEP is implemented correctly. However, these activities do not guarantee that educators will implement the services and supports outlined in the IEP equally intended. Further, these activities alone do not guarantee appropriate student progress. For this reason, it is critical that the school ambassador have processes in place to monitor both implementation fidelity and student progress. The following page provides more information on how to reach these tasks. But first, Breanne Venios discusses access to IEPs at her schoolhouse, the structures that have been put in place to provide PD, and ways to foster collaboration.

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Breanne Venios
Principal, Bound Cove Middle School
Roaring Spring, PA

Transcript: Breanne Venios – Access to IEPs

Admission for IEPs at our schoolhouse vary. Any learning-back up teacher has access to the program that nosotros use to generate the IEPs, and then they have a login and password for that. The administrators take a login and password for that too, so I can go in at whatsoever fourth dimension and pull upward any student'south IEP. Our regular ed teachers read all of the IEPs then they sign off that they've read and understood them. Our learning-back up teachers make what we call a cheatsheet, so any of the specially designed instruction that they might need or the accommodations they make the child'south name then the things that the teacher has to implement. And then if it's eliminating an answer choice or small-group testing, so that'southward a cheatsheet that the teachers are given and then that they tin can make sure that they're implementing all of that. If nosotros have a substitute teacher in, the teachers get out a note for them, if needed. For instance, if there is a child who needs frequent breaks and that is written in their IEP, obviously we need to let the substitute know that. If there is a child who has a crunch programme, we need to let the substitute know that and so that they can evidently respond appropriately. We do give information, as needed, for our guests in the building, just other than that if a teacher needs to know annihilation farther about the IEP they are able to come downwards. They are in a locked educatee file, simply they tin can view the IEP when they need information technology, only they don't take the actual copy in their room.

Some other way that we ensure all relevant staff know their responsibilities for IEP implementation is, at the beginning of the year, we do transitional meetings with our learning-support teacher and the regular ed teachers, considering they do piece of work very closely every bit a team. The 6th-grade teacher will talk about the students with the 7th-grade learning-support instructor and then that learning-support teacher will meet with a team of seventh-grade teachers so that way they can accept a heads-up of any needs. If they have a student who has a specific behavioral plan or a crisis programme, they would know that from the beginning of the twelvemonth. The 6th-class teacher can give feedback to the 7th-form teachers, and the 7th-class teacher tin give feedback to the 8th-class teachers, because they know that educatee the best so they tin meliorate gear up the teachers. So we practise transitional meetings in addition to the other things that nosotros've done.

Transcript: Breanne Venios – Professional person Development

We monitor PD multiple means. We do have district-required professional person development. Unremarkably at the kickoff of the year, we have a guest come and accost the whole staff on anything from responding to crisis situations, trauma, or de-escalation techniques. We do that as a district, but one thing that I try to do as a building leader is just be in the know with my teachers. I attend all of the team meetings. I effort to be in the classrooms equally much as possible. I hear what they ask, I hear what they need, and I talk to my learning-back up teachers a lot. And then if they have concerns, they don't necessarily feel it's appropriate for them sometimes to address teachers, and so they'll let me know and I tin do that. Then if I hear the same concern over and over again, I know that that needs to be addressed every bit a staff, only I take conversations with the teams. I use information collection. I e'er say it has to exist appreciable information. So if I see a concern through that, I can address it. We take at-chance meetings. If one of our students is not making progress, we bring that up at the at-gamble coming together that we take every quarter, and we ask why that student's non making progress. And if I see a consistency there that might be something that the teachers aren't doing or implementing and then I can address that and give them the professional development that they demand.

Simply it always goes dorsum to the student's progress. If they're not making progress, we take to find out why. Then I use that and so I'll make our in-services. I did a whole year didactics the teachers virtually differentiated teaching whenever we went from homogeneous grouping to heterogeneously grouping. So I knew that that was something that they would need, then I fabricated that our focus. So I attempt to have data, and I try to see what needs they need and brand information technology relevant for them. If I have one or two teachers that may exist struggling with implementing one of the accommodations or they're not understanding why something has to happen, I always sit with them i-on-one and hash out that. It always starts with a discussion, and I explain the whys. If we are doing something and we don't know why then we need to brand sure we know why. So mayhap I pull up the IEP and I show them specifically what are the goals? What are nosotros looking at? If they don't take our conversation and modify from that then my job is to concur them accountable. It'southward not that nosotros want to give them more work. It'southward non that we just want to implement something for no reason. It'southward what'southward all-time for the child.

Transcript: Breanne Venios – Collaborating

We have some structures in identify to provide opportunities for educator collaboration such as team and content-expanse meetings. I twenty-four hour period every other calendar week, they run into as a 6th-form team, a 7th-form team, and so an 8th-grade team. And then on the opposite weeks, they meet with their content-area teachers. So math meets together, English language together, and so on. During those meetings, at that place is a conversation of any educatee concerns and what we're doing to assistance with student concerns, whether that exist discussing some classroom management techniques or how are they doing in your class, what are you doing if they're struggling with this. So nosotros have those conversations, and also, when possible, I similar to give planning periods together with the co-teachers. So if our learning-support teacher is co-teaching with the English teacher, I endeavour to requite them a mutual plan. It doesn't always, unfortunately, work out that way, merely that way it'southward more meaningful for them, because they can program together. At the stop of the day, we take what we call activity periods, so they apply that time together to run into. So nosotros accept pockets within the day that they can assemble and collaborate, but we definitely have fix time for our team meetings and our content-area meetings.

For Your Information

There are several serious procedural errors that IEP teams should avert when implementing the IEP. These include:

Failing to monitor a student'southward progress
Failing to implement the educatee'due south services and supports with fidelity
Failing to involve the student's parents

The last several pages of this module have included information well-nigh common errors related to the content on those pages. The handout below offers a combined list of these errors along with more detailed information about each.

IEP Process: Common Errors