TRANSCRIPT - TSBVI Coffee Hour: Setting the Foundation: Writing PLAAFPs, IEP Goals, and a Short Word on IFSPs Ð 10/31/22 >>Kate: Hi, everybody. So if you've ever been on a treadmill, do you know like the safety cord that they have -- I guess you're supposed to put it on but I don't ever do. Honestly not that I ever spend that much time on a treadmill. But I feel like that's what my headphones are. When I present I like to move around and I feel at some moment either I'm going to rip them out of my ears or pull my computer off the desk. We'll see how all of that goes. But thanks, everyone for being here. Happy Halloween. What a fun day to have Coffee Hour. I'm Kate Borg. I think if you've been coming to Coffee Hour, you know me. You know Kaycee. If you're new, we are both from Outreach here at TSBVI. As I mentioned as we were opening, I am from Utah, originally, and I've been in Texas for a few years here at TSBVI. So, again, like I said I'm excited to spend a few minutes with you to talk about writing present levels, writing goals for an. This is one of those things we can spend an entire day and not cover everything so to try to do this in 50-ish minutes is a lot and so I hope we're able to hit some really important points but I also gave you a very detailed handout that's going to have some more details than we're going to have time to cover during this Coffee Hour session. And so please take the handout, use it, hand it out, whatever. And so I hope that that's good information for you. Like I said, there's just not time in 50 minutes to cover every single thing but I really hope that we can hit some highlights and give a good foundation here. All right. So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. Hopefully successfully. Kaycee or David, are you guys seeing the PowerPoint? >>Looks good. >>Kate: Thank you! All right. I really shouldn't feel as proud of myself as I am that that worked. All right. Just a few objectives. We want fo understand and know the components of a present level statement. We want to know and understand the goals and outcomes for IEPs and IFSPs and describe the connection between those present level statements and the goals that we're writing. So what I have on the screen right now is an image of a periodic table. It's a black background and a periodic table of elements is very colorful. I don't know chemistry and so I can't tell you what all the different colors mean but it is a very bright and very busy and frankly kind of overwhelming picture. And that's how like when we talk about IEPs and IDEA and all of the elements that make up an IEP, it can feel very, very, very overwhelming. So what I want to do today is I really want to just focus in on a few elements. What are the most important elements of an IEP, those are what we're going to be talking about today. And so out of all of that periodic table of elements, the I don't know, 100 or something. See, I don't even know how many there are. There are just a few that actually make up like all life that we know it. These one, two, three, four, five, six elements are found in every organism on our planet. Everything from the giant blue whale to the verytiniest amoeba. They all have these six elements. So we're going to focus in on just a few elements of this IEP. All right. Okay. Oh, you know, there was a -- on the handout -- I'm so sorry. I don't know what the first page. There's a random page break and so I apologize for that. I didn't notice until I had sent it off to be uploaded. But, you know, what can you do? Anyway, so the elements of an IEP, we're going to be about Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance. We're going to be talking about annual goals and objectives and then of course how those play into services and supports. Now the reason that it's written like this is because, yes, there is a place that we have to startand that is with our present levels. Now, this information should be coming from assessments, so we're going to go on the assumption that our assessments or evaluations are done. Now we're writing this present level statement. In a minute we're going to talk about why, right? Because before goals can be written, before any services or supportscan be decided that present level statement has to come first.So a couple of things that are going to be really, really important to keep in mind. I'm going to go through these next three slides very quickly because they're quotes but they're so good. So directly from IDEA. One purpose of IDEA is to, quote, ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public educationthat emphasizes special and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. Okay. On the screen I have underlined and bolded in some weird brown color "unique needs."All right. On the next slide, special education is, also from the law, specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability. Again, unique is bolded and underlined in some weird brown color. I don't know, PowerPoint gave it the color. And then, finally, a third witness from the American foundation for the blind,the Expanded Core Curriculum , which is where we should be pulling goals and instruction, right, is the body of knowledge and skills that are needed by students with visual impairments due to their unique disability-specific needs. So this right here is why writing this present level is so important. Because the present level is our chanceto tell the story of this student. Right? Present level is not a place for copy/paste. In IEP there really isn't a place that we should be copying and pasting. Because this is about this unique and individual child. And so going into a present level knowing that we need to