When you started in special education, did anyone ever grab you by the hand to walk you through an entire IEP or hand you an A-Z guide to running IEPs? You were lucky if you were trained that way. Most of you are probably like me. Due to a shortage of special education teachers, I was hired as an intern. I was still finishing my credential and had little experience of actually working in a classroom.
How is a student working on her teaching credential supposed to run a successful IEP a few short days after being hired?
Having no resources of my own yet or even an agenda, I was freaking out! With the help of my mentor and using his resources, I was able to piece together what I now call a “subpar” IEP. How was I supposed to know what to do or say?
I had never been to or observed an IEP at that point in my life. The fear, anxiety, and sweat are feelings that I’ll never forget. It’s already scary being a new teacher, then add on running a successful IEP! Whew!
There is so much work to do all the time. Special education teachers have a high rate of burn out. I never want to burn out! I wish someone could have grabbed my hand to give me ideas, tips, & tricks to running a smooth IEP. If I had a go-to guide or a checklist to refer to when having an IEP, it would have reduced the stress.
Use this FREE sample guide to get you started!
The GUIDE to IEPs
So I put together just that! I put together a Guide to IEPs for Resource and Special Education teachers.
This guide includes strategies and checklists for before, during, and after IEPs. Of course data systems and policies will vary year to year, state to state, district to district. The guide gives a generic format of everything you need for a successful IEP. My only hope is that this guide truly helps to make the IEP process a lot simpler and is a teacher time saver!
*Bonus tip*
Bring treats to your IEPs! Nobody likes to have meetings when they are HANGRY (hungry + angry).
Need more resources for data collection in special education?
Check out this post about Baseline Data Collection!
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