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IEP Team Scorecard

Your child’s IEP team (Individualized Education Program team / special education teachers, staff, and aides) is what matters most for their education, but weirdly, we don’t talk about it:

If you have a good IEP team, the IEP doesn’t matter…and if you have a bad IEP team, the IEP doesn’t matter.

Of course, this is true for general education as well. Your child’s teachers matter A LOT!

It is time for an IEP Team Scorecard.

And there are 3 main “grades”:

  • Good Will – how much does your child’s teacher/IEP team member WANT to educate your child?
  • Competence – does your child’s teacher/IEP team member have the skills to educate your child?
  • Adequate Resources – does your child’s teacher/IEP team member have the resourcs they need to educate your child?

Why is this report card for your IEP team members (and maybe your whole school or school district) important?

Because it helps us focus on what we need to look at to ensure that our child gets a better education

You can’t “IEP” someone into doing a good job

I’ve been writing and reviewing contracts for 43(!?!? UGH !?!?) years. Not as a lawyer, but as an information security professional working on projects ranging from a little IT effort costing a couple of thousand dollars to defense systems costing billions (and replaced roofs, remodeling, installed air conditioning, and other home projects which may have been trickier)…. so it isn’t just important to me what gets written in the contract, but what happens throughout the life of a project.

I definitely can write an excellent contract.

BUT, what I can’t do is make the other person do a great job.

(or even a good job)

(.. or really even a half-way decent job)

A contract is a tool for clarifying communications and expectations and, as a last resort, for arbitrating disputes.

It is NOT a management tool.

Your IEP Agreement is essentially a contract…

NOT a management tool.

It WON’T fix your IEP team.

Not that it isn’t important and that you shouldn’t take your IEP seriously, but your focus should be on working with (and working on) your IEP team.

… can you make them WANT to do a better job educating your child?

… are they ABLE TO DO what you think they need to do to educate your child?

… can you reconfigure your available team resources to do a good enough job educating your child?

… can you augment your team with potentially available resources to do a good enough job educating your child?

… if not, what do you have a better “Plan B” IEP team within your school district or elsewhere?

… can you, should you – move?

So, an important part of the IEP document for you… is to what can it do to help your IEP team work better?

(I’ve suggested as an addition to my son’s IEP that a team member get sent to an appropriate conference in Hawaii… this was only half in jest – training for staff, oversight by experts are definite potential elements of your IEP).

.. using the IEP to “improve an IEP team member grade” ;)

Building the IEP Team Report Card

Turnabout is Fair Play! While we’ve all received report cards, most of us have never written one out. Now is your chance. But, it is going to be some work:

  • Build Your Report Card Template
  • Grade Your Team
  • Improvement Plan(s)
  • Monitoring and Intervention

At the end of the day, the report card is a tool for decision-making and action.

Build Your Template – No “Cs Please”

Use whatever grade system you like. You can use my three grade areas above (Good Will, Competence, Adequate Resources) or create your own. I grew up with “A for Excellent down to F for Fail”… colors, numbers, whatever works for you. BUT, no “Cs”/ Average grades are allowed. Every grade should be Good to Excellent or Poor to Fail. In my case:

  • A – Excellent … nobody is perfect, but no concerns
  • B – Good … solid, but room for improvement
  • C – Average … NOT ALLOWED
  • D – Poor… problematic, but hopefully fixable
  • F – Failing… problem, automatic priority for fixing, heavy support, work around, or replacement or ???

Next, lay out the roles (not individuals) and how important you think they are for your child’s regular educational progress (the school principal may be only slightly important for your child’s progress… unless there is a problem elsewhere!)… you can always revisit this.

Keep the system as simple as possible! You aren’t sharing this with anyone (well, hopefully your spouse).

Grade Your Team

Fill in all of your team members by name… and grade them in each areas (Occupational Therapist: Hands McHandy, Good Will – D, Competence – B, Adequate Resources – B, Priority: Medium-low). Add in Notes and Comments for each of them. Pause, reflect, and revise… this is for you!

Hopefully, this will give you a clearer sense of where you are at and what you may want to work on.

We’ve had great experiences with adaptive PE, but it isn’t critical for us at this time… if there was a problem in that area, we might either just live with it or drop the service.

… you have to choose your battles! (Probably the motto of every disabled person and caregiver everywhere).

Monitoring, Improvement Plans, and Interventions

Can you reasonably change something? What is/are your priorities?

If you look at your team, what really matters for your child?

Maybe you don’t get along with someone, but they are doing a good job.

Maybe they aren’t doing great, but the school year is almost over and you’ll be moving on.

If there was ONE thing that you could change… what would it be (and what outcome would you hope for or expect)?

Is there something you can ask for… and hope for the best… and just keep an eye on?

A nudge? A hint? A bit of time to build rapport?

This is a dance – there are no magic answers. Sometimes, it is just a different way of doing things.

Maybe it is easier to just do some extra work outside of school.

Use the levers you have… work with people and not against them (if possible)…

This is tricky people stuff. No easy answers.

Other Report Cards (School(s) and School District)

You may want to look at schools or school districts as a whole:

  • Promotion to a new grade
  • Team member change
  • Change of school (we’re going through this now – moving from elementary school to middle school)
  • Moving

You may also want to “check out other options” if you are having problems with your school (and attempt to make sure that what you are changing to is actually better than where you are at).

Taking Action

Your IEP team is the key to how your child’s education is going to progress. They can’t do magic, but there is nothing like a great teacher who is highly motivated to work with your child. And nothing is so challenging as the opposite.

This report card is more about helping you focus on your IEP team and not just the IEP agreement.

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