be telling their unique story should help us understand thekind of information that we need to be sharing in our present levels. And why it's so important that we're making the information as understandable as possible. So we're going to talk about some ways and some things to think about so that we can get this done.So we're going to talk about writing present level. So Charles Ketterring, who is an inventor and head researcher for General Motors said a problem well stated is a problem half solved. I thought this was so good and it was so pertinent to writing present levels because if you can write a really stellar detailed present level that is unique tothat child, your IEP is almost done. Because all of the rest of the information for that IEP should be coming directly from that present level. If your present level is really well written, you don't have to think about what goals you need to write because they'll already be in that present level. If your present level is already reallywell written, you don't need to be thinking about what services and supports do we provide because those are going to come from the goals that came from your present level. So I hope I've convinced you why it's so important that we have a really well-written present level statement.So let's talk just a little bit about what the law tells us, okay? Excuse me. So this is in your handout. It's not on the slide. On the slide I have a picture of a big law book and a judge's gavel and it just says "Law" on the book. The law tells us that a present level or an IEP, excuse me, should include, quote, a statement of the student'spresent level of academic achievement and functional performance. Including how the student's disability affects their involvement and progress in the general education curriculum or, for preschool students, how their disability affects their participation and appropriate activities. So by law that's what's required of a present level.Very, very short for such an important part of the IEP. So we're going to break this down and we're going to expand it a little bit. All right. So two things that have been mentioned in that federal definition: Academic achievement and functional performance. So academic achievement generally refers to that child's or student's performancein academic areas. So reading, language arts, math, for example. Or, again, for preschool what is it that they are doing in preschool or should be doing in preschool that is at their developmental level.So the Department of Education was asked to clarify. We want a definition, right? Give us a definition of academic and academic achievement. So what the Department of Ed said is we believe the definition could vary on a child's circumstance or situation. Therefore we do not believe a definition of academic achievement should be included inthese regulations. It's easy to go, well, thanks for nothing Department of Ed. But I like the point that they're making here is, look, no child, especially no child that we have just qualified for special education, is going to fit in a standard box, right? Because not all of our children or not all of our students are going to be participatingin or learning the same academic content. And so that is why they did not give a definition to it. But we know that we're talking about more academic or school-based activities. Functional performance generally refers to those skills and activities that may or may not be considered academic -- I'm using air quotes -- academic or related totheir academic achievements. So, I don't know, think Expanded Core, maybe. So functional is used in the context of those kinds of routine activities of everyday living. And, again, they vary depending on the individual needs of a child. So functional performance -- oh, let me tell you what Department of Ed said again. So the Department ofEd said that functional performance, the reason that examples of functional skills were not included in IDEA was because the range of functional skills is as varied as the individual needs of children with disability. So, again, they're not going to put definition to it because how do you define that? From each child those needs are going tobe so different. Think about the Expanded Core Curriculum and think about your students. Do you have any two students that have the exact same areas of need in the ECC? I can't think of any two students that I've worked with. Now, maybe there was some crossover here and there but each child is going to have such different needs under thisfunctional performance piece which again is why it's so important that we're addressing this in the present levels. Let's talk a little bit about what a present level statement or PLAAFP -- I'm not going to say Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance 20 times. Let's talk about what a present level is and what it isn't.So first a PLAAFP, or present level, is a student's current performance in relation to grade-level content in measurable, objective terms. So Henry does great in math -- okay. Great. I'm glad. I'm glad Henry does great in math but that doesn't give me enough information. I need to have measurement behind that. I need to have objectiveterms behind that. Great. Okay. That's fine to have that statement but then you've got to back it up with things that are quantifiable. So what it isn't, it's not just a statement of only grade or age level.What it is: It describes how the student's disability impacts them in the general curriculum. It's not just a list of standard scores. Because those are meaningless without context. For me to say something like, you know, I can't think of names. We'll just stick with Henry. Henry scored in the 