February 2015 FAQs

February 4th, 2015  

FAQs

Q: Should a nurse be invited to the IEP meeting? The nurses are often gone from work when we have the IEP meetings, what should I do?

A: If a student has medical needs that are addressed by the IEP team, then the team should invite the nurse.  Even if the nurse cannot be there, please make sure that they provide any necessary information prior to the meeting and that they receive all relevant information following the meeting.

Q: Where do I put study skills minutes in the IEP?  

A: This depends on why the student has study skills.  If the student is in study skills for reading, writing, math, behavior or social / emotional reasons, put the minutes in those areas.  Study Skills is simply the location.    If the IEP and ESER notes executive functioning needs, then Study Skills can be put as a separate service area.

 

 

 

 

 

September 2014 FAQs

August 25th, 2014  

FAQs

Q: How do I input the minutes in and minutes out of general ed on the summary of services page?

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. One example is: a student has 50 minutes of Reading in the IEP and has 20 minutes in the general ed classroom and pulled out to special ed for the other 30 minutes. On the summary of services, 20 minutes is inputted in the Minutes IN and 30 minutes is inputted in the Minutes OUT on the reading line.

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

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

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Q: What does the Red M next to the student’s name in the database mean?

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.

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Q: What should we keep in the building files at our schools?

A:  Keep COPIES at the school and send the originals to district office – ALWAYS!! A copy of each of these documents must be kept: (1) current IEP, (2) most recent ESER, (3) most recent individual evaluation reports, (4) invitations for most recent IEP meetings, (5) PWNs since the last IEP meeting, (6) consent for initial placement, (7) progress reports since last IEP.

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Q: What should I write in the PLAAFP under “Parent comments/ concerns…”, specifically when the parent doesn’t attend the IEP meeting?

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 or any concerns that they may have. 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.”

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

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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.”

 

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.

 

September 2012 FAQs

September 1st, 2012  

Q: On my Summary of Services page, I need to include a category of service that is not listed in the database. What do I do?
A: In most instances, you will not need to add what is not already listed. Most services your school provides will fall under a special education academic or behavior service or one of the common related services. If the team feels the need to specify a service outside of what is listed, fill in the “Other” field on the Summary of Services page. However, you can clarify services in the Additional Comments field. This might include clarifying that the “Reading” minutes will be focused on pre-academics or that the “Writing” minutes include 30 minutes in general ed 5 days a week and 30 minutes in sped 4 days a week. Please do not use the summary of services to match with a student’s class schedule.

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Q: I have a student that uses the Dragon Speak program. What areas of the IEP do I need to include that information?
A: Dragon Speak can be used as an assistive technology accommodation. You will include a description of the student’s strengths and needs related to this accommodation in the PLAAFP. You will mark the “Yes” box next to the assistive technology question in the Special Factors section of the IEP.  You will include Dragon Speak in the Program Modification/Accommodations page with a description of when and how it is to be used. Finally, if it is being used as an accommodation for testing, mark the box for “Using a computer without spell or grammar checker.”

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Q: Which day is the first day of an evaluation timeline?
A: The date the parent writes on the consent to evaluate is the first day of the timeline, i.e. if the meeting is at 5:00 pm on August 15, the first day to count is August 15. However, if the parent did not sign the consent at the meeting and returned it to you at a later date, the timeline begins on the date that the district (school) received the consent. Either way, write the received date at the bottom of the consent form and include that date in the database.

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Q: What is the purpose of turning in my paperwork from a meeting within two weeks? I have so much to do.
A: There are two main reasons for this. The first and most important reason is that if it isn’t turned into Central Office in two weeks, it likely hasn’t been provided to parents within two weeks. Parents have a right to this information within a reasonable amount of time. Secondly, Central Office needs time to review and file the paperwork and must have the most current paperwork always in the file in the event that records are requested from another district.

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Q: Are the educational needs statement fields on the ESER supposed to be in any particular order?
A: Yes! Once the evaluation process is complete and the IEP team reviewed the evaluation data, the team must identify and prioritize the educational needs. At the meeting, the team will list the needs in priority order and the recommendations to meet those needs. The team may discuss and determine that there are too many needs to address with a one year IEP and will choose to work on the first few needs for the upcoming IEP year. If that happens, you must provide an explanation of that discussion in the PLAAFP so that it is clear that these needs were not forgotten.

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