IEP teams are made up of parents and educators who serve the student. Sometimes parents will invite advocates or others to attend IEP meetings. Required members of the IEP team include:

• Principal or his/her designee
• Special Education Teacher
• General Education Teacher
• Parent, Guardian or Surrogate Parent
• Student (for transition planning and other times when appropriate)
• School Psychologist (for initial IEPs and Behavioral Manifestation Determinations)

The first required element of an IEP is the statement of parental concerns relevant to the student's education. Their concerns are considered throughout the development of an appropriate IEP. Writing, "Parents have no concerns," or something to that effect is not acceptable. That just shows that their participation was limited in the conference! Often parents need to be asked some guided questions to help them focus in on and answer this question. Some helpful guided questions may be:

• Are you satisfied with the progress your child has made in math this year?
• What do you think we need to focus on next year?

Present levels of performance is the second required element of the IEP. Goals and benchmarks will be written based on this information. Present levels of performance should be included in all addendums to the IEP. Why? Because this area shows the changes in the student's needs that you are basing changes on! I learned this the hard way in a due process. Try to state this information in terms that are meaningful to all members of the team. In most cases this means stay away from grade level equivalents and standard scores. Policy on present levels statements varies from district to district and state to state. Check with your special education administrator to be sure your statements comply with policy. This information can be obtained from several sources:

• Your own expertise is probably the best source of this information. What have you noticed from work samples? For example: "Billy Bob turns in homework assignments consistently." "Billy Bob rotates or reverses letters of similar appearance." "Billy Bob has good self-esteem concerning his reading performance."
• Parent's observations are a source of valuable information on the students present levels of functioning, particularly with social skills. Be sure to ask parents what they see in each area addressed in the IEP. Include their statements along with teachers' information.
• Psychological evaluation under test results--look under test results--data. If this source is used to address strengths and weaknesses, personalize the summary to the student. "Coding subtest scores are reflected above as an area of relative strength for this student" is not an acceptable statement. Modify it to state "Billy Bob can independently take notes from the board".
• Referral forms--especially ones that are recent. These include the referral and screening inventory.
• Recent evaluation data forms--behavior observation, evaluation and programming conference forms.

Statement(s) of annual goals, including benchmarks or short-term objectives are the next required elements of the IEP. There should be direct correlation between the student's identified programming needs and his annual goals. The student's goals and benchmarks should also be aligned with your district's general education curriculum. How do you do this?

• Review the student's present levels of functioning. Get a sense of what skills need goals and benchmarks.
• Review the grade-level curriculum for the student. Identify skills in the curriculum framework that address the students needs.
• Do a task analysis on this goal. Progress from the skill that the student can already perform to the next part of the skill that the student needs to learn to the next part of the skill until the goal is reached.

Each goal and benchmark requires objective criteria and evaluation procedures for determining whether the benchmarks or short-term objectives are being achieved. Objective criteria determines how the benchmarks are measured, e.g. percentage of accuracy or number of trials. Evaluation procedures are the ways you are measuring progress, e.g. teacher made tests, observation, frequency counts and charting.

Modifications and adaptations are another part of the IEP. This important part of the IEP describes what the members of the team are going to do to help the student meet with success within the general education curriculum and around the school campus.

Ebeling, Deschenes and Sprague identify nine types of adaptations in Adapting Curriculum and Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms.

1. Adapt the number of items that the students is expected to complete.
2. Adapt the time allotted and allowed for leaning, task completion or testing.
3. Increase the amount of personal assistance with a student.
4. Adapt the way instruction is delivered to the student.
5. Adapt the skill level, problem type or the rules on how the student approaches the task.
6. Adapt how the student responds to instruction.
7. Adapt the extent that a student is actively involved in a task.
8. Adapt the goals or outcome expectations while using the same curriculuar materials.
9. Provide different instruction and materials to meet a student's individual goals.