97th percentile on the WISC. What doesthat even mean, right? It's meaningless, which is why we have to describe exactly how a disability impacts them in the general curriculum. What it is: A present level identifies current areas of need. So we have listed out here's everything that they can do. Here's where they are going to need support. And, again, we're giving thesein terms that are countable or quantifiable. So it isn't just subjective observations.And then, finally, a present level is based on current, relevant data from a variety of sources. Maybe the only place that should ever be copied and pasted in a present level is a student's name because everything else should change. Now, if you're including some medical history, okay, maybe that's a copy/paste. But everything else should bechanging from year to year. If not, we're not doing our jobs and so it needs to be based on current, relevant data. What it isn't is a repeat of information from previous IEPs, previous present levels, previous FIEs, et cetera. This needs to be current, relevant data from a variety of sources. We'll talk a little bit more about that. Anyquestions so far? I haven't seen anything come through the chat. Did I miss anything, Kaycee?>>Kaycee: Nothing yet.>>Kate: Okay. Thank you. Please feel free to put those in. So with all of that, here's just the list. Something a lot easier from all of the gobbledygook I just spat out. A present level must be five things: Current, relevant, objective, measurable, and understandable. Just remember those five things. Current, relevant, objective,measurable, and understandable. Okay. Let's see, I'm just checking time. I think we've got time. All right. Don't cheat because this is in your handout so I don't want you to cheat. Let's talk about some examples or non-examples. I am going to read an example of a statement pulled from a present level and I want you to either write example,an E for example in the chat or an N for non-example. That means it's not good. Okay. So here's the first one. Damien has difficulty attending to tasks. Oh, good. All right. Okay. Y'all give me hope. Yeah! What is wrong with that statement? Damien has difficulty attending to tasks. We're going to say that's a solo statement withnothing else that comes after it. Yeah. It's not measurable. It's too vague. It doesn't have those five elements. Awesome. Yeah. What tasks? Exactly. Be more specific.So what we could or should say instead would be something like based on classroom observational charts, Damien's attention difficulties result in him staying on task an average of seven minutes per assignment for independent work and 12 during group work. In your handout there's a couple more sentences as season example. Damien has difficultyattending to tasks gives us hardly any information. We have no idea what that looks like, what tasks, all the things that you said in the chat. Good job. Okay. Here we go. You ready? This is one of my favorites. Per Carmen's FIE, the ROWPVT-R shows Carmen's expressive language at 19 months. The ROWPVT-R administered as part of our FIEmeasures her receptive language at 26 months. Twinkle got in there right quick. Yeah. I like the not understandable. What's wrong with that statement? Mari put a cry face. I love it! Yeah, isn't that terrible? Like, I have a panic spiral when I read that sentence, which I will tell you was pulled from a child's IEP. Okay? Yeah, makesme nervous. So what we could or should write would be something like based on parent and teacher observations, where we get the information from, Carmen uses one-word utterances to communicate wants and needs to known adults. Observational data shows she does not communicate with adults whom she has known less than two weeks. Right there,just from those two sentences, I know how Carmen communicates. Okay. Last one. Sammy struggles with word problems. His learning disability and reading comprehension results in a need to have text read aloud to him. Example or non-example? Ha! I tricked you. Thank you. A full example. We're almost there. We're almost there. But, again,word problems, what grade is he in? Math, I'm assuming, right? What difficulties in reading comprehension? We know he needs to have text read aloud to him. Again, what does that look like? I'm not going to read this whole thing but you can see how in that third bullet on the handout it's really laid out. Sammy's learning disability andreading comprehension results in a need for extended time in many courses where reading is concerned. Specifically state assessments, mathematical word problems, et cetera. When math word problems are read aloud to him on these same assessments, his mastery level is 78%. Anyway, so we have data, we have here is exactly what this looks like.So to say that he struggles is still way too vague. Don't really know what does it look like when he's struggling. Is he tantrumming on the floor or getting answers wrong? Maybe both things are happening. So be thinking very carefully about the statements that you put in your present level. I often would ask a colleague, just liketeacher next door or, even better yet, someone on the IEP team, to read my present level because I want to make sure that someone else that may or may not have an understanding of vision or someone else who may or may not have given the assessments I gave could understand and have information to know, again, know the story of this student. Okay.In your handout are a few more examples and non-examples but we won't take the time to go over them today. But, again, feel free to use these. Feel free to tweak these if you want to share with colleagues, whatever. They're not proprietary. Feel free to take