September 2013 FAQs

September 4th, 2013  

FAQs

Q: I don’t understand minutes in and minutes out of regular ed on the summary of services page. Help!

A: Students may receive special education services in the general education or special education classroom or a combination of the two. In order to appropriately determine a student’s LRE, the amount of time that a student participates with his or her non-disabled peers must be determined. If a student has 50 minutes of Reading in the IEP and has 20 minutes of that time in the general ed classroom and is pulled out  to special ed for the other 30 minutes, then 20 minutes goes in the Minutes IN and 30 minutes goes in Minutes OUT on the reading section of the summary of services.

Q: Which day is the first day of an evaluation timeline?

T: The timeline begins on the date that the district (school) received the consent. If at a meeting, the date the parent signs and dates the consent to evaluate is the first day of the timeline. If the parent did not sign the consent at a meeting and returned it to you at a later date the first day is the day the school received it. Either way, write the received date at the bottom of the consent form and include that date in the database for documentation.

Q: What does that Red M mean again?

A: The Red M signifies that a meeting was held at least 3 weeks ago and Pupil Services has not received the original paperwork from the meeting OR Pupil Services has received some paperwork but some paperwork is missing. Original paperwork is due to Pupil Services and a copy of the paperwork is due to parents within 3 weeks of the date of the meeting.

Q: I usually send paperwork home to parents at the same time I send it to district office. It is embarrassing to have to contact the parent to correct mistakes found by district office. What can I do?

A: The hard copy of the IEP is the legal document that the school is to follow and is the educational record for both the district and the parent. Therefore, that document must not only reflect the decisions made by the team for the student, but must reflect our best work as school district employees. Always print out the IEP and proofread it. You may consider asking a colleague to proofread it for you. You may contact Pupil Services secretaries or your program coordinator prior to printing and sending the document anywhere, and we will be happy to proofread it for you! Proofreading should be for typos as well as for content inconsistencies or errors.

Q: What should I write in the PLAAFP under “Parent comments/ concerns…”?

A: This section of the PLAAFP is for the parents’ words regarding their children. This should be what parents say they want for their child. Some examples include: “Parents work with Johnny at home. They are concerned that he takes 3 hours to complete his homework,” or “Johnny’s parents were not able to attend the meeting. When setting up the meeting, Johnny’s parents expressed they would like the team to discuss accommodations to allow him to be successful in his general ed math class.”

Some non-examples include: “Parents did not attend the IEP meeting” or “None at this time.”

 

PLAAFP — The First “P” Stands for Present!

September 4th, 2013  

Presents Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) are developed during the IEP process first for a reason – without a proper PLAAFP, the team cannot develop the goals or select an appropriate program. Take the following 5 steps to construct detailed PLAAFPs:

1. Bring current data to the IEP meeting. This doesn’t mean information that is a year or older. Rely more on hard data than teacher observations. Data should speak for itself.

2. Be cautious when using numbers in PLAAFPs. Think twice before saying that a child does something X percent of the time or X out of X times. If you are saying that a child does something 8 out of 10 times, does he consistently do it 8 out of 10 times or just that day assessed? PLAAFPs should explain where the child is functioning on a day to day basis, not where he was functioning on a particular day.

3. Review test scores and evaluation results prior to meeting. Team members should have an opportunity to interpret test scores and evaluation results for themselves. Sometimes different staff members and parents have different beliefs about whether a student is making progress and what the student needs to improve. Reviewing ahead of time leads to a meaningful discussion at the meeting.

4. Write PLAAFPs in positive terms. PLAAFPs are supposed to identify what a student can do. Avoid using the word can’t when writing PLAAFPs. What the child cannot do comes into play when developing the goals and objectives. PLAAFPs identify student strengths and abilities while goals identify what the student needs to learn to do.

5. Use the “stranger test” to assess PLAAFPs. A PLAAFP is appropriate if a person who is unfamiliar with the IEP would be able to identify exactly what the student can do. This is likely if the PLAAFP includes measurable data and specific details.

Excerpted from Special Ed eConnection by LRP (February 2013)

 

October 2012 FAQs

October 1st, 2012  

Q: I have received IEPs from other schools that are difficult to understand. The PLAAFP has information from four years ago and the font is so small. Is there anything that can be done about that?
A: IEPs must be updated annually and contain the most recent information. The information must be typed to be legible to all, especially parents. Case managers are recommended to use as concise language as possible so that everything fits where it belongs within the IEP.

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Q: What should I write in the PLAAFP under “Parent comments/ concerns…”?
A: This section of the PLAAFP is for the parents’ words regarding their children. This should be what parents say they want for their child. Some examples include: “Parents work with Johnny at home. They are concerned that he takes 3 hours to complete his homework,” or “Johnny’s parents were not able to attend the meeting. When setting up the meeting, Johnny’s parents expressed they would like the team to discuss accommodations to allow him to be successful in his general ed math class.”

