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Individualized Education Program (IEP) Basics

The following video clips provide teachers with a short and useful way to use resources when learning and participating in Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. These clips from the Head Start Center for Inclusion are especially useful to staff that are new to the process of developing an IEP.

ABCs of IEP

The ABCs of IEPs

Irlene Schwartz: Good morning. Our topic today is "ABCs of IEP". Our purpose today is to introduce participants to an IEP, and "IEP" stands for "Individualized Education Program". We're also going to talk about the relationship between an IEP and instruction in an inclusive classroom, and finally we're going to talk about how an IEP can really be a road map to providing a high quality educational program to students with disabilities.

So, first let's talk about some alphabet soup. You know in special education we love our alphabet soup, and so first let's describe -- define some of these acronyms that we'll be using throughout the presentation. As I said earlier, "IEP" stands for "Individualized Education Program". Children who qualify for special education ages three and above have an IEP. An "ILP" stands for "Individual Learning Plan". This is not required by Head Start but is used in some regions, so we're not going to talk about it very much today.

The important thing to take home from this presentation is that it's NOT required by Head Start. "IFSP" is an Individual Family Service Plan. This is for children who rec.. who qualify for special education services up to age three, so it's birth through age three, so on your third birthday, you graduate to an IEP. We're not going to really talk about IFSPs today either, although they're very... many similarities between those and IEPs.

And then finally, "IDEA" is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, and that's the federal law that entitles children with disabilities to receive special education. That's an important thing for us to remember, that every child with a disability in the United States, three and above, is entitled to a free and appropriate public education.

Children under two -- under three, I'm sorry -- under three are also entitled to early intervention services.

So, what is an IEP? It's a legally binding document that describes what special education services we're going to provide to a child. It's really important to remember that an IEP, although it's initiated by the school district, is a document that's developed by the team -- all members of the team (parents, Head Start teachers, speech language pathologists, special education teachers) give input. Everyone's input is valued.

An IEP has many parts that are required by the law. They include the child's present level of performance -- and in that present level of performance, we want to get a snapshot of the child. "What can they do, what areas do they need help in, which areas do they excel in?" So it's important to note children's strengths as well as the areas of need. We also want to talk about the kinds of services they'll receive, so, for example, does the child need speech services? Do they need occupational or physical therapy that is motor support?

Do they need special education services? Will they receive transportation? All the kinds of services that the child will receive need to be outlined in in the IEP. The educational team, including the parents and the Head Start teacher, write the IEP. As a group, they up come with the idea... with the strategies that they'll be using and the topics that they'll be covering in this IEP. Again, Head Start teachers are an important part of the IEP team.

Parent input is essential, and in fact parents have the final say in approving the IEP. We also need to remember that assessment data is very important when we develop an IEP. We use assessment data to.. not just to demonstrate that a child needs special education services, but we also use assessment data in order to determine which areas need to be worked on, and within an area, which skills and behaviors need to be addressed.

So, for example, if we determine that a child needs special education services in the area of communication, we also need to know, "Where in that communication domain does a child need extra services? Do they need services in learning how to answer 'wh' questions? Do they need services in understanding, listening to, and answering questions about a story? Do they need services in building their vocabulary?" All those things are different, and the... and the way we know how and where to intervene with a child is based on assessment data.

So there're different parts of an IEP: present level of performance, and in that area, we describe what the child can do, and also areas in which the child needs extra help. Some people call that a plop (p-l-o-p). There's also a part of the IEP were we talk about... where we talk about different kinds of accommodations and modifications that are required, so, for example, if we know a child needs to have a lot of visual supports in a classroom, we would put that there.

If the child needs extra time to complete assignments or complete activities, we'd put that there. Whatever kinds of support and modifications to the ongoing curriculum that are required go in that area. We also have something called the service matrix, and in that we talk about the types and amounts of services provided. So, for example, we might say that the child receives special education for 200 minutes a week, and that means for 200 minutes, they receive specially designed instruction.

Now it's important to remember that those 200 minutes can be... can.. this child can receive services in a Head Start classroom, and it could be that the Head Start teacher or staff in the Head Start program are providing those services. They may develop those services in consultation owith a special educator.

Finally, we have goals and objectives, and the goals and objectives outline very specifically exactly what behaviors and skills we'll be working on, and... and how we will know when the child has achieved -- that is, has learned -- the target behavior. So, for example, we might write an objective that sounds like, "Jamie will listen to a story and answer three 'wh' questions with 100% accuracy." That would be the language of an IEP objective.

The import.. the most important thing about an IEP is to remember that "I" means "Individualized". The IEP needs to be tailored to the specific child and the priorities and requests of that family. "I" means "Individualized", and that's the take-home message about IEPs. So, how do you use these IEPs that come to your classroom with the children who need them?

IEPs can be used to develop classroom plans, so for example if you know that you have children who are learning to listen to stories and to answer "wh" questions, you know that you're going to need more than one opportunity a day to listen to a story. There.. so what that might mean is that you develop a plan where, in addition to your large group, where you read a story and ask questions, you might have two or three other opportunities during the day where you have someone reading a story to a very small group of children...

...and answering and asking questions about one page or two pages of the story at a time, so that would be one way you would do it. If you have a child who's learning to follow a process chart, to follow a schedule, to do an activity, you might want to have an activity that has multiple steps in them across the classroom. An IEP is used to develop an activity matrix. An activity matrix is then used to communicate with team members and to plan instruction, and I'm going to show you what an activity matrix looks like.