a look at those.It's important to remember that when we are doing these present levels that we have some questions that we need to answer. And if we can keep these questions in mind and really, really know that we've answered them, then we're going to have a present level that has enough information, not just so that people know the student, but so that theyknow how they're performing so that we can write goals. So here's the questions -- again, these are in your handouts. Here's the questions: What are the sources of information that give the student's strengths and what they are currently able to do? How do we know that they can or can't do ABC? Using that baseline data, what are the resultingpriority educational needs that need to be addressed in the goals? Number three, what are the effects of the disability on the student related to their involvement and progress in the general curriculum? So, in other words, what's the data? What can the student do? What does the student need to do? And then, finally, what is the impact oftheir disability? Now, it doesn't necessarily have to be exactly in this order but those are the four things that you need to have throughout your present levels. The data, what can they do, what do they need to do -- that's just a nicer way of saying they can't. What do they need to do? And then what's the impact of theirdisability in the general curriculum? Okay. Any questions? Before we move from present level? If you have something, put it in. I'm not going to read this whole thing. In your handout is an example of a present level that's really, really well done. I on purpose pulled something that wasn't vision related because I wanted you to see how --you may not have a background as a speech language pathologist but when you read this paragraph you understand how this student is doing with communication. So that's why it's not a VI or O&M present level. Okay?>>Kaycee: Kate, we had a question come in. Do you see that PLAAFPs could hold elements from all disciplines?>>Kate: Twinkle, I'm not sure if I totally understand your question but I think, yes. I think that anybody that's providing any kind of service should be writing present levels. Even if that service is collaborative consultation. Right? And so I'm not sure if that's what you're asking. If it's not, please clarify. Oh, yeah. That kind ofdepends on how you're defining present level. Sometimes, depending on what IEP writing document you're using, you know a present level might be broken up. Like, I have used a computer-based IEP system where it only lets you write one huge, long, almost like a research paper, right? And then you have goals. I have used IEP programs where youwrite a present level statement and then a goal. A present level statement and then a goal. It's broken up. And then I've seen some that have both. Here's a place to write a whole bunch of information and here's a place to put something goal specific. Yes, it should all be in one present level, meaning the IEP's present level. That presentlevel may look different depending on what the IEP looks like. Again, I hope that answered your question.All right. The last thing is just remember -- there's a picture here of a house on a beach that has tipped over because it was built on sand. So remember that the present level is the foundation of the entire IEP. If you don't have a strong present level you cannot justify anything else in that IEP because all of that information has to comefrom the present level, right? Conversely, if you have a really strong present level -- think back to Charles Ketterring -- if you have a really strong present level statement, paragraph, story, everything's done. All you have to do now is just pull the goals out of there. Right? Because you've already got all the data. You know thegoals that need to be written and from the goals you're going to decide on services. Spend time in that present level because it's going to make everything so much easier and it's going to, again, justify and give evidence for all of the decisions that are made in that IEP. The principal for the school of the blind in Utah ran a lotof IEP meetings and if there was ever a question that came up about service minutes, where did we go? The present level. There was a question that came up about, I don't know, related services or even a class or an area of the Expanded Core Curriculum, where did we go? The present level. Because, again, that's where we found out whatare the needs that this child has. What is it that they are already able to do. What is it that they need to be able to do. Stephanie said when using platforms like success Ed, would you place the VI PLAAFP in the physical or functional section? That's a good question, Stephanie. I'm hesitant to answer for specific platforms. I would getdirection from your special ed administrator so that you have consistency in your district or districts. And I just don't know Success Ed, so I apologize. Or write the company and say can we please have a vision section. Excuse me. I would get direction from your special ed administrator and then make sure that all of the other TVIs, allof the other O&Ms put it in the same place. Sorry for that not really an answer to your question.Okay. How are we doing on time? All right. We're doing okay. Goals. Now that we have this beautifully, beautifully-written present level, goals are going to be a cinch. What the law -- I've got the image of our law book again. What the law tells us about goals in an IEP is that these IEPs must include a statement of measurable annual goalsincluding academic and functional goals designed to meet the child's needs. Where do we find those? Oh, yeah, in the