Building individualized education plans for southeast Iowa students

Editor's note: This is the second in a four-part series on special education in southeast Iowa

Southeast Iowan school districts are seeing more and more children entering special education at a younger age. By the time most students reach Shawna Manz, a special-education teacher at Washington Middle School, students already have an individualized education plan (IEP) and receiving special education services.

'Generally, they're identified when they're younger, and have been staffed-in by the fifth grade. So we don't see too many new IEPs in the middle school,” Manz said.

The process for identifying a student who may have special needs most often starts with a general education teacher who notices a student struggling to keep up with his or her peers.

Angie Lanphier, a level one strategist at Van Allen Elementary School in Mt. Pleasant explained that at their building, a general education teacher will go to a team dedicated to giving suggestions to general education teachers to help students who may be falling behind or potentially need extra services.

'It starts in the classroom. We call it an I-Plan. So the teacher will take them to the team. They'll bring the student in and say, ‘This is what I've tried, this is what the student's doing, this is where the student's at,' and then the team makes suggestions,” Lanphier said.

At Van Allen, there are two teams dedicated to helping teachers with interventions and strategies - one dedicated to kindergarten through second grade and another for third through fifth grade.

'All the teachers talk about the student's strengths and weaknesses, where the student is at and where they want to see them, and then the team makes suggestions as far as some new ideas. The idea would be to help the student in the classroom,” Lanphier continued.

The first step usually involves trying new and different techniques within the general education classroom, which is monitored to determine whether the new strategies are helping the student improve, the elementary school teacher noted. The teacher added that it's important that the new strategies a general education teacher is using can be sustained throughout the year.

'If they make growth with whatever it is you're doing, then you just keep doing that and they don't need special education. If however, they're not making the growth they need and the gap is getting bigger, then we have AEA come in and look at the student,” Lanphier said.

The Area Education Agency (AEA) is a statewide entity whose main purpose is to help schools provide special education services. The AEA determines whether a student needs special education services and what levels of services a student needs. Each IEP team for a student is made up of the student's teacher, parents and someone from the AEA.

Angelisa Fynaardt, the director for special education at the Great Prairie Area Education Agency, explained that the agency has 60 days from when the agency receives consent from parents to observe a student and conduct an evaluation. The time it takes for a student to be evaluated generally depends on how much data is collected before the agency is contacted.

Usually the agency will observe the student in the classroom, and depending on the area of need, may do testing with the student, as well as interview the student, their teacher and parents, Fynaardt noted. There are seven domains a student can be evaluated for: academic, behavior, physical, health, hearing and vision, adaptive behavior and communication.

The director for special education also pointed out that Iowa is a non-categorical state, meaning students do not need to have a disability as defined under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to qualify for special education services.

'We're looking at disability and the need of a student put together. [The services are] determined by discrepancy, if the student is different from the average kid in their grade level,” Fynaardt remarked.

The director also explained that the AEA generally attempts to determine whether a student has a need for special education or would benefit from different instruction.

'When thinking of special ed, we need to consider instruction and whether a student just needs an accommodation and may not need an instructional piece, and just need a 504 plan,” she added.

A 504 plan provides accommodations to students with disabilities, such as extra time on tests or a quiet space to do work, but does not include an individualized instructional piece.

Fynaardt iterated that the agency 'does not a cut off score or certain percentage,” to determine whether a student receives services. Special education teachers have noticed that students are generally either in the bottom 5 percent of their class or two years behind grade-level when determined for special education services.

The AEA may make further suggestions on strategies a teacher can use and continue to monitor a student. However, once the AEA determines a student is in need of special education, the IEP team comes together to create a plan, usually led by the student's special education teacher and their parents. From that point onward, the AEA takes on a more passive role and become involved when extra resources are needed.

'They're really helpful with the initial process, but they also help look over IEPs, and they'll go to meetings if that's needed. They also do the data collection for students who need revaluations. They also help us brainstorm interventions and are just a good resource when we need a different perspective,” Manz said of the AEA.

An IEP, usually written by the special education teacher in collaboration with a student's general education teacher, outlines the student's areas of improvement and specific interventions, such as accommodations as well as how and where specialized instruction will take place. The plan also details the student's specific disability, how it will be addressed as well as parent concerns and student preferences. The document also includes a page on health, that details things like medications a student is taking. Specific details include how much time a student will spend with a special-education teacher versus in a general education classroom.

When a student is identified and once an IEP is created, the student is continuously monitored and re-evaluated. A student is given a biweekly assessment and data points are tracked to determine how instruction should move forward.

'If you get four data points that are below the line, that means you need to change the intervention that you're using to help that kid shrink that gap,” Lanphier explained.

If a student shows significant improvement, an IEP will get phased out and the student will return to being in the general education classroom full time.

Every three years, the student is also reevaluated by their local AEA to determine whether they still need special education services.

'The ultimate goal is to give the student skills to self advocate and be out of program and only need a 504 to be successful in the classroom on their own,” Manz said.