So we will do another workshop on activity matrices and how to use them, but this is really just a preview of coming attractions. So when we think about an activity matrix, what you can see here is that down the side, we have the schedule of the classroom: Opening Circle, Small Group, et cetera. Across the top, we have the domain areas of the IEP -- Communication, Motor, Social Emotional -- and in the boxes of the activity matrix, what we've done is plugged in the different objectives in the child's IEP.

So you can see that for this child, who -- he or she is working on using an appropriate pencil grasp -- and we're going to work on that during small group. In addition, during small group we're going to be working with this child to get her to answer questions, and also to get her to manage behavior -- her behavior -- during group activities. Now you can see if you go down to outdoor play, we're also working on an objective there, and we're working on climbing stairs with alternating feet.

So the "trick" of using the activity matrix is to be able to plug in when a specific objective is going to be addressed. Now, this is just a picture to give you an idea of what instruction looks like and how using an activity matrix in an IEP can influence that. So, if you look at this picture, you can say... see that this is basically what instruction looks like in a typical Head Start classroom.

We have a classroom goal that... that we know everyone in the classroom is working on, and an activity, and we say, "Okay, within that activity, how are we going to make sure that we address this goal that we believe is important for ALL of the children in our classroom?" When you have a child with a disability who's receiving special education services, you have another layer that goes on top of that.

So basically you can see that you still have the classroom goal, and you still have the activity, but in addition, you have the individual child goal, and that individual child goal has been broken down to "objectives", which are smaller pieces, and into instructional programs. An instructional program kind of tells us how to teach. It says, "We're going to give this kind of instruction, we're going to give this kind of feedback, we're going to give this kind of encouragement when the child is successful.

If a child is not successful, this is how we're going to correct their errors." So, an instructional program is a... is... tells us HOW we're going to teach. An objective tells us what we're going to teach, and the activity pr.. provides the context in which we're going to teach. Now, we've just talked about all this teaching that we're going to do, but it's important to know how a child is learning. And how do we know that? Well, we need to monitor progress.

An IEP requires that we monitor progress and report progress quarterly, but in order to do that it's important to collect information regularly, to make sure that children are making progress on the important goals and objectives that, as a team, we've agreed needs to be on their IEP. We can do that by looking at -- watching a child perform a skill or a behavior and see how independent they are and then comparing that to where they were a week ago and a month ago.

By collecting this kind of child progress information, we know that the child is learning the skills that the team says are important for that child to learn. So, that's what we have to say today about IEPs; have fun and help your students have fun! Thanks a lot!

-- End of Video --

This short video PowerPoint presentation walks you through the ABCs of an Individualized Education Program (IEP). This information may be useful to new staff working with children with disabilities and their families.

Resource Type: Article

National Centers: Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning

Age Group: Preschoolers

Series: Individualized Education Program (IEP) Basics

Last Updated: August 9, 2019

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IEP Special Education Resources

What does iep stand for in special education.

General classroom teachers and parents of special needs students are often asked to play critical roles in the creation and implementation of an IEP, or Individualized Education Plan. An IEP formalizes the specific instructional, behavioral, and specialist services an elementary or secondary student with a recognized disability receives as part of a mandated plan. The Individualized Education Plan is implemented and administered on a yearly basis by special education teachers, generalist, and any specialists (speech, occupational therapy, etc.) necessary to reaching the IEP's stated goals and outcomes for the student.

This collection of IEP special education resources gives general education teachers, special education teachers, and parents all the IEP forms, accommodations, strategies, and advice necessary for planning and implementing an Individualized Education Plan in both the general ed classroom and specialist resource rooms.

IEP Planning Strategies and Resources

Preparing for an IEP

What to Include in an IEP

• Tough Love: How to Work with a Disruptive Student

The IEP Team Members

Using General Education Standards with IEPs

The IEP Cycle: The General Educator's Role

Effective Accommodations for Students with IEPs

IEP Resources for Students with ADD/ADHD

Planning for Success: Teaching Students with ADD

A Team Effort: Getting Help for Students with ADD

Collecting Educationally Useful Information for Students with ADD

Understanding the Purpose of School-Based Referral: ADD/ADHD

A Teacher's Identification Role: Getting Help for Students with ADD

Recommended IEP Resources Resources

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The Individual Education Plan (IEP)

Published by Corey Briggs Modified over 6 years ago

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The Short-and-Sweet IEP Overview

Current as of April 2022 In Spanish | En español

An Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a written statement of the educational program designed to meet a child’s individual needs. Every child who receives special education services must have an IEP. That’s why the process of developing this vital document is of great interest and importance to educators, administrators, and families alike. Here’s a crash course on the IEP.

What’s the IEP’s purpose?

Who develops the iep, when is the iep developed, what’s in an iep, can students be involved in developing their own ieps.

• Resources of more information

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The IEP has two general purposes:

• to set reasonable learning goals for a child, and
• to state the services that the school district will provide for the child.

The IEP is developed by a team of individuals that includes key school staff and the child’s parents. The team meets, reviews the assessment information available about the child, and designs an educational program to address the child’s educational needs that result from his or her disability. Want the specifics of who you’ll find on an IEP team? Read the detailed IEP Team page.

An IEP meeting must be held within 30 calendar days after it is determined, through a full and individual evaluation, that a child has one of the disabilities listed in IDEA and needs special education and related services. A child’s IEP must also be reviewed at least annually thereafter to determine whether the annual goals are being achieved and must be revised as appropriate.

The IEP is both a document and a process.

