SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

Part I: IEP Process

West Towson Elementary School (WTES) serves students in Baltimore County Public
Schools in grades K-5. The school has a full time special educator that serves students in grades
2-5, and a part-time special educator that serves students in grades K and 1. The IEP process at
WTES follows an organized, systematic, and tiered approach. If the SST (Student Support Team)
decides that tiered RTI (Response to Intervention) interventions have not been effective in
helping a student access the grade level curriculum, they will refer the student to the IEP team.
The IEP chair, WTESs assistant principal, and the administrative secretary will coordinate and
schedule an initial IEP meeting in which team members discuss the students educational
performance or potential need for special education services. At this meeting, the parents are
given Procedural Safeguards about the IEP process and they are explained. The following people
attend this initial meeting: the IEP chair, special educator, general educator, parents/guardians,
Speech/Language Pathologist, school nurse, guidance counselor, and school psychologist.
Depending on the student needs, an occupational therapist and/or physical therapist may be
present as well.
If it is determined after discussion at this initial meeting that there is a potential need for
special education services, the parents will be asked to sign their consent for the student to be
formally assessed in areas that they believe are affecting school performance. From the date of
this signed permission, the IEP team has 60 days to complete and report assessments. It should
be noted that parents/guardians must have the assessment reports 10 days prior to the team
meeting date. Again, the assistant principal and administrative secretary will coordinate to
schedule an IEP team meeting in which the team will discuss the results of assessment reports.
The same team members that attended the initial team meeting attend, and the team members

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Bonnie Phillips

report on their assessment findings. If it is determined that the student is eligible for special
education and related services based on the presence of a disability that negatively affects their
academic performance, the team will then sign a Determination of Eligibility Document. The
team will reconvene within 30 days to review a draft IEP and discuss it. Once again, the assistant
principal and administrative secretary will coordinate a team meeting with the IEP team in which
they will develop the initial IEP and discuss the need for extended school year services. It should
be noted that parents/guardians must have all sections of the IEP mailed home 10 days prior to
the scheduled team meeting.
From this point on, the IEP team will meet to discuss and approve the initial IEP. Then, as
long as the student regularly progresses towards their goals and objectives, the IEP team will
meet annually to discuss new goals and objectives and/or to revise existing goals. Every three
years, the student will be re-formally assessed to update their Present Levels of Academic
Performance and, again, to discuss new goals and objectives and/or to revise existing goals. As
the student transitions to middle school and, eventually, to high school and beyond, the IEP team
will meet to discuss that students transition and the transition of their IEP.
I am interning with the full-time special educator at West Towson elementary, and was
able to observe two IEP meetings for the same student: an initial IEP meeting on January 28,
2015, and an IEP meeting on March 25, 2015 during which the team discussed the results of
assessment reports. Between those two meetings, I administered the Brigance Diagnostic
Inventory of Basic Skills to the student and wrote an informal assessment report that I presented
in conjunction with the special educators formal assessment report at the second meeting. At the
first meeting, the initial team meeting, the students general educator was in attendance, as well
as her mother and father, the school psychologist, the school nurse, the guidance counselor, my

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IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

mentor, and the assistant principal (IEP chair). The IEP chair took notes on the meeting as well as
provided the procedural safeguards, and kept the meeting time efficient by following the meeting
agenda. As is required by IDEA 2004, I observed the team members discuss the students present
levels of performance in her classes, as well as which RTI strategies had been implemented prior
to the referral. During the meeting, the parents shared their concerns about their daughters
academic progress as well as her behavior at home, as they shared that she had been exhibiting
hyperactive behaviors at home and they were working with her pediatrician to address those
behaviors with medication. In class, she was also exhibiting those hyperactive behaviors, as
described by her general education teacher. That teacher, as well as her parents, reported that she
had been having trouble with recent math and reading tasks and was not responding to RTI
interventions that were put in place, such as pull-out instruction in small groups with the general
educator. Therefore, the team determined and the parents consented to have the student formally
assessed in the areas of education, psychology, and speech/language pathology.
I assisted my mentor in formally and informally assessing the student in order to
complete her educational assessment. My mentor and I administered the Woodcock Johnson-III
Tests of Achievement, Form A and the Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Basic Skills. My mentor
wrote the students educational assessment report, and I wrote the informal assessment report.
We sent home the reports in an appropriate amount of time before the next meeting, 10 days, as
defined by IDEA 2004. At the second meeting, the team discussed the results of the assessments;
the same members were in attendance as were at the first meeting. First, the Speech/Language
Pathologist shared her assessment results, in which she noticed significant deficiencies in
communication. Then, my mentor and I presented the results of the formal and informal
assessments. My mentor presented the WJ-III results, and I the informal Brigance reports. We

