Reasonable # and content of IEP Goals

[Anonymous]

DD is in MS and this is her first IEP other than speech when she was in K. DD has dyslexia and dysgraphia.

The draft IEP includes one goal for decoding. This happens to be the one thing she is actively working on with an ASDEC tutor.

DD, however, struggles with more than just decoding multisyllabic words; she has needs in reading fluency, spelling, written expression, working memory, auditory processing, and self-advocacy for accommodations. Focusing only on decoding leaves out all of these other crucial areas. I get that FCPS can only provide so much...but my question as I prepare for our first IEP meeting is... "How much more can I ask for in the IEP?"

Ideally, I would have liked to see a goal/services to address reading fluency, spelling and written expression, reading comprehension and speech and language. None of those are there. She got one goal.

I get that this will fall on us to provide outside tutoring to help her in these areas but I'd still like to ask FCPS for a fair and reasonable IEP. I'd welcome any advice.

[Anonymous]

I wrote out what I saw as each area that needed to be addressed - just like you just shared.

And asked how the IEP was supporting that need. Sometimes the school came back and said - strengthening decoding is connected to fluency .... sometimes they said - yeah, we need another goal.

I think it is reasonable to ask for 1 goal for each area identified

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is in MS and this is her first IEP other than speech when she was in K. DD has dyslexia and dysgraphia.

The draft IEP includes one goal for decoding. This happens to be the one thing she is actively working on with an ASDEC tutor.

DD, however, struggles with more than just decoding multisyllabic words; she has needs in reading fluency, spelling, written expression, working memory, auditory processing, and self-advocacy for accommodations. Focusing only on decoding leaves out all of these other crucial areas. I get that FCPS can only provide so much...but my question as I prepare for our first IEP meeting is... "How much more can I ask for in the IEP?"

Ideally, I would have liked to see a goal/services to address reading fluency, spelling and written expression, reading comprehension and speech and language. None of those are there. She got one goal.

I get that this will fall on us to provide outside tutoring to help her in these areas but I'd still like to ask FCPS for a fair and reasonable IEP. I'd welcome any advice.

You should get an attorney who specializes in special ed law. Notice I said attorney not advocate. Advocates are an unregulated field with non lawyers who don't know the law. Even though they often claim to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wrote out what I saw as each area that needed to be addressed - just like you just shared.

And asked how the IEP was supporting that need. Sometimes the school came back and said - strengthening decoding is connected to fluency .... sometimes they said - yeah, we need another goal.

I think it is reasonable to ask for 1 goal for each area identified

I did the same each time I went into an IEP meeting. I wrote out what I felt wasn't where it needed to be and what I thought given the age and grade level each area should look like. If I had any ideas of what could be done through the school (and google is your friend - and with the advances in AI, you will get a lot more than I found), I went in with that information.

And, my experience was the same as PPs - sometimes additional goals (which only matter if there are more services or some sort of accommodation to go with the goals) and sometimes I was told that the goals we had were stepping stones. When I got the latter, I got them to help me understand the trajectory. A lot of that happened in separate conversations with the special ed people and school counselor rather than in the meeting because meetings are time limited so you want to use that time effectively. But, spending the time learning was like preparing for the next IEP meeting.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes schools like to limit students to one goal per area. As a special ed lawyer, I don't like that, but I understand their point. But it should be uncontroversial to have separate goals in reading, written expression, and speech. Did she qualify for speech services?

[Anonymous]

The ‘bean counting’ for these so-called goals are questionable anyway. Take matters into your own hands. Supplement outside.

[Anonymous]

This undoubtedly varies by level/grade so FWIW, this is my opinion as an upper elementary self-contained teacher (Enhanced Autism)

I struggle with justifying more than two goals per area of need (and really prefer to have just one). I’ve had students with 30+ goals (short term objectives included) and it’s impossible to give them access to the gen Ed curriculum. It’s a challenge to teach *anything* new - seems like all time with them is spent on running trials and collecting data (might be different in a 1:1 setting but if you have 7 other students to teach…)

I always write an encoding goal for any student that has a decoding goal (and yes, I know they are separate skills). I’ve found that focusing only on decoding often leaves gaps in writing.

I push back hard on requests for reading comprehension goals when students have a decoding goal. It’s just not practical, or fair, to expect a student to comprehend a passage when their cognitive load is focused on reading the individual words. A listening comprehension goal is sometimes a good compromise, but I don’t really consider that a “reading” goal.

The writing, attention, advocacy are all separate areas of need.

[Anonymous]

My son is a senior. For the last few years he has just had one goal. The goal involves written expression even though his greatest area of struggle is math. It’s bizarre that the team was never willing to add the math goal even after he earned a D despite having extensive private tutoring. The only fix they ever offered was placing him in the lowest math class and the recommendation to seek peer tutoring (as though a teenage NHS member understands special education!). If it is important to you, hire help to make your case. I could have hired an advocate as I did when my kids were younger but by the time HS rolled around, I just didn’t have any fight left in me and felt private help was our best bet. My son is #3 and I’ve been at the IEP table since my oldest was in K. I’m tired and burned out and honestly sick of their excuses.

[Anonymous]

I can’t speak to the IEP goals, but wanted to reassure you that your ASDEC tutor is working on more than just decoding. The program ASDEC uses (Sounds in Syllables) works on decoding, spelling, and fluency. The upper levels include the basis for lots of vocabulary work with morphology.

I hope you also succeed in getting what you need from the school!

[Anonymous]

There should be a goal for each area of need identified in testing.

[Anonymous]

The teachers don’t really look at the goals as much as the accommodations. If you have accommodations for written expression (graphic organizers, sentence starters, speech-to-text, etc) the goal is less important unless it comes with additional hours of service with a specialist.

[Anonymous]

OP - It is also important to figure out what goals a teacher can realistically meet to help your DC meet goals within the framework of a 20-30 student classroom and others with IEPs.
It is important that the teacher recognizes the accommodations allowed and up to you to make sure the student uses them. Now if in a pullout situation to a smaller class or group, SC setting for a subject or resource room, then there might well be reasons to focus on specific goals. Your best route is to find a tutor or tutoring place to get the personalized instruction needed.

[Anonymous]

With the caveat of not knowing any of the details, adding a reading fluency and written expression goal may be appropriate in combination with the decoding goal.

Spelling less so, unless it is severe enough to impede access to the curriculum (i.e., is her spelling intelligible?). I'd suggest an accommodation that she not be penalized for spelling. As for working memory and auditory processing - these are cognitive abilities that cannot be directly intervened on. I'd suggest accommodations to support, and I'm not sure what specially designed instruction/goals could look like for these areas. Goals have to be meaningful in the context of the curriculum and have to be directly linked to specially designed instruction.

For self-advocacy - did the eval note deficits in self-advocacy skills that impede her access to instruction? What specific things has she been unable to advocate for? As for speech - was she evaluated and identified with a speech language impairment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - It is also important to figure out what goals a teacher can realistically meet to help your DC meet goals within the framework of a 20-30 student classroom and others with IEPs.
It is important that the teacher recognizes the accommodations allowed and up to you to make sure the student uses them. Now if in a pullout situation to a smaller class or group, SC setting for a subject or resource room, then there might well be reasons to focus on specific goals. Your best route is to find a tutor or tutoring place to get the personalized instruction needed.

You may be misunderstanding IEP goals. All goals are directly linked to specialized instruction provided by the special education teacher. Accommodations are implemented by the general education teacher, and are not linked to goals.