IEP Assignment
Dr. Yakubova
12/1/15
Donna Ray’s IEP, Overview
The IEP designed for Donna is in place to address a moderate intellectual disability. She
is a 17 year old female who is in her senior year of high school. According to principle of least
restrictive environment (LRE), she is in the general education setting for 70% of the time, while
receiving special education services 30% of the time. She is receiving psychological services,
rehabilitation counseling, and school health services regarding sexual education. Donna is also
receiving special attention for postsecondary vocational needs.
Donna’s annual IEP goals revolve around the maintenance and expansion of functional
skills that she may need in the postsecondary setting. Her annual goals are: to maintain and
expand functional reading and writing skills as they relate to work, maintain and expand
functional math skills, increase awareness of career options for after high school, increase and
improve employment related skills, and to improve social interaction skills, especially regarding
assertiveness and sexual responsibility. Her transition planning section is interwoven into the
IEP, because her annual goals revolve around skills that she will need to use in a post-high
school environment. The focusing of functional reading and math skills not only allows her a
greater degree of freedom to live on her own, but it allows her the skills to maintain a stable job.
The transition plan also incorporates the cooperation of the Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation, which may assist her beyond high school.
Donna’s behavior plans revolve around fostering empowerment and independence. They
cover the areas of academic, behavior and social skills. The social sphere of her behavior plan
deals with the personal and employment realm. The personal realm addresses Donna’s passive
nature towards advances from males, which results in her being perceived as being promiscuous.
The behavioral plan calls for assertiveness training classes provided by the school guidance
counselor and a sexual education course provided by the nurse or health educator at the school.
The assertiveness training can also be helpful in her interaction with her peers and future
employers, as assertiveness is a valuable life skill. Donna’s employment realm involves taking
classes and activities that explore student’s career options. It also entails her getting a job at the
local library and grocery stores at different times during the year so she has a concept of what
employment involves.
IEP Objectives, Analysis
Objective 1
Objective 2
Objective 3
Evaluation Criteria
Donna will travel to
businesses in the
community to acquire
and complete a
variety of job
applications (at least
3) independently.
Donna will take a
basic accounting class
to learn how to use
checking and savings
accounts.
Donna will take an
after-school
assertiveness training
class with a small
group of students and
the school guidance
counselor.
Used in current
environments?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Used in future
environments?
Yes
Yes
No
Facilitates interaction
with non-disabled?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Is chronologically age
appropriate?
Yes
Yes, difficulty of the
class withstanding.
Yes
Student rates as high
priority?
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Family sees this as
high priority?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Increases student ind.
at home?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Increases student ind.
in the community?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Promote a positive
view of student?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Student is likely to be
successful?
Yes
Yes, difficulty and
help withstanding.
Yes, provided she
attends regularly.
Donna’s New IEP Objectives
1. Donna will make a grocery list of essential items from a preselected list of items and
budget within a $40 limit for a Principles of Economics class with 80% accuracy.
2. Donna will read a map and find the quickest route to the local voting center in a civics
class with 90% accuracy.
3. Donna will use the route she selected and go to the local voting center and vote in the
local election, filling out her own ballet at 100% accuracy. (This will be done after Donna
fill’s out several practice ballets at 100% accuracy).
Recommendations
Upon reviewing the IEP, the one item that seemed to be missing was an inventory of
Donna’s strengths and weaknesses. There were several mentions of weaknesses (difficulty
conceptualizing mathematic ideas, trouble reading maps) and strengths (eager to please,
appropriate usage of money), however this does not fully portray Donna’s characteristics. What
are her intrinsic strengths and weaknesses as a person? This is especially important in the three
annual goals involving postsecondary vocations and social behaviors. Without a proper inventory
of her personal attributes, it is challenging to guide her towards a vocation that suits her well.
The IEP has her working at the grocery store and the library, but without clearer insight of her
personality, the successes of these endeavors are far from certain. She may be an active person
and dislike doing menial work such as stocking shelves. But if she does not do well, the reader of
the IEP may attribute this to her general abilities and not understand that the job was ill-suited
towards her personality.
Another aspect of this recommendation revolves around self-determination, which has
been a prevalent model in recent research-based instruction. Self-determination models attempt
to portray the students as causal agents, or in charge of their fate. Students participating in selfdetermination interventions often set the parameters and the goals for the intervention. This has
been observed to be very successful. There are areas of implementation within Donna’s IEP,
especially in the employment and career objectives. A possible solution to the issue of Donna’s
potential incompatibility with working at the grocery store and library would be to allow Donna
to choose where she works. She would have input into the terms and types of employment
within reasonable parameters pertaining to adolescent employment opportunities. With Donna
choosing a place of employment that she wants, the measurement and results of her performance
may be less skewed. Furthermore, it may give her ideas for future postsecondary vocations. For
example, if she works at a day care center/kennel for dogs and thrives in that environment, she
may be well suited and willing to pursue further work and/or training in that field.
A final facet of this recommendation involves Donna’s annual goal of sexual
responsibility. The IEP leaves some very important questions unanswered about the nature of
Donna’s sexual behavior. It does not detail whether Donna’s “passive” nature is due to naivety or
fear/confusion of the situation which would call into question the consent of these encounters.
While the IEP team may not know the answers right away, if they included it in her IEP because
it was identified as an important issue, they should have some baseline information to work
from. The lack of information leaves an unacceptable amount of ambiguity regarding the
question of consent, which could lead to unpleasant legal issues for Donna. In the similar way
that an inventory of Donna’s personality was recommended earlier, a comparable canvasing of
Donna’s behavior surrounding her sexual activity would be necessary. These could be provided
by medical professionals such as the school nurse or family physician. The stakes are too high
for ambiguity in this circumstance. It is necessary to evaluate Donna’s behavior from a variety of
aspects to recommend healthy options.
Reflection
It was interesting to see the real life application of functional curriculum and its value.
Functional curricula, based around the current objectives, will serve Donna well. It accomplishes
more good for her than purely academic standards. This is because Donna is at the age where the
transition to a postsecondary life is imminent. This means that she will not receive the same
school-provided services in a year, which could be difficult for her. With the functional
objectives outlined by the IEP in the employment, career, and social realm, Donna is learning life
skills that are not always gleaned from the school setting. If the implementation of these
objectives is successful, Donna will be able to independently function with the decrease in
learning and professional support. The IEP objectives that I have suggested further Donna’s
opportunity for independent success. She will have to learn how to shop for groceries and work
within a budget (covered by suggested objective one) at some point as an independent citizen.
Why not learn these skills in the classroom where she has more room to make mistakes and learn
from them? As a citizen, Donna will need to know how to vote (covering suggested objectives
two and three). It would be instructive for Donna to learn within the confines of the classroom
for the same reasons; she has time to learn, to make mistakes, and most important - to learn
constructive life skills from them.
The functional objectives have a strong likelihood of success. As mentioned in the last
section, a more personalized approach to the objectives would increase the prospect for Donna’s
success. Tailoring the objectives to her individual strengths and weaknesses, as well as giving
her a voice in various matters such as where she will work would be wise. It would cultivate her
ideas about what career she wants to pursue. The best case scenario would be for Donna to find a
job based on her preferences and enjoy it to the point where she can pursue a career in it. An
additional self-determination based intervention may further motivate her to actively engage in
building a future for herself with the objectives as a positive support structure.