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 the Intentional IEP Writing course provided by The Intentional IEP (included with every 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.
Present Levels of Academic and Functional Performance
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 Levels 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. Essentially, with all of this data, the Present Levels section is going to leave breadcrumbs throughout the rest of the IEP for what goals to write and what services and supports the student will need.
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 almost 10,000 goals through The Intentional IEP membership to help with the stress of IEP writing. If you prefer to start from scratch each time, there are 7 steps to choosing an IEP goal, and this gives you a great starting place for determining IEP objectives and benchmarks for each goal.
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. general ed is calculated here.
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.”
General Education Participation
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. general ed is calculated here.
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.”
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.
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.
Writing effective IEPs is so much easier when you have the right tools in your toolbox! Inside The Intentional IEP, you’ll get access to expert-led trainings, a searchable IEP goal bank with IEP Screeners, and ready-to-use resources that take the guesswork out of IEP writing and implementation. With the right tools at your fingertips, you’ll save time, reduce stress, and feel confident in creating IEPs that truly support your students. Join today and fill your IEP toolbox with everything you need!
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