Each child’s IEP must contain specific information, as listed within IDEA, our nation’s special education law. This includes (but is not limited to):

— the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance , describing how the child is currently doing in school and how the child’s disability affects his or her involvement and progress in the general curriculum

— annual goals for the child, meaning what parents and the school team think he or she can reasonably accomplish in a year

— the special education and related services to be provided to the child, including supplementary aids and services (such as a communication device) and changes to the program or supports for school personnel

— how much of the school day the child will be educated separately from nondisabled children or not participate in extracurricular or other nonacademic activities such as lunch or clubs

— how (and if) the child is to participate in state and district-wide assessments, including what modifications to tests the child needs

— when services and modifications will begin, how often they will be provided, where they will be provided, and how long they will last

— how school personnel will measure the child’s progress toward the annual goals.

For all the details about what the law requires be included in an IEP, dive into our  IEP Contents page.

Yes, they certainly can be! IDEA actually requires that the student be invited to any IEP meeting where transition services will be discussed. These are services designed to help the student plan for his or her transition to adulthood and life after high school. Lots of information about transition services is available on our  Transition to Adulthood page, including how to involve students in their own IEP development .

Questions, questions? Answers, answers. A good place to start unravelling the mysteries of the IEP is Wrightslaw.com. The link above will drop you right into the soup, where you’ll find articles, law and regulations, tactics and strategies, tips, books, and free publications about IEPs. www.wrightslaw.com/info/iep.index.htm

Here’s a roadmap. Wrightslaw offers us all a “Roadmap to IDEA 2004: What You Need to Know About IEPs & IEP Meetings.” www.wrightslaw.com/idea/art/iep.roadmap.htm

For parents. Take a look at Developing Your Child’s IEP and learn how to effectively work with schools to meet the needs of your child. https://www.parentcenterhub.org/pa12/

For students. Part of our Transition Suite, this collection of resources speaks directly to students in transition. https://www.parentcenterhub.org/student-involvement/

Online training in writing an IEP. This online training is available via California Services for Technical Assistance and Training (CalSTAT) and is specific to benchmarks related to CA content standards. But it’s also conveniently based on IDEA 2004 and deals with writing measurable goals and objectives, a skill quite central to writing effective IEPs. http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/se/sr/ieptraining.asp

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Would you like to read more in this suite about the IEP?

Use the jump links below to go to another section of the  All about the IEP suite.

• The Short-and-Sweet IEP Overview (you’re already here!)
• The IEP Team
• Contents of the IEP
• When the IEP Team Meets

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How-To Geek

6 ways to create more interactive powerpoint presentations.

Engage your audience with cool, actionable features.

Quick Links

• Add a QR code
• Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
• Embed a Live Web Page
• Add Links and Menus
• Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
• Add a Countdown Timer

We've all been to a presentation where the speaker bores you to death with a mundane PowerPoint presentation. Actually, the speaker could have kept you much more engaged by adding some interactive features to their slideshow. Let's look into some of these options.

1. Add a QR code

Adding a QR code can be particularly useful if you want to direct your audience to an online form, website, or video.

Some websites have in-built ways to create a QR code. For example, on Microsoft Forms , when you click "Collect Responses," you'll see the QR code option via the icon highlighted in the screenshot below. You can either right-click the QR code to copy and paste it into your presentation, or click "Download" to add it to your device gallery to insert the QR code as a picture.

In fact, you can easily add a QR code to take your viewer to any website. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For This Page."

You can also create QR codes in other browsers, such as Chrome.

You can then copy or download the QR code to use wherever you like in your presentation.

2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)

If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or feedback survey in your presentation.

In PowerPoint, open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, and in the Forms group, click "Forms". If you cannot see this option, you can add new buttons to the ribbon .

As at April 2024, this feature is only available for those using their work or school account. We're using a Microsoft 365 Personal account in the screenshot below, which is why the Forms icon is grayed out.

Then, a sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can either choose a form you have already created or opt to craft a new form.

Now, you can share your PPT presentation with others , who can click the fields and submit their responses when they view the presentation.

3. Embed a Live Web Page

You could always screenshot a web page and paste that into your PPT, but that's not a very interactive addition to your presentation. Instead, you can embed a live web page into your PPT so that people with access to your presentation can interact actively with its contents.

To do this, we will need to add an add-in to our PPT account .

Add-ins are not always reliable or secure. Before installing an add-in to your Microsoft account, check that the author is a reputable company, and type the add-in's name into a search engine to read reviews and other users' experiences.

To embed a web page, add the Web Viewer add-in ( this is an add-in created by Microsoft ).

Go to the relevant slide and open the Web Viewer add-in. Then, copy and paste the secure URL into the field box, and remove https:// from the start of the address. In our example, we will add a selector wheel to our slide. Click "Preview" to see a sample of the web page's appearance in your presentation.

This is how ours will look.

When you or someone with access to your presentation views the slideshow, this web page will be live and interactive.

4. Add Links and Menus

As well as moving from one slide to the next through a keyboard action or mouse click, you can create links within your presentation to direct the audience to specific locations.

To create a link, right-click the outline of the clickable object, and click "Link."

In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click "Place In This Document," choose the landing destination, and click "OK."

What's more, to make it clear that an object is clickable, you can use action buttons. Open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Shape," and then choose an appropriate action button. Usefully, PPT will automatically prompt you to add a link to these shapes.

You might also want a menu that displays on every slide. Once you have created the menu, add the links using the method outlined above. Then, select all the items, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then use Ctrl+V to paste them in your other slides.

