Step 5: How is the program planned?
Each child's special education program is planned through the development of an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The IEP is a written description of the special education needs of your child and the special education and related services that will be provided to meet those needs. The goals, objectives and services are designed and individualized for your child.
Parents and school personnel plan together to make decisions about a child's educational program.
The IEP:
- Serves as a communication vehicle between parents and school personnel, which enables them, as equal participants, to jointly decide what the child's needs are, which services will be provided to meet those needs, and what the anticipated outcomes will be;
- Commits resources necessary to enable your child to receive needed special education and related services;
- Is a tool for use in determining the extent of your child's progress toward meeting the goals and objectives.
IEP Goals and Objectives
One very important part of your child's IEP is the section that contains the goals and objectives. Goals are long-range plans; objectives are the intermediate steps necessary to reach the long-range goals. The goals written on an IEP state what your child is expected to do in one year. Goals and objectives contain these parts:
- WHO will achieve?
- WHAT skill or behavior?
- HOW, in what manner, or at what level?
- WHERE, in what setting, or under what conditions?
- WHEN, by what time? A projected ending date?