When students have behavior goals it is important to make sure that the documentation includes not only the behavior that the child is exhibiting but also the work that is being done to improve the behavior.
But how do you document progress on the behavior goals so that it shows a true picture of the student’s current behavior? The tips below can help.
Documenting Progress on Student Behavior Goals
Just with other goals in the IEP, it is important to provide comprehensive documentation of progress or lack thereof in order to justify future goals, accommodations, and modifications. Progress on behavior goals can be done in a variety of ways but the five ways below usually offer a well-rounded look at a student’s progress.
Observations
Sticky notes work well for jotting down observations of student behavior throughout the school day. You can keep tally marks for each time a behavior is displayed or not displayed and total them at the end of a class period or school day.
Having other teachers or aides in the building keep observation notes can also give you a more well-rounded picture of the student’s behavior in different classes and settings.
Data Tracking Forms
Data tracking forms are invaluable as they provide a look at a student’s progress over a specific period of time. Weekly behaviors or even daily progress on behavior goals can be quickly seen when you use the right forms.
The Functional Behavior Assessment + Behavior Data Forms offer a wide variety of forms to make it easy to document your student’s progress. There are 33 printable data tracking forms and 17 digital ones to give you different ways to record the data that you are seeing.
One of my favorite ways to quickly take your data is on a sticky note – it can then be transferred to a formal data form that will help to better see the progress being made, or if changes need to be made to any behavior goals or supports. Download them by joining The Intentional IEP here or clicking the image above.
Incident Reports
Incident reports should be included as part of the overall assessment of a student’s behavior goals. Ideally, the frequency of reports will decrease throughout the year.
Discipline Records
School discipline records should also be part of a student’s behavior goal progress monitoring as it provides a broader look at the student’s behavior over the course of the school year.
Student Conferences
One of the most overlooked but important pieces of behavior progress monitoring and documentation is interviews with the student. Students generally know how their behavior is hindering or improving their progress and their input can give you great insight into how they are doing mentally and emotionally.
Take the time to sit down with your students every week or every other week so that they can self-evaluate and monitor their behavior.
Still not feeling confident about how to track student progress? In the Intentional IEP Membership, there is extensive data training that will help you become more confident and efficient with data tracking. Become a member today!
Keeping comprehensive documentation of students’ behaviors will make it easier to write progress notes and justify IEP goals in the future.
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