LBS I and IEPs....

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LBS I and IEPs....

by sped

Jun 18, 2011

We >have several SPED teachers in our department who have gen. >ed. certificates with the LBS I Endorsement. Their biggest >complaint is that the endorsement coursework did not include >enough practice in writing IEPs.

I'll be honest, special ed majors don't come out of school with much more knowledge, in my experience. It's my job to chair IEP meetings and make sure they're correct. It's a large part of my position.

New special ed teachers, majors and endorsement-adders alike, seem to skew one of two ways. They either have no idea how to write an IEP and are scared of the process. They seemed to go through their programs in college hearing about big, bad, mythical IEPs, maybe viewing a few highly complex examples (usually a severe MR, or TMH student), but never got any real-world experience writing what will be done 95 percent of the time with your typical LD or ED student. This is usually most common and as long as the person is willing to learn, they ...See MoreWe >have several SPED teachers in our department who have gen. >ed. certificates with the LBS I Endorsement. Their biggest >complaint is that the endorsement coursework did not include >enough practice in writing IEPs.

I'll be honest, special ed majors don't come out of school with much more knowledge, in my experience. It's my job to chair IEP meetings and make sure they're correct. It's a large part of my position.

New special ed teachers, majors and endorsement-adders alike, seem to skew one of two ways. They either have no idea how to write an IEP and are scared of the process. They seemed to go through their programs in college hearing about big, bad, mythical IEPs, maybe viewing a few highly complex examples (usually a severe MR, or TMH student), but never got any real-world experience writing what will be done 95 percent of the time with your typical LD or ED student. This is usually most common and as long as the person is willing to learn, they can be taught to do a decent job in a few hours.

Or, the other extreme is someone (usually a sped major) who learned from a professor the "right" way to write an IEP. To ivory tower, ed professors, the "right" way to write an IEP is to provide $50,000 worth of year-round services to a high-functioning LD student who is in inclusion classes all day and writing 15 academic goals with 8 short-term objectives each. They write IEPs that aren't implementable in reality. They would require a full-time case manager for one student. This is, of course, not possible, and I have to take a machete to these IEPs at meetings. These teachers can be the worst to train to do IEP properly because they think they're right because their professor was a great educator and leader in his field... who hasn't worked with K-12 students in 20 years and will never have to worry about implementing his 90-page IEP.

As far as having the capacity to write IEPs properly, this is a good litmus test: If you do your own 1040 or 1040A (not 1040EZ) around tax time, you can do an IEP. Obviously different skills, but if you can correctly navigate the bureaucratic process involved in doing a long-form tax return, you can learn to do an IEP with little issue.

If your learning ancient Greek is more likely than you filling out your tax form, then you may have issues. If you can't successfully and calmly navigate the process at the Secretary of State or Unemployment office, then IEP writing may not be for you.

In my district, sped teachers basically have two or more bosses. The Principal is primarily tasked with evaluating how you do in the classroom. I am primarily tasked with evaluating the IEP side of the job. We have had to fire some teachers who work well in the classroom, but who have a clear disdain for writing IEPs (at least the way we need them written), or who just can't/won't be trained.

I can't keep someone in a position who writes IEPs that expose us to due process, require unnecessary services, and that can cost $1000s of dollars in compensatory services. If I see mistakes, I train the teachers, sit down with them, show them what they need to do. If I keep seeing the mistakes, they have to go.

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