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Hey everyone!! Please upload any information you have or have sent via email supporting your content section of our IEP meeting presentation. Additionally, please think about what order we would like to present in so the information flows in a logical fashion. If anyone has questions on any information displayed please pose those questions and/or comments on the wiki page for all to review and consider. I wanted to also get other peoples thoughts on whether or not we should have some sort of visual to share with our presentation. (i.e. powerpoint, sample IEP, short video clip, etc.) Please let me know if you think something like this will help enhance our presentation. Just to reiterate, Dr. McDowell is having our group present Tuesday the 18th and our presentation is expected to be about 20-30 minutes in length. Thanks in advance for all your support towards this project and I hope everyone has a happy and safe fall break!

-Chris Fisher

So I found a lot of sources online from the library concernung teachers and IEPs and I just ordered a book about parents, teachers and IEPs. The book will be here Thursday. I will post relevant info if I find any.- Amy Burger

Individualized Education Program (IEP) Meetings: From the classroom-teacher perspective:
 * In high school, many people have already had an IEP in place. In HS, a teacher will re-write the IEP in order to align the program to requirements of HS (ex: support needed to pass PSSA in 11th grade). Each of the teachers needs to follow the IEP to help the student be successful. Before the meeting, support teacher sends out an email to teachers that have the students, CONCRETE observations. Mini reports of how they are doing in class, interactions. Ideally at meetings attendants will be: support teacher, classroom teacher (does not need to have the student), parent(s)/guardian(s), grade level principal, student, typically takes place during the school day hours. Support teacher will start by going through the emails prompts (noticing things in classes, problems, anything needs to be addressed). Parents offer questions, teachers can offer advice; teachers and students can try and iron out any problems in the classroom. At the meetings, changes are made based on what was discussed at the meeting (sometimes there are no changes) and streamlined to HS experience, then all in attendance (not the student) sign the IEP and accept the changes of the IEP. Things such as social skills or personal goals are typically reserved for the Support teacher, because classroom teachers are not always trained to help the IEP student. Support teachers help the students to learn strategies to increase the learning opportunity.

From SpEd Teacher perspective: -Sarah
 * Working with 11th and 12th graders, most of the IEP is focused on transition. What are you going to be doing after school? Parents can invite extra people to come to the meetings and teachers can also invite extra people. First thing to go over is the current educational levels (grade, disability, current/previous grades, academic support time, input from regular education teachers (observable behaviors: handing assignments in on time, participating)),
 * Needs/strengths (what the whole IEP is based on) come up with
 * Goals and objectives to help student improve needs,
 * Monitored throughout the year ‘progress monitoring’
 * Keep records when they come for academic support time
 * Special designed instruction (accommodations provided for student in regular and SpEd classroom)
 * Referenced most by regular education teacher
 * Sometimes could include testing modifications such as learning resource room
 * Individualized because each bullet is specifically structured for each student
 * Provide the supports needed but try to eventually get to the point where the student no longer needs the support
 * To exit the program is a great thing, that is the real goal of the IEP
 * PSSA is talked about if that student is in that grade level
 * Graduation requirement, students must be proficient in reading and math
 * Least restrictive environment (LRE)
 * Place the student in a setting where they can be successful with the proper support system
 * State is big for the main stream inclusion
 * MA – students with an IEP can receive medical assistance from the state regardless if they have other health benefits
 * Transition services helps the students to become their own advocate for the post-secondary level
 * Regular education teacher gives a brief overview of how the students is doing in class
 * In each particular subject area
 * Principal – if the student has a discipline issue the principal might bring it up at the meeting, they are knowledgeable about the transition process
 * Counselor – credit (taken) check, review the schedule, appropriate courses for next year, career of interest and appropriate classes, review application process for college or tech school
 * Job Trainer – she takes students on work crews and they go and work at a grocer
 * Mainly for lower level students who might not be going to college

Please find below a quick write-up of information pertaining to the role of parents in an IEP meeting. This information was developed through the research of online resources such as the Learning Disabilities Association of America. I can provide a formal citation if we think one is needed. If you have any questions regarding my content, please let me know. Thanks!

