5 Tips to Good IEP Goals

Goals are probably some of the most important components of your child’s IEP. The purpose of the goals is to address the areas of need for your child and work towards closing any gaps that exist. However, often goals are not written to provide meaningful progress and leave your child to continue to stay behind their peers. Not only do goals drive services and placement, they are used to monitor your child’s progress. Thus, it is essential that goals are done correctly.

 

1. AREAS OF NEED: Make sure your child’s assessments are truly comprehensive:  A comprehensive evaluation in your child’s suspected areas of need will provide insight into your child’s strengths and weaknesses. It is crucial to have an evaluation with as much detailed information as possible in order to be able to identify and address his/her needs. Goals will be written to provide progress in any areas of need for your child.
2. BASLINE DATA WRITTEN ON THE GOAL: Baselines of a goal should include objective data to measure where the child is presently, the baseline of where the team is starting. Using standardized data is the best data, but not always available. The important thing is having data that is quantitatively measureable.
3. WRITTEN FOR MEANINGFUL PROGRESS: Make sure your child’s goals provide Meaningful Progress. Understanding that dismal progress is not meaningful is crucial in being able to determine how your child’s goals should be written. Although your child might progress a small amount, it is often times not enough to address any deficits your child might have. Be certain that goals are specific and measureable and the levels of attainment are not too low (i.e. a low grade level or 70% is not proficiency).
4. OBJECTIVE MEASURE: How are you going to know if a goal has been met? By objective measure, not the provider/teacher’s “opinion”. It should be quantitative data that provides an objective measure. However, qualitative data can be appropriate for goals measuring behavior.
5. DETERMING WHETEHR GOALS ARE MET OR NOT MET: The measure of the annual goal should be reported as met or not met. “Making progress or working towards” means the goal is not met after a year of intervention. You want to know if goals are met or not met. Don’t be fooled, some times the wording can be “Partially met”, don’t let that fool you. “Partially met” is another way for saying-not met.

 

 

Your child’s goals are the way to track progress and whether services are appropriate for your child. Knowing whether goals are written well or not can be challenging without knowledge in this area. Luckily, we put a great amount of focus and effort into making sure appropriate and well written goals are developed for your child. We would love to take a role in your child’s educational success! Contact us for more information.