Some non-examples include: “Parents did not attend the IEP meeting,” or “None at this time.”

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Q: What was the deal with the post-secondary transition agency consent?
A: To the greatest extent appropriate, transition agencies must be invited to IEP meetings for students age 16 and older. The regulations say that the parents (adult student) must consent to these agencies’ participation. Some schools have found that the parents will consent to one agency’s participation (e.g. Frontier Community Services), but not to another’s (e.g. DVR). Therefore, we have created a space on the IEP cover page that allows the case manager or the parent to list the agencies they consent to and those they do not prior to signing the consent.

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Q: Why don’t I have an OK next to one of my students in the database? I turned in the paperwork already.
A: In order to prevent IEPs at the beginning of the school year going over timeline, case managers need to review their caseloads and hold the annual review for students whose IEPs will expire within the month of August prior to the May 9 paperwork deadline. Therefore, if the IEP that you completed within the month of August 2012 does not have an OK, it is to remind you that you will need to complete the annual review before May 9, 2013.

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Adding Services to IEPs

October 1st, 2012  

The PLAAFP, Summary of Services, and Goals and Objectives must be aligned with the needs and recommendations outlined in the ESER.  (The State Compliance Monitors identified this as an area we need to address).

 If the student has need of adding any SPED service that is not yet documented in the ESER, then the student must be evaluated specifically for that need/service. The student’s needs and recommendations from the evaluation may then be added to the ESER. This applies to all areas of service.

Examples: 

 A student cannot have only articulation/language needs and recommendations within the ESER and receive any other SPED services in the IEP

 A student cannot have only math needs and recommendations within the ESER and receive services in the IEP, for reading, writing, articulation/language, OT or other SPED services

 A student qualified for special education in writing and the needs/recommendations section of the ESER only addresses writing, you cannot write goals and objective in areas outside of writing.

 

If there is a need to add services but not change the eligibility category at this time:

 The team must collect the data to show the education need for the service.

 A permission to test is needed if new assessments are required

 A permission to test would not be needed if looking at progress monitoring data that has been collected (note, we cannot add related services using only progress monitoring data)

 The team will hold an IEP Amendment Meeting (unless this additional falls in line with an annual review) and amend the ESER to include a new individual evaluation report that addresses the educational need for the new service. **It would be best practice to hold a meeting rather than using the “without meeting” option of the amendment.

* The amended ESER will list the new area of service(s) in the “Education Needs” section.  **The team will NOT change the ESER date.

* The ESER and the PLAAFP will include all areas of needs that are on the Summary of Services.

* Goals and objectives will be written to address the new area of service.

* An IEP amendment form will be completed with a change noted in goals/objectives and in type/or amount of service.

* The changes will be documented on a PWN.  The changes to both the ESER and the IEP can be documented in a single PWN as long as all changes are clear for both areas.

 

April 2012 FAQs

April 1st, 2012  

Q:  I keep getting reminded that I need to include more on the PLAAFPs. Where do I find the info I am being asked to include?
A: Information for all areas of the PLAAFP needs to be gathered from a variety of sources. You will get a lot of the information from your ESER, if the evaluation was held recently. If not, some of that information may still be relevant, but you will also need to get information from a variety of other sources, i.e. SBA or HSGQE scores, your IEP team members, curriculum based measures and classroom assessments, IEP progress reports, etc.

Please review December’s newsletter and ask your program coordinator if you have any questions!! And remember:  At each annual review, the PLAAFP must be updated with the student’s current information! 

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Q: What is the 45-day timeline from consent to ESER?
R: The day that parents sign consent for any evaluation, a 45-school day timeline begins. The team has 45 school days from the date consent is signed to the date of the determination of eligibility. The 45 schools days must be counted carefully from the date of consent to the date of the meeting to determine eligibility (ESER). Remember to count only school days. **Note: Ideally all individual evaluation reports will be completed and available to the team, including the parent, prior to the meeting—around the 30 day mark of the timeline.

There have been several situations in the past few weeks where the timeline has been miscalculated result ing in timelines that are past due. Be sure to count and recount!

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Q: Why does it feel like the paperwork that I turn in is being “nit-picked”?
R: The paperwork that is kept in the district office is a student’s official educational record. The file must be maintained with a high level of professionalism. Documents contained therein cannot have spelling errors, incorrect dates, white-out, crossed out dates and words, etc. If you think about it, as educators, would we accept work from our students that had those kinds of errors?

Here are some things to be extra watchful of in regards to the signature cover page:

–  Ensure that you have the correct student’s cover page at your IEP meeting.
–  Once you print it, check that ALL dates at the top of the page are correct and match the meeting date.
–  Check that you have secured the parent signature on all applicable lines and boxes.

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