**Role of Parents in IEP meetings**
A parent who has a child with special education needs should effectively learn how to use the IEP process as a tool to obtain the appropriate individualized education for their child. Since parents most likely know their children the best, they are expected to be active members of the IEP meetings. This is where all the important decisions concerning the needs of their child’s individualized education is made. They are not to defer to the teachers or administrators in developing an IEP because they are equal participants in this decision. In this meeting they should be talking about their child’s strengths, needs, and ideas for enhancing their child’s educational opportunities. During this meeting, they also share about how their child learns and can provide suggestions in relation to the educators’ ideas. Parents also have the responsibility in reporting if the skills a child is learning at school are being used at home. This sharing of information from the parents will help the teachers and parent(s) develop the most effective and appropriate services and placements for this individual. In the case of a parent needing an interpreter because of language differences, they should notify the school ahead of the IEP meeting so appropriate arrangements for an interpreter can be made. At the conclusion of the IEP meeting, once all the terms of the students IEP are constructed and agreed upon, the parent must sign off as a co-facilitator in their child’s academic and social success.

-Chris Fisher

Here is a website by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. It is a guide to know all about IEPs [] Amy

I talked to my friend who is a teacher about IEPs and the teachers role in it this was her repsonse to my questions- Questions: 1. What is the teacher's role in making an IEP for a student? 2. What kind of accomadations are given and how do you implement them? 3. What do you do if you have 2 different students with IEPs and their accomadation rival one another in a classroom? 4. Anything else you can tell me on the teachers role in planning and carrying out an IEP.

Answers Amy
 * 1. The teacher can recommend that a student be tested for a learning disability which then leads to writing an IEP. I do not have a direct role in writing an IEP; instead, I give input as to how the student has been performing in my class. The learning support teacher, who will take on this student on her caseload, is the one responsible for writing it. 2. There is a huge range of accommodations that can be given from enlarged text on a page, test questions read aloud, extended test time, a copy of written notes given, a sign used to signal a need, etc. Each student's accommodations will match the learning disability. 3. I'm not sure what this would look like. Could you give me an example? Usually it just means that you need to differentiate your teaching so that both students IEP's are being met. If one student needs a test given orally, he can usually go out into the hall with an aide so that it is possible for the others to have silence. 4. Learning support teachers usually inform us, the teachers, in the beginning of the year as to what accommodations each student will need. It is then our responsibility to meet these requirements. We usually then have to attend an IEP meeting in the beginning of the year which consists of a meeting with the principal, learning support teacher, several teachers and parents. In the beginning of the year it is then agreed upon as to if the accommodations from 5th grade will still work in 6th grade. At the end of the year we decide if the student was successful and if any changes need to be made for middle school.

Hey Everyone! Please find attached the introduction and slide for my portion of our presentation. Please download, integrate your content, and re-upload the modified version so that it can be used by others. Remember, we need to make sure the slides are in order of Introduction, role of teacher, role of parents, role of student, modifications of IEPs, and discussions during IEP meetings (sample IEP to be shown during this portion). If anyone has any questions or concerns pertaining to the slideshow or format of our presentation for tuesday please write those comments here for all of us to collaborate on. Have a great weekend all! - Chris

Powerpoint:

I downloaded the PPT Chris uploaded and added my own slides. When you take a look at it, it may seem as though I haven't put any work into it, but my PPT presentations are typically bullets and then I have many of the details on notecards when presenting. I don't like to have all the information on the screen and then read verbatim--I think it's silly. ANYWAY.... I'm uploading the newest version of the PPT. --Sarah Powerpoint::

Amy

Here is the latest version of our power point.... i am worried parts are out of order tho. i put mine behind the parent section, but the teacher section is at the end for some reason. ?? here it is

Hi Everybody. I added actually just one slide for Changes to the IEP. I have four bullets but all of the information I will be talking about will be more on my notecards, as Sarah commented on earlier. We can move slides if necessary tomorrow before class.

Hey everyone, I put the slides in the order we talked about the last time we met. To reiterate, we were presenting the intro video, role of teacher, parent, student, changes to IEP, and specifically what is discussed in IEP meetings. Please look at the slideshow to make sure everyones slides are together since I wasn't 100% sure I kept them all grouped accurately. If it is out of order, fix it and repost it. Thank you! -Chris