Special Educators are professionals at writing Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, for their students. And while all states have different requirements and guidelines for IEPs, all of these IEP documents have the same basic anatomy.
Below you will learn about the number of basic parts of a student’s IEP, and if you’re looking for more training on how to write an IEP, check out Intentional IEP Writing provided by TII (included with membership*).
This is simply the first page of the IEP document and it has all of the child’s pertinent information on it: name, date of birth, address, phone number, case manager, type of disability, when their annual review is due, when their reevaluation is due, the date the meeting was held, the date the IEP will be initiated and all of the meeting participants listed and their roles.
Some call it a PLEP and some call it a PLOP, others call it the PLAAFP, but it all means the same thing. The present level is one of the most valuable parts of an IEP. It discusses how the student’s disability affects their involvement and progress in the general education setting, as well as the child’s strengths and weaknesses, and any concerns that the parents or IEP Team have.
The biggest informational piece of this section is the Changes in Current Functioning section. Changes in Current Functioning is where you can list how the student progressed on past goals and where they are presently at with their learning and needs.
Besides this, the Present Level section will also list in summary any previous evaluations that were done on the child and their scores.
If you need help writing the PLAAFP, The IEP Toolkit from TII includes a copy/paste fill in the blank Present Levels template.
Check out this snippet from a live training inside the TII membership about present levels:
The membership also provides guidance on Having an Organized IEP Process, which can be challenging for anyone! 
By joining the membership, individuals also gain access to an extensive library of over 13,000 pre-written IEP goals, empowering them with a wealth of options to support their students’ unique needs.
Learn more and become a member of The Intentional IEP today!
The Special Considerations section is pretty short and to the point. It is a series of boxes to be checked at the meeting by the team asking very specific questions about the student such as:
There are also boxes to check if they have communication needs (maybe the student receives speech or language services), require assistive technology (i.e., does the student need to communicate through a Dynavox or using LAMP on an iPad?).
Finally, if they take state or district-wide assessments also gets mentioned here and any post-secondary transition services.
This is where the IEP Team will list the student’s new IEP goals and objectives that the team has decided upon based on the student’s current present levels of performance and how they progressed with past goals. Coming up with functional and measurable goals can be time consuming and difficult at times. Some educators prefer to have access to The Vault of over 9,000 goals through The Intentional IEP membership to help with the stress of IEP writing.
The services page will state what special education services they will receive and for how many minutes per week. For example, will they receive reading services for 300 minutes per week (basically 60 minutes per day X 5 days per week) or maybe social skills instruction for 150 minutes per week.
Related services such as Speech, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy are listed here as well. You may also check if the student will receive transportation as a related service under this section.
This section will ask if the student will participate 100% of the time in general education. Since the child has an IEP and needs supplemental supports due to their disability, usually “no” is checked and their percentage of time spent in special ed vs. regular ed is calculated here.
Using the proper terminology when writing an IEP can be challenging for anyone, but when you join The Intentional IEP, you can get access to these Impact Statements and Present Level Statements resources to help. Click the image above to join!
Based on their services and their percentage of time spent in special education, this section of the IEP determines the student’s placement while at school in regular education vs. special education. For example, one placement consideration is “in regular education at least 80% of the time.”
Typically all grade levels must take district-wide assessments, but students on an IEP can get accommodations such as a quiet setting where they are not distracted or getting the assessment read to them if it’s not needed to assess their actual reading ability. Students in 3rd grade and up in most states are required to take State Assessments. Some students on an IEP might participate in an alternative assessment due to not being taught grade level material but showing their progress through their IEP goals. Usually students are given assessments in the areas of ELA (English Language Arts), Math and for older grades- Science.
Accommodations are changes in procedures or materials that increase equitable access. Accommodations generate comparable results for students who need them and allow these students to demonstrate what they know and can do.
Modifications are changes in procedures or materials that change the construct of the educational task making it difficult to compare results with typical peer results. Modifications allow students to demonstrate what they know and can do in a non-standardized way.
Some examples of modifications or accommodations that students in special education might need are: having a test read to him/ her, modified grading, repeated review and drill of a skill, use of concrete reinforcers, non-distracting environment; able to type on a device instead of write if their writing is not legible, etc.
TII also has an IEP Toolkit that includes 300+ editable accommodations and modifications.
You can download this free Accommodations and Modifications Brochure here or by clicking the image above.
IEPs can be tedious and overwhelming to write for special education teachers. Once you know the basic anatomy of an IEP, you can start developing some systems in place to help make writing an IEP faster and less stressful.
If you are looking for a training to dive deeper into IEP basics and IEP Writing, Intentional IEP Writing is a low-cost option that provides you with 3 hours of learning and a certification of completion. TII trainings are included in membership.
*does not include trial membership
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