An individualized education program (IEP) allows you to work with your child's school and teachers to come up with specific educational goals for your child.
These plans are typically given to children who qualify according to the categories of disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA). These include:
- Autism
- Deaf-blindness
- Deafness
- Emotional disturbance
- Hearing impairment
- Intellectual disability
- Multiple disabilities
- Orthopedic impairment
- Other health impairment (includes ADHD)
- Specific learning disability (includes dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and other learning differences)
- Speech or language impairment
- Traumatic brain injury
- Visual impairment, including blindness
Your child can qualify for an IEP if they have one of these disabilities and also need special education to make progress in school. An IEP aims to set attainable goals for your child in both academic achievement and functional performance.
Parents who are new to IEPs may wonder what IEP goals are, how they're made, and what purpose they serve in the development of their children.
As a member of your child’s IEP team, it’s important for you to understand the goals and be involved in the process.
What Are IEP Goals?
IEP goals are attainable goals set by you and IEP team members from your child's school. These goals are specific to your child with the focus on what you, as their parent, and the IEP team think your child should be able to achieve.
At their most basic level, IEP goals should help your child:
- Meet academic, development, and functional needs that result from their disability
- Get involved in and progress in the general curriculum
- Meet the other educational needs that result from their disability
Your child’s IEP team will be made up of special education teachers and clinicians such as psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists, and nurses. As a parent, you are also a crucial part of the process. You have a right by law to have a say in your child’s education and know your child’s strengths and struggles. Your feedback about what is and isn’t working will help guide the team’s goal-setting along the way.
How to Make IEP Goals
The IEP team will assess your child’s learning needs and create goals based on their evaluation. They may have a draft IEP for you at your first meeting. This starting point can help you hone what may work for your child.
Your child's IEP should be devised to meet their specific needs in a 12-month time frame. While these goals are more long-term, your IEP team may also develop short-term goals and milestones to tackle along the way.
Goals are inclusive and often cover many areas, so it can be difficult to develop attainable goals. For example, some areas that are covered by IEP goals include general education curriculum, learning development, functional skills such as eating on their own, reading Braille, sitting with classmates, or social or emotional needs. While social and emotional needs don't typically fall under an academic curriculum, these goals should be included if your child has trouble with social or emotional regulations.
IEP goals should focus on teaching a child basic skills, such as how to communicate well, interact with peers, and be able to read. The most important goal to include is the ability to communicate through expressive and receptive speech. If needed, a child can also be taught to communicate using assistive technology. Social skills are also an important teachable goal, enabling children to learn how to interact with others in an appropriate manner.
When writing IEP goals, IEP teams often use SMART methodology. What does SMART mean, exactly?
- Specific: Goals must be specific in what they hope for the child to achieve. For example, any skill or subject area must be specified in the target area. This could include communicating and reading.
- Measurable: Goals must be created so that your child's progress in them can be measured, either by standardized tests, screening, or curriculum-based measurements.
- Attainable: Goals must be realistic for your child to achieve. Avoid setting goals that you don't think your child can achieve in a set amount of time.
- Results-oriented: Goals must include step-by-step instructions on how your child will achieve them.
- Time-bound: Goals should include time frames in which your child aims to achieve the goal. Time-bound measurements should also include how often progress will be measured.
Once your child's goals are set, they must be measured. While IEP meetings are held annually to discuss your child's progress, you don't have to wait until those meetings to see how your child is progressing. Ask your school to provide you with progress reports throughout the year, particularly when report cards are issued. And you can download certain apps to track your child's progress independently, without relying on the rest of the IEP team.
IEP Goal Examples
Coming up with IEP goals can be difficult. Before you and the IEP team develop your child's IEP goals, you must identify the areas where they need help. For example, if your child struggles with social situations, then your IEP goals should focus on social development. If your child struggles academically, then your IEP goals should focus on academics, such as reading and writing.
Let's dive further into IEP goals and give some examples.
For social situations, IEP goals may look like this:
- In group settings, and especially at school, your child must raise their hand and wait to be acknowledged before speaking out loud.
- Your child will use turn-taking skills by waiting for their turn and not interrupting another child's turn.
- Your child will work collaboratively to share materials and take turns discussing feelings.
For academics, the goals may look like this:
- Your child should be able to tell fact from fiction.
- Your child should be able to make predictions about what happens next in a story.
Your child should be able to read the days of the week and months of the year.
IEP Goals Purpose
The purpose of IEP goals is to help your child develop mentally, emotionally, and socially, and to keep up with their peers. IEP goals are typically reserved for children with a disability that affects how they learn, such as a mental disability, low vision or blindness, or hearing loss. Regardless, IEP goals help children learn fundamental skills to help them be self-sufficient.
