Planning for Special Education Needs

¶ … videos that pertain to the Individualized Education Plan, or IEP. The IEP is part of the wider programs known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The IEP is a legal document that covers a specific child and mandates how people that come in contact with that child will act and behave when the child is present and/or learning. This brief report will cover a few aspects of the IEP and its process including whether the school leader needs to know the IEP development process, how a school leader assists parents and staff in the IEP development process, which stakeholder(s) have the most authority during the IEP development process and the upsides or downsides of having all stakeholders being a part of the IEP development process. While finding a singular solution and plan from the input of a whole group can be difficult, it is important for all stakeholders to be involved.

Analysis

The school leader absolutely needs to be involved in the process. Given the teaching and legal implications involved with the IEP, it would be a substantial mistake for a school leader to not be involved in the process. The stated members that are required are the parents of the child, a regular education teacher (to give the required exposure to the regular core curriculum) and a special education teacher that knows how to teach students with disabilities. The team must also include a local school district representative, which is all the more reason why a school leader could and should be involved. In the videos to be reviewed for this report, an assistant principal is the school district representative present for the meeting. Whether it be an actual leader of the school or someone else, someone in the school and/or district leadership should be present (YouTube, 2015).

The school leader, as shown by the video, can act as an informed observer of the process as that leader will presumably know how things have gone with other kids, how things are going with this kid and whether the people involved (including the parents, to some extent) are behaving and progressing in the same way. He or she would also be able to protect the reputation and ongoing operations of the school as non-compliance with one or more IEP's could lead to major issues. When it comes to which stakeholders should have the most authority during the IEP development process, it should really be the special education teacher. While one could argue that it should be the parents because it is their child or the school leader in attendance, it is the special education administrator that knows the most about the child's learning experience while on school grounds and thus they have the most knowledge and authority as compared to the rest of the group. The parents would be a very close second place, however, and the school leadership would be up there as well. As was shown in the YouTube videos, the special education teacher led the meeting ...not the parents and not the school district representative (YouTube, 2015).

An upside to having all of the stakeholders there is that all voices relevant to the child and his/her learning are heard. Another upside is that helps a create a complete and comprehensive approach to help the child. A downside is that divergent voices can lead to an impasse on how to proceed and this can be a major issue when it comes to a document that could lead to lawsuits if not complied with. Another downside is that the stakeholders involved have varying levels of commitment and involvement, both past and present, and this can skew their perspectives in a good way or a bad way (YouTube, 2015).