One of the goals of Special Education teachers is to be able to show growth specifically in the areas for which the Individual Education Plan (IEP) has been written. One student came to Donna’s class with the goal of being able to count change with minimal errors. She worked with this student individually, using the plastic change that is often used in teaching this skill. After working with the student for some time, Donna decided to talk with him about what he was learning and why it is important. She started with the question, "Do your parents ever give you money to spend when you go to the store?" He told her that he sometimes went to the store with money to spend without his parents being there. Donna asked him how he knew that the change he got back was the correct change. "How do you know they don't short you?" He replied, "I count the change." She went to her bag and returned with a fistful of real change. Donna asked him to count it and to her surprise he counted it without error!
Donna then went to the Special Education department and told them that this student's IEP needed to be changed to state that the student needed to learn how to count plastic change, because he already knew how to count real change.
The Importance of Updates to IEPs
This anecdote demonstrates that a student's IEP might reflect what a student needs to learn, but just as important, it reflects how aware of the student's deficits the educators are. The formation of an IEP is an essential part in students’ learning and it needs to be modified as the student learns. Without regular updates students can become stuck in their learning process, which can have serious long-term consequences. At Donna Drown PLLC, you can be confident that you are working with an experienced, skilled attorney who can guide you through devising an IEP that will work for your child’s education.