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IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

consistently found that the students instructional grade level was third grade, which is her grade
level, and therefore my mentor stated that there were not concerns of an academic disability.
Finally, the school psychologist shared her findings, in which she noted inattentiveness during
testing, as well as some emotional concern, but not enough to warrant an emotional disability.
The team conferred and decided that the student was eligible for an IEP under the disability
category of Speech Language Impairment and that her IEP would contain only speech/language
goals but would contain instructional supports, behavior supports, and environmental supports in
order to help her access the grade level curriculum. Therefore, the Speech/Language Pathologist
was named her case manager, and my mentor was asked to work with her to develop appropriate
instructional, behavioral, and environmental supports on the Special Considerations and
Accommodations: Supplementary Aids, Services, Program Modifications and Supports page of
the IEP as defined by IDEA 2004.
At the conclusion of this second meeting, the IEP chair (assistant principal) and IEP team
planned the next meeting (ensuring that the parents could attend) to develop and discuss the
initial IEP and discuss the need for extended school year services. It was decided that the team
would meet at 1:30PM on April 22, 2015. As this meeting date is also the due date of this
signature assessment, I will not be reporting on the observation of this meeting, although I will
be in attendance.
Part II: IEP Content
I worked with mentor and the rest of an IEP team in the process of developing an IEP for
a third grade female student enrolled at WTES. The student is identified as having a white
ethnicity, non-Hispanic, and her primary and sole language is English. The student was referred
to the IEP team after RTI interventions did not prove effective in helping her access the third-

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Bonnie Phillips

grade curriculum; also, because her parents expressed concerns about her inattention and
hyperactive behaviors (which was remediated by the school nurse and the students pediatrician).
Her general educator had tried RTI interventions along all three tiers: presenting information
visually and in an auditory manner, allowing the student to have additional time and
organizational aids to complete assignments, reducing classroom distractions to the student,
working with the student in small group settings, and working with the student individually
during recess and in class on certain skills.
As stated above, the timeline for the development of the students IEP was in conjunction
with the timeline of services as defined by IDEA 2004. Her initial team was on January 28, 2015.
The next meeting (discussion of assessment results) was on March 25, 2015, exactly 56 days
after the initial team, which is within the 60 days as defined by IDEA 2004. Her assessment
reports were sent home on March 10, 2015 to ensure that they had been given at least 10 days
prior to meeting. It was on that March 25th date that it was determined the student was eligible
for an IEP and specialized instruction on the basis of an SLI (Speech/Language Impairment).
Although her formal educational assessments resulted in an instructional grade level of 3rd grade,
several supports and services were put in place on her IEP to ensure that she can regularly
organize her ideas with regards to her communication deficiencies. The following services will
be provided: speech/language therapy in half hour increments three times per month. The
following educational, behavioral, and environmental supports will be provided: use of
highlighters, use of manipulatives, use of organizational aids, having the student paraphrase
information, providing the student with a proofreading checklist, allowing the student to use a
word bank to reinforce vocabulary, use of strategies to initiate and sustain attention, and
preferential seating as needed in all general education classes.

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IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

IEP Content The students IEP is as follows. Please see the yellow bolded sections for the three
essential components:
1. Statement of Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance
2. Statement of Measurable Annual Goals
3. Statement of Special Education and Related Services and Supplementary Aids

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

SPED 498

IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

Part III: IEP Procedures and Reflection

I think that this was a very effective IEP team process, and I am happy to have been able
to attend, observe, and participate.
Did the IEP notice include all of the relevant information?
Were the appropriate persons in attendance at the meeting?
Were the timelines for evaluation, eligibility, and IEP development followed?

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IEP CASE STUDY

Bonnie Phillips

Was a copy of the procedural safeguards shared with the family, and when?
Did the meeting start on time?
In what environment/setting was the meeting held?
What was the seating arrangement of personnel during the meeting?
Was the agenda followed?
What were the roles of the team members, and what interactions on the team were significant?
What was the degree of collaboration at the IEP meeting?
Agenda for meeting?
Critique my role during the meeting.