Individualized Education Plans
The majority of my writing projects during my 13 year career as a special education teacher were eligibility reports, progress reports, and annual reviews written for students’ Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). These are considered to be legal documents and are protected by confidentiality regulations. These reports contained information such as student strengths and interests, educational growth, progress toward written goals, and areas of need. In my role as a special education teacher, I gathered information for these reports through focused observations of each student, documentation and collection of student work samples, and informal interviews with parents and caregivers. Many of the students with IEPs would be receiving specialized services from multiple school-based service professionals such as speech-language therapists or occupational therapists who would also be contributing their written information to these reports. As a special education teacher, I also served as a case manager, coordinating the varied services for each student with an IEP on my caseload. In this role, I was responsible for reviewing the written contributions of each service professional to each IEP report. In addition to checking for typos and errors in spelling and punctuation, I reviewed each report for fluency and consistency of tone, making simple corrections when the intention was clear or alerting the contributing service professional when further edits were needed to correct repetition or conflicting information.
IEP documents are primarily written for and used by individual students (or their family members) and the service professionals providing the special services in the school-based setting. However, as previously mentioned, IEPs are considered to be legal documents and must be written to the standards and regulations designated by local school districts and the state Department of Education. As such, IEPs have multiple audiences. They must be written using “family-friendly” language so that the family of each student can clearly understand and contribute their own priorities to the plan being designed for their child. They must be written with enough evidence for a service provider to be able to follow the action steps to meet the needs of the student. Additionally, the language used in the IEP must clearly define the provisions and responsibilities of the school district as required by special education law. This requires a high level of diligence to write with accuracy, integrity, and clarity.
Due to the confidential nature of IEP reports, I am not able to share evidence of my work. However, below you will see comments and recommendations of my work from former colleagues.
“Andrea is extremely conscientious of others, including her colleagues, families and students; is reliable and hard-working; is innovative and creative; is an excellent communicator, both verbally and in writing; and has a high level of content knowledge related to preschool curriculum and developmentally appropriate lessons for young children. Andrea consistently demonstrated a particular strength in writing and in attention to detail.”
Sarah Carlson, Ed. S.
Director of Early Childhood
“On several occasions, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with Andi. In the interest of cooperation and teamwork in accomplishing shared goals, she has been an integral part of sharing her knowledge with others. It has been an invaluable experience to work with an Early Childhood Special Educator with such dedication and knowledge. Andi has not only been a ‘team player’ when it comes to working with students, but she has also been willing to offer support with anything I have asked of her. Andi displays a genuine caring for the students and the people that she works with.”
Stacey Powell, M.S., CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist