IEP goals- meeting a child where they are (PA)

[RenVee]

In PA…my son is Autistic, 9 and in 3rd grade. He just had a RR and he is below average in math, writing, and reading comprehension which we know because he’s been struggling. His meeting is coming up. Currently he is still being presented with the grade level material which is faster paced and above his level of understanding. This is causing lots of anxiety which is leading to aggression. I want to be sure going into the meeting what to expect. My expectation would be that they should be providing him material at his level. Right now he’s shutting down and not learning anything. He has lots of great accommodations in his IEP currently and a 1:1,  but those won’t help him understand material if it’s too hard for him. Any suggestions to make sure I am asking for what he needs at the meeting?

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Has he been found eligible in autism only? Any other categories of eligibility, such as anxiety or SLD?  Based on the information provided in your post (not knowing if other disabilities are relevant - it's doubtful that "below average" scores in math, writing, and reading would be enough for eligibility), it sounds like any accommodation for providing below grade level material and a slower pace will need to be tied to his autism.   So focus on that.  Point out that the faster pace and above his level instruction it too much for him to be able to access FAPE because he shuts down, starts having behavioral issues, and therefore is missing instruction and learning.  If the school "isn't seeing this," ask the aide/teacher to start documenting when this occurs.  If they refuse, you may need to ask for an FBA if all else fails.

One question:  Why isn't the 1:1 aide taking care of this issue?  Seems like this could at least partially be addressed this way.

[JSD24]

With the way IDEA is written, students with IEPs need to be presented with grade level material & be taught grade level standards.  They also need to be taught in the Least Restrictive Environment to the greatest extent possible.  From my perspective, LRE moves too fast & with him being a little bit behind, he needs material to be presented more slowly.  Placing him in LRE is triggering him because he's unable to keep up academically and, with the autism, this is leading to autistic meltdowns and shutdowns.  My guess for the reason he's in the gen ed classroom is that the self contained autistic support classroom isn't appropriate either.  You might find students who are less verbal and have significantly more behavioral issues as well as being at a lower academic level compared to your child.

As far as what to do, he might need to be pre taught or retaught classroom material so that he has access to learning.  Has an old eval shown slow processing?  Does he have self advocacy skills where he could signal the aide when he's not understanding things and starting to get frustrated?  Neither shutting down nor acting out put him into a state conducive to learning.  If he doesn't understand something, the adults need to be in the loop so they can make sure he catches up & his knowledge gaps are filled in.  Not sure if the school would be receptive to this or have the resources for pre teach or reteach but it's something that can help.

[RenVee]

12 hours ago, JSD24 said:

With the way IDEA is written, students with IEPs need to be presented with grade level material & be taught grade level standards.  They also need to be taught in the Least Restrictive Environment to the greatest extent possible.  From my perspective, LRE moves too fast & with him being a little bit behind, he needs material to be presented more slowly.  Placing him in LRE is triggering him because he's unable to keep up academically and, with the autism, this is leading to autistic meltdowns and shutdowns.  My guess for the reason he's in the gen ed classroom is that the self contained autistic support classroom isn't appropriate either.  You might find students who are less verbal and have significantly more behavioral issues as well as being at a lower academic level compared to your child.

As far as what to do, he might need to be pre taught or retaught classroom material so that he has access to learning.  Has an old eval shown slow processing?  Does he have self advocacy skills where he could signal the aide when he's not understanding things and starting to get frustrated?  Neither shutting down nor acting out put him into a state conducive to learning.  If he doesn't understand something, the adults need to be in the loop so they can make sure he catches up & his knowledge gaps are filled in.  Not sure if the school would be receptive to this or have the resources for pre teach or reteach but it's something that can help.

Thank you!  This is exactly the information I was looking for. He generally goes to the GenEd class for the lesson and then back to the AS room to complete the work because he gets overwhelmed in the GenEd class.  He does already have a lot of SDI's in place like chunking, pre-teaching, visual/written presentation of material.  For math particularly, they are learning multiplication, division, etc. but he still is lacking the foundational skills such as addition and subtraction so his is getting frustrated easily because even breaking out the problem into steps is extremely difficult for him.  And that is where I'm struggling with how to address this with the team. I understand they need to present him with grade level material but at what point do we say, hey, let's take a step back and make sure he has these basic math skills down first.  I hope that makes sense, thanks for your help!