5. Add Clickable Images to Give More Info

Through PowerPoint's animations, you can give your viewer the power to choose what they see and when they see it. This works nicely whether you're planning to send your presentation to others to run through independently or whether you're presenting in front of a group and want your audience to decide which action they want to take.

Start by creating the objects that will be clickable (trigger) and the items that will appear (pop-up).

Then, select all the pop-ups together. When you click "Animations" on the ribbon and choose an appropriate animation for the effect you want to achieve, this will be applied to all objects you have selected.

The next step is to rename the triggers in your presentation. To do this, open the "Home" tab, and in the Editing group, click "Select", and then "Selection Pane."

With the Selection Pane open, select each trigger on your slide individually, and rename them in the Selection Pane, so that they can be easily linked to in the next step.

Finally, go back to the first pop-up. Open the "Animations" tab, and in the Advanced Animation group, click the "Trigger" drop-down arrow. Then, you can set the item to appear when a trigger is clicked in your presentation.

If you want your item to disappear when the trigger is clicked again, select the pop-up, click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation group, choose an Exit animation, and follow the same step to link that animation to the trigger button.

6. Add a Countdown Timer

A great way to get your audience to engage with your PPT presentation is to keep them on edge by adding a countdown timer. Whether you're leading a presentation and want to let your audience stop to discuss a topic, or running an online quiz with time-limit questions, having a countdown timer means your audience will keep their eye on your slide throughout.

To do this, you need to animate text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers. Choose and format a shape and type the highest number that your countdown clock will need. In our case, we're creating a 10-second timer.

Now, with your shape selected, open the "Animations" tab on the ribbon and click the animation drop-down arrow. Then, in the Exit menu, click "Disappear."

Open the Animation Pane, and click the drop-down arrow next to the animation you've just added. From there, choose "Timing."

Make sure "On Click" is selected in the Start menu, and change the Delay option to "1 second," before clicking "OK."

Then, with this shape still selected, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+V (paste). In the second box, type 9 . With the Animation Pane still open and this second shape selected, click the drop-down arrow and choose "Timing" again. Change the Start option to "After Previous," and make sure the Delay option is 1 second. Then, click "OK."

We can now use this second shape as our template, as when we copy and paste it again, the animations will also duplicate. With this second shape selected, press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, type 8 into the box, and continue to do the same until you get to 0 .

Next, remove the animations from the "0" box, as you don't want this to disappear. To do this, click the shape, and in the Animation Pane drop-down, click "Remove."

You now need to layer them in order. Right-click the box containing number 1, and click "Bring To Front." You will now see that box on the top. Do the same with the other numbers in ascending order.

Finally, you need to align the objects together. Click anywhere on your slide and press Ctrl+A. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Arrange." First click "Align Center," and then bring the menu up again, so that you can click "Align Middle."

Press Ctrl+A again to select your timer, and you can then move your timer or copy and paste it elsewhere.

Press F5 to see the presentation in action, and when you get to the slide containing the timer, click anywhere on the slide to see your countdown timer in action!

Now that your PPT presentation is more interactive, make sure you've avoided these eight common presentational mistakes before you present your slides.

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Why children with disabilities are missing school and losing skills

Cory Turner

On a recent school day in Del Norte County, Calif., in one of the state's northernmost school districts, 17-year-old Emma Lenover sits at home on the couch.

In some ways, Emma is a typical teen. She loves Disneyland and dance class. But she has already faced more adversity than some classmates will in a lifetime.

"All of October and all of November, there was no school because there was no aide" says Emma's mother, Melony Lenover, leaning her elbows into the kitchen table.

Emma has multiple health conditions, including cerebral palsy. She uses a wheelchair, a feeding tube and is nonverbal. To communicate, she uses a special device, like an iPad, that speaks a word or phrase when she presses the corresponding button. She is also immunocompromised and has mostly done school from home this year, over Zoom, with help from an aide in the classroom. At least, that's what was supposed to happen.

Listen: How staff shortages lead to students with disabilities missing school

Students with disabilities are missing school because of staff shortages.

Melony Lenover says her daughter's special education plan with the district guarantees her a dedicated, one-on-one aide. But the district is in the throes of a special education staffing crisis. In the fall, without an aide, Emma had to stop school. As a result, she missed out on the dance and art classes she loves and regressed on her communication device.

The fact that a district could struggle so mightily with special education staffing that students are missing school – that's not just a Del Norte problem. A recent federal survey of school districts across the U.S. found special education jobs were among the hardest to staff – and vacancies were widespread. But what's happening in Del Norte is extreme. Which is why the Lenovers and five other families are suing the school district , as well as state education leadership, with help from the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

Shots - Health News

'i'm not safe here': schools ignore federal rules on restraint and seclusion.

The California Department of Education says it cannot comment on pending litigation.

"It's very, very, very, very difficult when we are trying to bring people on board, trying to provide these services, when we want the best that we can give – cause that's our job – and we can't," says Del Norte Superintendent Jeff Harris. Harris says he cannot comment on the lawsuit, but acknowledges the staffing crisis in Del Norte is very real.

Emma Lenover, left, works through a literacy lesson at home with special education teacher Sarah Elston. Emma loves these visits and, on this day, waited anxiously at the picture window for Elston to arrive. Cory Turner/NPR hide caption

Emma Lenover, left, works through a literacy lesson at home with special education teacher Sarah Elston. Emma loves these visits and, on this day, waited anxiously at the picture window for Elston to arrive.

