The Big, The Bag,The Ugly- A Bad IEP Plan.

The following IEP is bad for a number of reasons.

1.)First and formost ,it was illegal. We consented to speech services in January 1999.The forms that I signed clearly shows that I did not consent to any goals or understand the goals or even know the existence of the goals. The only thing I consented to was the starting of evaluations and speech services. It ironic that the speech therapist

updated the results monthly because I would ask her after each speech session ( two 25 minute sessions per week when she didn’t cancel) what she was doing or what she was specifically working on. I always got a vague answer. When I asked to observe her in a session with Lukas, she told me that I was not allowed to because it was against District policy. If I knew that these were the goals, I would have objected. These goals are not appropriate- They are vague .The method of assessment was not clear.

2.) I feel that this IEP was a cut and paste job. I do not believe that it was individualized to his needs. The therapist had the words “Curriculum Based Assessment” under evaluation method. She then crossed that out and wrote in big letters “Therapist Assessment.”I can’t prove this but I am highly suspicious.

3.) Several skills on this IEP were already mastered and we have proof of the mastery. Additionally, the therapist claims to have evaluated those skills monthly and wrote progressing or slowly progressing under results and yet, Lukas clearly

demonstrated that he already knew these skills to numerous adults, across locations, and time.

4.)The IEP did not address Lukas’ specific weaknesses.

5.) another interesting note is how he “regressed” in April. She never mentioned a regression to us. It is interesting to note that the different between march’s evals and April’s was that we informed her that he had been given an official autism diagnosis. I wonder how much that played into her “evaluations “I can’t prove it but I do think this is suspicious.

My comments can be found when the goals are highlighted in yellow.Just run your cursor over it.

Short Term Objectives	Criteria for Mastery	Evaluation Method	Evaluation Schedule	Review Date (s)	Results
Student will be able to increase personal/social awareness [AC1]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	SP  SP SP
Student will be able to improve listening/comprehension skills [AC2]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	SP  SP SP
Student will be able to increase awareness in linguistic rhythm and prosody[AC3]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	P (great with music) P P
Student will be able to increase understanding use of correct grammatical and syntactical structures. [AC4]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	NT NT NT
The student will be able to understand and state word meaning relationships[AC5] .	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	NT NT NT
Student will be able to understand and use pre-readiness vocabulary concepts of color,shapes,body parts, alphabet and number [AC6]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	SP SP SP
Student will be able to increase ability to classify by function[AC7]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	P P SP
Student will be able to increase ability to classify by attributes	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	P P P
Student will be able to increase ability classify by combined features	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	NT SP SP
Student will be able to demonstrate an understanding of senses/feelings	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	NT SP SP
Student will be able to increase receptive/expressive basic concept vocabulary[AC8]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	P P P
The student will be able to demonstrate in-seat behavior[AC9]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	P P P
The student will be able to establish maintain appropriate eye contact.	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	SP SP SP
Student will be able to remain on task[AC10]		Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	SP SP SP
Student will be able to eliminate inappropriate behaviors.[AC11]		Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	SP SP Regression **see above
Student will be able to seek attention appropriately[AC12]	80% mastery	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	SP SP Regression
Student Will obey all speech room rules[AC13]	80%	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	NT NT SP
Student will be able to demonstrate appropriate behavior to and from speech room[AC14]	80%	Originally had “Curriculum based” typed in the box. She crossed this out and handwrote “therapist assessment”	Quarterly	2/15/99 3/16/99 4/14/99	Sp SP Regression

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[AC1] What does this mean? What specifically is she talking about? It was only her and Lukas in a therapy room by themselves. He acknowledged her. Heck, they butted heads constantly. How do you measure this? What method of assessment do you use? How do you test this?

[AC2]How ? Will he listen to a story and answer questions? Will he listen to a conversation and answer questions? Will he follow one step directions? Will he follow two step directions? What is specifically being taught? This is vague. Is he going to identify animal sounds? Is he going to identify who is speaking? What kind of comprehension skills is she talking about?

[AC3]This is just bizarre. Lukas had good articulation on single words with the exception of R and L blends. He had gibberish when speaking long sentences. However, he never spoke like a robot nor did he speak in a sing song voice. The two previous speech therapists who did evaluations on Lukas (one in Italy and the other at a regional diagnostic centre in a nearby city) never mentioned this as a problem. This was just a bizarre thing to work on.

[AC4]Again, what the heck?! Does this mean he will use past tense verbs? Does this mean he will appropriately know where to place adjectives? Does this mean that he will say a sentence of four words in appropriate order? Does this mean he will use pronouns? Which pronouns? What specifically is she trying to teach? Will she do a speech sample to test it? Will she do trials?

[AC5]Huh? Does this mean he will be able to match which words go together? Does that mean

that he will state the meaning of a word? Does that mean he will…..

[AC6]This was another weird one. Lukas was already reading at this time. Lukas had known his numbers

and letters for YEARS at this point. We had video tapes of him happily showing his grandparents or neighbour the letter “C” . Lukas also would make blocks into letter shapes. He would look at the sky and say “Three birds!” He knew his colours in two different languages. His preschool teachers in Italy can easily back us up on that. He knew his body parts. What makes this goal even stranger is that the therapist wrote down that he was “slowly progressing”. How could he be slowly progressing over something that had long since been mastered across time and people and even locations?

[AC7]What does increase ability mean? If he does it one time, has he increased his ability and we can call this mastered and the IEP a success? Increase ability is vague. Additionally, it says that Lukas *will be able to * increase ability. Is he currently not able to increase his ability? Lukas is a fast learner. He has always been able to gain skills. This should be written as “Lukas will classify X by its function”

[AC8]This is really strange. He actually had a strong vocabulary. He could object label just about anything.

[AC9]Again, what is she specifically looking for here? Is he suppose to be the Mythical NT child? How long does he show this behavior? How does she measure it? What specifically is he allowed and not allowed to do? Remember, he was 4.5yrs old.

[AC10]For how long? How long was he currently able to do this? What is appropriate for a four year old? Is this for a desired activity or an undesired activity?

[AC11]What are the inappropriate behaviors? How is it measured? What is typical inappropriate behaviors

for a 4 year old and what isn’t? This is vague. This also doesn’t address a behavioral plan on how

to eliminate these behaviors- what ever they are.

[AC12] How is he to seek attention from her? They sit face to face in a therapy room by themselves. I

am not sure what she means.

[AC13]What are these rules? Again, vague. How are the rules to be taught? How is she to assess it?

[AC14]Again, what is he doing wrong? What was he not doing that he needed to be doing? If there was

aproblem, why was I never notified? How is she teaching this?