Activity 1.2

Describe the six stages of the individualized education program (IEP) process. What is the purpose of each stage?

The first two stages of the IEP Process are the referral stages.  In the referral stage there are two components: preferral activities and referral activities. 

The first stage of the IEP is the prereferral activities which are created by the prereferral team and are used by the general education teacher for students who are having difficulties in the general education classroom.  These activities are interventions used by the teacher to help the student before the referral process begins.   This is an important stage because once the decision is made to refer a child for services; the chances are extremely high they are going to qualify.

The second stage of the IEP is the referral and initial planning stage. The first referral of a student for a special education evaluation can be made by a parent, teacher, professionals who may be in some sort of contact with student, or the student can refer himself/herself.  When the school referral is made the school personnel must follow through with it and parents have to be notified of the school’s concern of their child and give written permission for the evaluation.  In this stage the decision is also made about what kinds of evaluations are needed and who is going to do them.

The third and fourth stages of the IEP Process are the assessment stages.  This is the core of the IEP and involves evaluation and writing and developing the IEP.

The third stage of the IEP is the multidisciplinary evaluation.  In this stage specialists from various disciplines get the important information by assessing academic performance and behavior in the areas related to the alleged disability.   This evaluation may include specialists such as a school psychologist, school social worker, school nurse, speech and language pathologist, learning disabilities specialist, or a perhaps a reading specialist.   IDEA 2004 outlines the procedures for gathering the information for this evaluation.  The following according to IDEA 2004 need to be in place: the tests need to be appropriate, validated for the purpose used, as free as possible from and culture or racial bias, evaluation materials must be given in the child’s native language and at one teacher must represent several disciplines and include one teacher or specialist of the alleged disability. The specialists on the multidisciplinary evaluation team administer the tests to the child and are the ones to obtain other evaluation data.

The fourth stage of IEP is the IEP Meeting and writing the IEP.  After the multidisciplinary evaluation is finished, the parents have been contacted, and the information is gathered it is time for the IEP meeting.  This meeting is when the eligibility of the student for special education is determined and the IEP is written.   The IEP meeting has to include the parents of the child, at least one regular general education teacher, at least one special education teacher, a representative from the school or school district who is qualified provide or supervise the provision of the specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities, someone who is knowledgeable about the general education curriculum, knows the availability of resources of the school or school district, an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results, other individuals who may have knowledge or expertise, and whenever appropriate the child with a disability should be present according to IDEA 2004.  The IEP should include a statement about where the child is currently at in academics and functional performance, a statement of measurable annual goals which include both academic and functional goals that are designed to meet the child’s needs, a description of how the child’s progress toward meeting annual goals is going to be measured and when the periodic reports on progress the child is making toward meeting the annual goals, statement of the services that are to be provided to the child, extent to which child with not participate with non disabled children in the regular class activities, statement of individual appropriate accommodations which are necessary to measure the academic achievement and functional performance of the child on both state and district wide assessments, the projected begin date of all services and modifications, how long and frequent those modifications are to occur, the duration and location of the services, and the appropriate transition services for the child which have to be in effect and in the IEP no later than when the child turns 16 and has to be updated annually.

The fifth and sixth stages of the IEP Process are the instruction stages.  The instruction stages occur after the IEP has been completely written, and involves teaching and monitoring the progress of the child.

Stage five is implementing the IEP teaching plan which is the teaching portion of the assessment –teaching process.  This occurs after the IEP has been written and during this stage the student is taught in settings that were agreed upon and is receives the accommodations designed in the IEP to help the student reach the goals of the IEP.  In this stage you are implementing the IEP plan through teaching the student.

Stage six is the review and reevaluation of the student’s progress. In this stage the IEP is reviewed and reevaluated in terms of the progress the student has made. The IEP needs to state with explanations how this will be accomplished when the time comes, who will conduct the evaluation, and what instruments and criteria will be used. 

Response to Intervention (RTI)	Discrepency Model
Is not a formal evaluation of the intellectual ability of academic achievement.	Is determined by comparing academic testing and the intellectual testing numbers
Interventions are used in the classroom and does not require a student to fail before using services	Takes a lot of time for both the teacher and the student and testing mode is not very accurate for young students or those with anxiety
If students do well with the interventions no other action is taken	There is a variation between states which means a student may qualify for interventions in one state but not another
Some students who have learning disabilities may not be identified through RTI	Teachers need to identify students who are at-risk  and giving those students who need help the interventions they need to succeed