In December, after the lawsuit was filed, district special educator Sarah Elston told the local Wild Rivers Outpost : "Just a few days ago I had two or three [aides] call out sick, they weren't coming to work, and so this starts my morning at 5:30 having to figure out who's going to be with this student... It is constant crisis management that we do in special education today."

Del Norte's isolation makes it more difficult to hire needed staff

The district sits hidden away like a secret between Oregon, the frigid Pacific and some of the largest redwood trees in the world. It's too isolated and the pay is not competitive enough, Harris says, to attract workers from outside Del Norte. Locally, these aides – like the one Emma requires – earn about as much as they would working at McDonald's.

Students with disabilities have a right to qualified teachers — but there's a shortage

Harris has even tried hiring contractors from Oregon. But "it's a two-hour drive from southern Oregon here," Harris says, "so four hours of the paid contract time was not even serving students."

The district's hiring process is also too burdensome, according to Harris, taking weeks to fill a job. Hoping to change that, the district declared a special education staffing state of emergency earlier this school year, but the problem remains.

In April, the district still had more than 40 special education job openings posted.

Melony Lenover says she knows supporting Emma can be challenging. But decades ago, Congress made clear, through the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act , that her daughter is legally entitled to that support.

The federal government said it would cover 40% of the cost of providing special education services, but it has never come close to fulfilling that promise. In 2023, the National Association of Elementary School Principals said , "Since the law was enacted, the closest the federal government has come to reaching the 40 percent commitment was 18 percent in 2004-2006, and current funding is at less than 13 percent."

All this leaves Melony Lenover chafing at what she considers a double standard for children with disabilities.

"If it'd been one of my typically-functioning kids who are not in school for two months, [the school district] would be coming after me," Lenover says.

In many places, a child who has missed about 18 school days – far less than Emma – is considered chronically absent. It's a crisis that triggers a range of emergency interventions. Lenover says Emma's absences weren't treated with nearly the same urgency.

While Emma Lenover still doesn't have a dedicated aide, she is finally getting help.

"We said as a team, enough is enough," says Sarah Elston, who is Emma's special education teacher. "We're gonna do whatever it takes to get this girl an education."

Elston has been working with her high school principal to patch together as much help as they can for Emma, including shifting a classroom aide to help Emma participate in one of her favorite classes remotely, dance.

How the staffing shortage can become dangerous

Linda Vang is another plaintiff in the Del Norte lawsuit, alongside Emma Lenover's parents. On a recent Thursday, she sits at her kitchen table, her back to a refrigerator covered with family photos. She grips her phone hard, like a lifeline, watching old videos of her son, Shawn.

Schools are struggling to hire special education teachers. Hawaii may have found a fix

The cell phone videos show a young boy with a broad smile, being urged by his mother to pull up his socks. Or being taught by his doting sister to ride a scooter. Or dressed up for what appears to be a wedding, and doing the chicken dance. He is a joyful kid.

Much has changed since then.

Shawn is a pseudonym, chosen by Vang and his attorneys in the lawsuit. We're not using his real name because Shawn is a minor and his mother asked us to protect his identity.

To understand Shawn's role in the lawsuit – and the depths of Del Norte's staffing crisis – you have to understand what happened to him on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023.

He was 15 at the time. Shawn has autism and is nonverbal, and as part of his special education plan, he gets his own, dedicated aide at school. But again, because of Del Norte's struggles to hire enough special education staff, those aides are often in short supply and undertrained.

Shawn's lead teacher that day, Brittany Wyckoff, says, when he grew frustrated in class, his fill-in aide did not follow procedure. It was snack time, but "this staff said, 'No, you're not being calm' and pulled [the snack] away. So that wasn't the appropriate way to handle it."

Another staff member later told police Shawn had begun to calm down, but the aide still wouldn't give him the snack – pistachios. Instead, Wyckoff says, the aide used a firm tone and continued telling Shawn to calm down. Shawn got more agitated, hitting himself in the face.

The aide later told police he began to worry Shawn might try to bite him – because Shawn had bitten other staff before. Witnesses told police he warned Shawn, "You will not bite me. You will not bite me."

Wyckoff says standard procedure, when a student gets agitated and potentially violent, is to move classroom furniture – a table, a desk – between your body and the student. Instead, Wyckoff says, this aide moved furniture out of the way. When Shawn moved toward the aide, unobstructed, the aide raised his hands.

"The staff member just instantly reached out and choked [Shawn]," Wyckoff remembers. "And full-on, like one hand over the other hand choke."

Multiple staff told police, Shawn had not tried to bite the aide. Wyckoff says she was yelling at the aide to stop and finally pulled him off of Shawn, "who was turning purple."

How the incident led to missed school

The aide left school after choking Shawn and went to a local bar for a beer, according to the police report. He later told police he'd acted in self-defense. When he was arrested, for child endangerment, and asked why he hadn't called police himself, the aide said, because he'd been in many similar situations and didn't think this rose to that level.

The district attorney ultimately chose not to file charges.

Emma, left, works with her sister, Kelsey Mercer, to join one of her favorite school classes, dance, from home. Cory Turner/NPR hide caption

Emma, left, works with her sister, Kelsey Mercer, to join one of her favorite school classes, dance, from home.

Linda Vang says the incident changed Shawn. He became less trusting and was scared to return to the classroom. "It is the hardest thing in my life to watch my son go through this."

To make matters worse, after the incident, the school couldn't provide Shawn with a new aide, and, like Emma Lenover, he couldn't do school without one. After the encounter, he was forced to miss two months of school – because of the staffing crisis.

