The Individualized Education Program or the IEP is a groundbreaking program that falls under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004. The IEP is an integral component in the educational system in the United States because this is the first time that there is such a comprehensive plant that addresses the needs of students with unique needs. However, the IEP is not an easy task to pursue. This program has been established to cater for the needs of education for students with disabilities. It guides the education of disabled students in which it describes the goals, present performance levels, objectives and other services related to special education. Parents have several concerns when they are dealing with children with disabilities (Burns, 2006). One of their concerns is what the future holds for their children, and this makes the parents to make obtaining services for their children a priority. Due to the program’s complexity and its role, parents have been overwhelmed by real life problems over their children.
The paper analyses the problems or sins that can be considered as the most problematic within the IEP framework will be discussed. These are the barriers with regards to inconsistency and little or no specification of the needs of the children. Studies have shown that parents are dissatisfied with how schools provided special education programs (Bateman, & Linden, 1998). The program says that every student who receives special education and other related services ought to have an individualized education program. Each program is to be designed fore one student and should be an individualized document (Bateman & Linden, 1998).
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"Real World Problematic Outcomes and Sins Associated with IEP Development".
There are problems like ignorance by the teachers, lack of commitment and the program not creating opportunities for students, teachers and parents. In most cases, they are not improving the results for the disabled students. The parents feel overwhelmed, and the students are also confused by the legal and technical jargons in the program more so to students whom English is not their fist language. It should be a cornerstone for quality education for disabled people, which is not the case in many schools. Consistency can be considered as the most serious challenge facing the people behind the IEP. What happens in the IEP is that the student will be assessed with his/her needs and the school, together with the educators will try their finest to stand the needs of the students. For example, a student with socio-behavior disorder who does not socialize much with his peers and wants to be alone will be asked to join at least one school-based organization in the school. This student will also have to maintain certain rate of attendance. For example, within the school year, the student has to attend at least 80% of the meetings of the organization.
However, this does not usually happen. In some schools, the needs of the students are only accommodated at the start of the school year. After a while, these accommodations to the students will wane. Some noted reasons may be the work load of the assigned teacher is too much to constantly check the progress of the student, or there has not been enough support in terms of funding from the school.
To solve these problems, the parents, school staff and even teachers ought to come together to create an effective IEP which caters for the needs of the students. The teachers ought to identify the children who are eligible for special education and its services. An IEP meeting ought to be scheduled, held and written in front of the parents and if possible an advocate (Bateman, & Linden, 1998). After they all agree, the services ought to be provided adequately without any discrimination where progress is measured and then reported to the respective parents. The IEP should be reviewed frequently while the child ought to be reevaluated. In legal terms, the IEP ought to have certain information about the student and designed in that they cater for the student’s needs, which are unique.
Therefore, teachers should be able to take important steps to prevent such problems from happening. In the first ‘sin’, the teacher should be able to create a schedule in which she will be able to assess all the activities that the student has to attend. This schedule will also serve as a guide for the teacher to evaluate the advancement of the student. In the end, there must be a post-assessment work to take note of the rate of improvement of the student.
On the other hand, with regards to the second problem, the teacher should be able to assess by herself the specific needs of the student. If the said needs are not mentioned in the IEP guidelines, the teacher could write on her own so that the particular needs of the student can be properly addressed. Then, the teacher may submit a letter or proposal to the higher office explaining the need for additional sets of needs to be written in the guidelines.
- Bateman, B. D., & Linden, M. A. (1998). Better IEPs: How to develop legally correct and educationally useful programs. Longmont, Colo: Sopris West.
- Burns, E. (2006). IEP-2005: Writing and implementing individualized education programs (IEPs). Springfield, IL: C. C Thomas, Publisher, LTD.
