Key Questions to Ask When Evaluating an IEP
- Does the IEP match the amount of time needed to meet the priorities identified for each goal?
- Does the IEP include goals specific to the child's functional developmental capacities and are they designed to help the child move from one developmental level to another?
- Does the IEP provide developmentally appropriate goals and activities?
- Does the IEP provide appropriate and adequate individual therapies, including speech, oral-motor, occupational and physical therapy, and cognitive treatment?
- Does the IEP provide augmentative communication support in a timely fashion with appropriate training of teachers and parents to help children use these supports at school and at home?
- Does the IEP provide for frequent parent-team meetings to evaluate progress, make modifications, discuss problems, and allow for parent participation in the class when desired, in addition to ongoing observations?
- Does the IEP provide home programs, training and guidance, materials for activities at home?
- Does the IEP raise the bar? Parents and the team are responsible for ensuring that the standards or expectations in child's IEP are relatively high enough to establish advancing goals.