"It was just week after week, them telling us, 'There's no staff. There's no staff,' " Vang remembers. "I feel for him. I'm angry for him. I'm upset for him. It's hard."

Again, Superintendent Jeff Harris can't comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, or on the incident involving Shawn, but he defends the district.

"We don't come in everyday going, 'How can we mess with people's lives?' We come in every day going, 'What can we do today to make this work?' "

Shawn, like Emma, lost skills during his time away from school. His mother says he struggled more to control his behavior and was less willing to use his communication device.

Shawn is back at school and finally improving, Vang says. He even likes the aide he has now.

"It has been very hard the last year. But you know, we're getting there. You know, I'm doing my best, every single day."

With inadequate staff, students can lose vital skills

Wyckoff, Shawn's former teacher, says the staff shortage is so acute that some aides are being hired with little to no special education experience.

"They could know absolutely nothing about working with a student with special needs," Wyckoff says, "and [the district] is like 'Hey, you've gotta work with the most intensively behaviorally challenging student. Good luck!'"

After Months Of Special Education Turmoil, Families Say Schools Owe Them

Wyckoff says the staff the district is able to hire need more and better training, too. The stakes are just too high.

Superintendent Harris says the district does provide staff training, but he also has to balance that with the need to get staff into classrooms quickly.

Veteran special education staff in Del Norte tell NPR they've seen what happens when students with disabilities don't get consistent, quality support: They lose skills.

"One particular student, he was doing well," says Emily Caldwell, a speech-language pathologist in the district. "We were talking about removing his communication device from coming to school because he's communicating verbally."

Caldwell works with many students who, like Shawn and Emma, use a communication device. This student, though, had been learning to use his own voice. It was a big deal, Caldwell says. But the student began losing those skills as he was shuffled between inexperienced staff.

Emma, right, communicates with her sisters Ashley Lenover, left, and Kelsey Mercer using body language and a special tablet device. Cory Turner/NPR hide caption

Emma, right, communicates with her sisters Ashley Lenover, left, and Kelsey Mercer using body language and a special tablet device.

Now, "he's not communicating verbally at school anymore, he's only using his device and only when prompted," Caldwell says.

"I have a student whose toileting skills have regressed," says Sarah Elston, Emma's teacher. "I have more than one student who have lost skills on their [communication] device, that is their only way of communicating with the world."

This sense of loss, Elston says, keeps her up at night.

Superintendent Jeff Harris acknowledges the effects of the staffing crisis have been painful.

"When you have a child who can't do something that they were able to do before because they don't have that consistency, that's hard. I mean, that's a knife to the heart."

Looking forward

The lawsuit against the Del Norte Unified School District and state education officials is ongoing. The families hope it will not only help their children, but also raise awareness around a crisis they know is larger than themselves – and larger than Del Norte.

In the meantime, Del Norte teachers are doing everything they can to support their students with disabilities.

Elston, Wyckoff and Caldwell all say they have raised alarms with the district around students not getting the support they're entitled to – and even being mistreated by untrained or inexperienced staff.

Caldwell says some veteran staff have quit out of frustration. Though she insists, she's staying.

"I just worry," Caldwell says, tearing up. "The kids I work with, most of them don't communicate effectively without support. And so they can't go home and be like, 'Hey, Mom, so-and-so held me in a chair today.' And so I feel like, if I wasn't there and if I wasn't being that voice and that advocate, who would be?"

Digital story edited by: Nicole Cohen Audio stories produced by: Lauren Migaki Audio stories edited by: Nicole Cohen and Steve Drummond Visual design and development by: LA Johnson

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Introduction

Welcome to NASET's Forms, Tables, Checklists, and Procedures .  This section of our site consists of numerous forms, tables, checklists, and procedures for special educators to use. 

NASET's Forms, Tables, Checklists, and Procedures provides NASET members with a comprehensive resource of materials that can be accessed for practical everyday issues faced by special educators.  Simply click on the main heading of any of the sections below and it will take you to various types of materials to review and potentially use both in and outside of your classroom.

Each Form, Table, Checklist, and Procedure is available as a PDF file for downloading. Some forms are available as a MS Word Document for personal customization and use.

• Adapting the Curriculum

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• Eligibility Criteria Checklist for a Classification of Autism • Eligibility Criteria Checklist for a Classification of  Emotional Disturbance • Eligibility Criteria Checklist for a Classification of Mental Retardation • Eligibility Criteria Checklist for  a Classification of Specific Learning Disabilities • IEP Committee Presentation Packet Checklist-Annual Review • IEP Committee Presentation Packet Checklist-Initial Evaluation on a Child not Previously Classified • IEP Committee Presentation Packet Checklist-Triennial Evaluation • IEP Committee Presentation by the Special Education Teachers as an Educational Evaluator

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Related Services

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• Employment Related Transition Goals • Record Keeping Checklist for Parents During the Transition Process

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Working with Parents

• Annual Review Preparation for Parents-Checklist • Parent Intake and Interview Checklist • Reporting Test Results to Parents Checklist

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• Working with Staff

• Assistant Teacher/Paraprofessional Job Description Checklist • Teachers Checklist for Substitutes • Substitute Teachers Checklist

• Communication to Classroom Teachers at the Beginning of the School Year- from Resource Room Teacher

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PODCAST: Parents of CT students with disabilities struggle in meetings with school leaders

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For Connecticut parents with special needs children, planning and placement team (PPT) meetings with their school district are a barrier to a smooth education experience.

WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s Jessika Harkay to discuss her article, “For CT parents, special ed meetings with schools are ‘a battlefield’,” as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story Short. You can read her story here .

WSHU:  Hello, Jessika. You say Connecticut parents of children with disabilities describe the yearly meeting with school officials as a battlefield. Is that why you decided to do a deep dive into this?

JH:  Yeah. So it was interesting how the story came about. I was actually hosting a panel at a special education conference late last year. And we opened the panel up to parents to ask some questions to lawmakers of experts. And one of the women who I ended up using in my story is Jennifer Cotto. She was saying it is so frustrating going into PPT meetings, you always feel ignored.

WSHU:  PPT meetings, which stands for Planning and Placement Team. That’s what they call these meetings for children with disabilities.

JH:  Yep, exactly.

WSHU:  And what do those meetings determine?

JH:  So those meetings determine the educational services. So they just start with the conversation with parents in that first meeting of, ‘Hey, we’ve identified a few patterns or behaviors that may require special education,’ then they undergo testing. After that, they come back and talk about what your student needs in the school system to succeed, ideally.

WSHU:  Now, tell us a little bit more about Jennifer Cotto. She’s from Watertown. What was her experience?

JH:  Yeah, she was talking a lot about just feeling belittled and ignored. She said that her daughter, although being diagnosed with autism, is very high functioning; she can hold a pencil, she can speak, she can articulate her ideas, but there are still certain things that her daughter needs. So she was just talking about a lot of times when she would go to her district and say, ‘Hey, the reason my daughter is doing so well is because we have outside services.’ But the district kind of just brushed her to the side and said, ‘No, we just think that maybe she can grow out of it, maybe that we’re diagnosing her too early.’ And Jennifer’s like, there’s no way you can diagnose a child with autism too early.

So she was just talking a lot about her experience of feeling like she was always ignored, especially because her daughter was doing so well in the school system in pre-K. So after those initial conversations with her, I just started asking experts, lawyers, advocates, and just saying, ‘hey, is this a widespread problem?’ And pretty much everyone was saying, yes. It really depends on the district and what director of special education you get, but a lot of the time, it really is hard to kind of navigate and feel like an equal teammate in these meetings.

WSHU:  But there’s a larger problem that seems to be responsible for many administrators’ attitudes. And that is the cost. Now you say that Connecticut spends about $2.7 billion statewide a year on special education. How does that play out in the local districts?

JH:  Yeah, I think that’s a problem that we’ve been seeing grow, especially recently, as this population of students with disabilities also is growing. And so first, we’re seeing that teacher salaries obviously are one of the biggest parts of a school district’s budget. So you need to hire more teachers who are trained in special education and can handle these students. That’s one of the aspects. But the second part of that, also, is if a student has serious needs and can’t be educated in the district or can’t have their needs met in the district, now you have to outsource them. And that could be tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, sending these students to get their free public education elsewhere, whether that’s a private school, a different district or even out of state.

WSHU:  I was amazed when I saw that Bridgeport actually has the highest number of special ed students. How does that affect the district’s budget?

JH:  That kind of goes back to what I was just saying: first, it’s a huge staffing problem, trying to hire more staff to accommodate these classrooms and these individualized needs. Right? The first problem with a budget is just being able to pay the people educating these children. The second part, again, is outsourcing. If a student can’t get their needs met in the district, you can pay 1000s of dollars to send them elsewhere, which is what the second half of that special education cost is.

WSHU:  How does this affect the parents? Because you have a quote here about the squeaky wheel gets the grease, that means that the more vocal the parents are, the more they can get services for their children. How does that play out?

JH:  I think it’s particularly interesting when you’re looking at students of color or those who come from low-income backgrounds where a parent may not have the time to sit down with and do binders and binders of research, right? There’s a quote in my story that talks about just the jargon behind education and the legal jargon of, oh, what can we provide our students with what is available to me? And that takes a lot of research. Even with me, I was going through these pamphlets, and I was looking up words, and I was confused as well. So, let alone a parent who also has the stress of just trying to keep food on the table and a house over your head, on top of trying to support your child, but who also has these educational challenges.

I think that one of the interesting aspects of stories like this is just looking at how some people do have the resources, some people do have the background, the parents I quoted in my story said they were familiar with the systems because of their previous work professionally. But then there’s parents who may not have that background, and they’re trying to navigate this system, and they may not be able to afford an advocate or a lawyer to advocate on their behalf. So I think that’s an interesting conversation of just how this impacts children and families who may not have the means or the time to research special education and the rights.

WSHU:  You talked with the state education officials, and there are some state resources to try and help out with this; what exactly do we have?

JH:  So the biggest thing is the Department of Education. They have a page on their website that kind of has, I think it’s called like the Bureau of Special Education or something like that, where it has a direct line where you can talk to people. And they talked about a few other partnerships that they have across the state with different advocacy groups. Another group that was mentioned to me is called PATH, I think. And they also offer free resources to people if you don’t have the means to afford an advocate, they offer an advocate for you. So there’s different things. It’s just a matter of finding the right research. And I think that also part of the conversation is just having these resources more available, rather than you having to search for them, making them more easily accessible.

WSHU:  And that was part of what was involved in legislation that was being considered this year. Although I don’t think much has been done, it seems more like a task force to look into this. Could you just tell us a little bit more about that, Jessika?

