IEP means Individual Education Plan. Any student that teachers or parents think needs extra help to understand what is being taught in the classroom will have an IEP.
A team of people including a standard classroom teacher, a special education teacher, a school administrator and the student's parents will meet and discuss what kind of problems the student is having, and how best to help the student perform at the same level as his or her classmates. There may be other people at the meeting, such as a speech and language specialist, or a school counselor.
A student may have be having problems for any number of reasons. The student may have trouble reading. 90% of all referrals to special education are due to reading difficulties. This could be because of a vision problem, dyslexia, hearing problems that made learning to read difficult or many other reasons. Of the other 10%, there are difficulties with math and also ADHD, Autism, Developmental Delay, and emotional reasons such as Depression or perhaps stress related issues involving a family divorce, death or illness of a loved one or even happy reasons such as a wedding or birth of a sibling.
There are about as many possible plans of attack as there are reasons for needing help. Sometimes having the student go to the special education room for one subject will be all that's needed. A student could also have a tutor or perhaps an in-class monitor or personal aide. There is also the possibility that a student may need to start attending special education classes full time. The list of available services is varied and includes special hearing or vision apparatus, speech and language classes, and counseling services. Also, special education needs may not be permanent. Often the student will be able to resume regular classroom attendance.
Each student has his or her own strengths and weaknesses, motivations and individual quirks. That is why the plan MUST be INDIVIDUAL. Asking for an IEP meeting is not a punishment. It is a recognition of the student as an individual, and the realization that this student needs goals and methods made especially for him or her.
Having been on both sides of the table, I can definitely state that the sincere desire of both school administration and parents is to help the student involved to achieve the most that is possible. There may be a lot of different opinions on the causes of the difficulties and how best to address them, but the goal is the same; the academic, social and personal well-being of this one individual child.
In my next post I will go into a few things the parents ought to do before a meeting, as well as a parent's right to due process.
No comments:
Post a Comment