JH:  Yeah, so the task force was started back in 2021. Their responsibility is first just looking at the cost of special education, but also looking at the over and under-identification of students and the reasons behind that. So they’re expected to present their findings to the legislature this year, later this year. And then next year, before the session starts, they’re supposed to offer recommendations, which I think will be really interesting. But then we saw legislation passed this year that was looking at just PPT meetings again, and the notification of them. So now state law will require a five-day notice for those meetings, but then also the presentation of those rights when they receive that notice.

WSHU:  How about trying to get educators to have a better dialogue with parents? What has been done about that?

JH:  Yeah, so one thing I’ve heard is that the problem isn’t necessarily with educators themselves. I think most parents are happy and can see the effort that teachers in the classroom are making toward helping their students by providing these resources. But the big dilemma was with these administrators, who are kind of middlemen in the top-to-bottom hierarchy, right? And so the biggest thing is just transparency, from what I hear.

If you can’t provide a resource, tell us why and tell us what you can do and set or how we are working towards improvement. Just having those open conversations and those dialogues and I think another part of that is just also how you speak with one another. I was just talking to someone this morning, from feedback on this story, saying, we’re told here’s when the PPT meeting is. The time and place, just straight and told that without even being asked, ‘Hey, does this work with you? What is a good time?’ So I think it’s just kind of reframing conversations that may be taken some type of way, or feel like there’s that unequal power dynamic, even though parents are supposed to be that equal team member. So that’s kind of what I’ve been hearing. It’s just changing these conversations and how we speak to one another.

CT Mirror's Long Story Short

Long Story Short takes you behind the scenes at the home of public policy journalism in Connecticut. Each week WSHU’s Ebong Udoma joins us to rundown the Sunday Feature with our reporters. We also present specials on CT Mirror’s big investigative pieces.

Nixa special education teacher charged with sexual contact with student, statutory rape

A special education teacher who worked at Nixa's Inman Intermediate School was charged Wednesday with nine felonies, including statutory rape and sexual contact with a student.

Chelsea Paige Harper, 34, of Nixa, worked for Nixa Public Schools from 2013 through 2022, including at the Summit Intermediate School and Nixa High School, and was rehired to teach at Inman for this school year.

Court documents used to charge Harper allege she was involved in a sexual relationship with a student that started in 2022, while she was working as a paraprofessional at the high school, and continued through part of 2023.

The victim in the case was under the age of 17 but a specific age was not listed.

Harper has been charged with four counts of second-degree statutory rape, two counts of statutory sodomy and three counts of sexual contact with a student.

If convicted, each charge of statutory rape and statutory sodomy, are punishable by up to seven years in prison. Each charge of sexual contact with a student can carry up to four years in prison.

Zac Rantz, chief communications officer, said the allegations of inappropriate conduct were leveled against Harper last month.

"The district takes all allegations such as this extremely seriously," Rantz said. "The teacher was immediately placed on administrative leave and an investigation was conducted in cooperation with the appropriate authorities."

In a statement, Rantz said: "The investigation quickly revealed sufficient facts to the board to allow it to move on and vote to terminate this teacher’s employment at the May 6 board meeting. The district did not comment immediately after the May 6 board meeting to allow the authorities to continue to conduct their investigation. The district will continue to follow policy and procedure and cooperate fully as the investigation by authorities continues."

Harper, who was issued an initial teaching certification in elementary education and K-12 special education in 2023, worked at Orchard Hills Elementary in the Willard district during the 2022-23 year.

More: Family of Glendale junior sues to stop SPS from 'forcing' student to graduate early

The case has been investigated by the Nixa Police Department. The News-Leader reached out the city for more details.

A statement provided by spokeswoman Macie Thornhill confirmed Nixa police initiated an investigation in April after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student occurred while Harper was employed at the high school.

In a statement, Thornhill said an arrest warrant was issued for Harper and that she turned herself in Wednesday. She was booked, released and ordered not to have contact with any minors except her own children.

A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 26 in front of Christian County Judge Douglas Bacon. She does not yet have an attorney listed in court records.

"Investigations of this nature are complex and often very time-consuming. This investigation is active and ongoing; therefore, specific information cannot be disclosed at this time to avoid making extrajudicial statements that could potentially prejudice legal proceedings."

Anyone with additional information about the incident or related issues can contact the police at 417-725-2510.

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• Video available for MAP Academy presentation featuring Yingying Wang

17 May 2024     By Chuck Green, CYFS

Yingying Wang , associate professor of special education and communication disorders, and director of UNL ’ s  Neuroimaging for Language, Literacy and Learning (NL3) Lab , led the Spring 2024 Methodology Applications Series presentation May 3 at the Nebraska Union .    

Video is now available of Wang’s presentation, “ Unveiling the Brain through Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. ”    

Watch the presentation .    

Among many neuroimaging tools, functional near-infrared spectroscopy ( fNIRS ) is a rising star. It uses infrared light to peer into the brain, unlocking secrets of our cognitive processes, emotions and behaviors. There has been an exponential increase in the use of fNIRS in neuroscience during the past decades.    

W ang ’ s presentation introduced this non-invasive, cutting-edge neuroimaging technology and outline d how it can revolutionize our understanding of the brain. She noted that the p ossibility of visualizing and understanding the unseen activities of our minds can lead to the enhancement of mental health treatments or the improvement of educational strategies and beyond.    

The Methodology Applications Series is sponsored by CYFS’ MAP Academy . The 202 3-24 Methodology Applications Series focuse d on l everaging cutting-edge technology to advance research and methods.  

The series will resume next fall.  

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