present level. The result of the child's disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general curriculum. Sometimes we forget the be involved in part. And, two, meet the child's other educationalneeds, functional performance, Expanded Core Curriculum that result from the child's disability. There's also a statement in there about objectives -- we're not going to get way into that but if you have a child that takes alternate assessments, you have to have objectives on your IEP goal. Federally mandated. If they're on an alternateassessment, you must have objectives. If they're not, you can -- it's not the same requirement. Now your districts may have other policies so make sure you know what your state or your district policy is. I have worked in districts where it was mandatory that every goal have an objective. Just make sure that you clarify. Just know federallyit's only if the child is on an alternative assessment. Okay. We also have to have not just what a goal is but, according to the law, we need to include a description of how the child's progress will be monitored or measured, and then also when those periodic reports on the progress will be given. So like writing our progress reports.Just remember the only thing we're going to say about that is they should be happening as often as students not in special education receive progress reports. Okay?All right. Let's talk about goals. So goals are required in all areas of a child's unique needs. They're not restricted to the category of eligibility. So, for example -- and this is actually something that I heard in an IEP meeting. He has a learning disability in reading so we can only have goals in that area. We're not going to writea goal for writing or math. Hold on. Right? Hold on. Let's look at that present level. How is he doing in writing and math? Oh, he's got some needs. Then we're going to write goals. Once a child is found eligible under IDEA, once they are found eligible for special education, all of their unique next week need to be addressed. Not justthose in any specific category of eligibility. And this is so important and so empowering and so important for parents to understand. They may have -- again, using air quotes -- a certain label but once they are in special education, they are entitled to the services and supports that they need to make progress. And, again, that's sopso important for us as IEP team members to understand. Not just to understand but to advocate for. Another misconception -- this is actually something we've come across very recently -- is that if a child is not identified as an emotionally -- I hate the term emotionally or behavioral disturbed. It's a terrible term. You know,say our child who is blind, especially, then a behavior plan is not necessary -- hold on. I said that backwards. If we have a child who is not identified as emotionally or behaviorally disturbed, then a behavior plan is not necessary. That's not true. They do not have to be qualified under ED in order to receive behavior supports thatthey need. All right. Now, one more thing that I want to say before we kind of get into the structure of goals is that goals are not required in areas of general curriculum where only accommodations are needed. So if a child just needs large print to be able to access their math, you don't need a goal for it. Now, if a child needs to be ableto use a CCTV and doesn't know how to, but they need a CCTV to access math, then you write a goal for the CCTV. You don't need goals if there are only needs for accommodation. We're going to go through this pretty quick. Again, this is flushed out -- or fleshed out, not flushed out -- in the handout. So you have a lot of this information.When you're thinking about writing IEP goals, think about SMART. We want goals that are specific. Goals that are measurable. We have to have some kind of an action. Kiddo has to be doing something. They need to be realistic and relevant and then they also need to be time limited. We have to say by when are they expected to be able to door have this skill. So when we talk about specific, specific goals target areas of academic achievement and functional performance. So these goals have to have a clear description of the knowledge and skills that will be taught and how the child's progress will be measured. So I've got two examples on here. Put in the chat one or two. Whichone is specific? Dylan will increase study skills for academic success or Dylan will demonstrate the following study skills: Skimming written materials and using written materials in social studies class. I'm seeing two. Good. We've got some elements missing but we're going to talk about those. That is a good example of a goal that is specific,right? Not just increasing study skills, what study skills. Has to be measurable. Measurable means that you can count it or you can time it or you can measure its accuracy. So when you write a goal, you need to look at it with an objective eye and say can I count it, can I time it, or can I measure its accuracy? If you can't, rewrite thegoal. Measurable goals allow us to know how much progress the child has made since the performance was last measured. So which of these two goals is measurable and observable? Owen will improve his reading skills or given his second grade material, Owen will read a passage of text orally at 110-130 words per minute with 80% accuracy.Number two, right? That's going to be what's measurable. We've got to have an action attached. IEP goals include three components that have to be stated in measurable terms. What is the direction of the behavior? Are we increasing? Are we decrease or are we maintaining? What is the area of need? Are we talking about reading? Are we talkingabout writing? Are we talking about Braille? Are we talking about mobility? Are we talking about assistive technology? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then what is the level of attainment that we want? To grade level, without assistance, with partial physical prompts. What's that level of attainment. The direction of behavior,the area of need, the level of attainment. And the goals should use action words like the student should be able to blank. I'm not going to go through these examples. Again, you've got them in your handout. Oh, Mari already put two. Thanks, Mari. These are in your handout. I just want to make sure we have time to go over to IFSPs. Realisticand relevant. It means we have to have these relevant goals that actually address their needs. If it is not in the present level, there should not be a goal. Let me say that again: If it is not in the present level, there should not be a goal. So that's what we mean by relevant. IEP goals are also not based on district curricula, stateor district tests but they should be tied to those general education standards as appropriate or an alternative set of standards, which are based on general ed standards. That's realistic and relevant. And then time limited. What does the child need to know and be able to do after one year of special instruction? What's the startingpoint for those needs? That's the present level. Where are we hoping to be and by when? So the reason we have time limited goals and objectives is this is what enables us to progress monitor at regular intervals. In the handout and on the slide I have an example here of Alex who is a Braille reader. What we're trying to do is increase hisreading fluency. So a goal like that is going to be one that's really nice to put some objectives to. Okay? I saw Twinkle's question come in. Twinkle -- no, it's all right. I'm there. We can chat later but this is very common practice across special education, to have these SMART goals.Okay. So time limited. Oh, objectives. These objectives here are really just nice because it gives us some benchmarks so that we know that we're going to reach this annual goal of increasing Alex's reading fluency, his reading speed and accuracy. Take a look at that and see how it's broken down and how we might be able to use objectives tohelp give us some benchmarks and use that time-limited piece. Just know your annual goal has a deadline of one year.So the last thing that I want to say is don't forget to remember that IEP goals cannot be broad statements about what a student will accomplish in a year. They have to address the student's unique needs. What is their specific academic achievement and functional performance. We have to identify all of the student's needs that they have in orderto be able to make progress. How the school will meet those needs and how we're going to be measuring a student's progress. There's some more pointers in your handout so I just want you to spend some time there so you can really see what it is that's so important about our goals. So on the screen right now I have some kind of a physics formula.I'm just going to assume that it's how to make a black hole in your basement. I have no idea what it says but much more friendly and in your handout I've given you a little bit of formula for writing IEP goals. Now, again, your district or your LEA or your school may have something different or a different structure that you need to put yourgoal in. But, again, if you can fill in all of these blanks you're going to have a beautifully-written IEP goal that has all of the elements that are needed. Again, this is in your handout. So given some sort of condition, what is it that the child will be provided with? What is it that they need, et cetera. The student will -- what'sour specific, observesble behavior. With, how much or how many accuracy prompts. With what consistency. Every day? Four consecutive data collection days? Every recess opportunity. How are we going to measure it? Teacher observation, data collection, chapter reading test? By the date to be completed. This is a great template for writinggoals because if you answer all of the information you have all the information you need for a goal. Again, your district may have a different kind of a template. You might even think about writing it in here so you know you have all the elements and then you can put things however it is that your district or your -- yeah, your district requires.And this is a great template for both goals and objectives because objectives have to be measurable as well. Okay. We're not going to review this today but I wanted to have it included. Please take a look in your handout, a word about Givens and we need to use some common sense. Just an example would be if a child has a swimming goal, recand leisure, a swimming goal, we do not need to say given a swimming pool -- of course they're going to need access to a swimming pool. It's a swimming goal. But a given might be needed if we're talking about given access to the internet, the student will locate ten sources of information. Well, if they don't have access to the internet,that's a very different goal. Just make sure that given is needed and use some common sense there.In your handout are some practice things. So I will tell you that each of these bullets -- I didn't intend for us to go over it today, but these are in your handouts. Each of these bullets has something wrong. Something is missing in these goals. So you can go through that. It's like a crossword puzzle or sudoku. Let's find the error in ourIEP goal. I'm so sorry we're flying through here pretty quick. Okay. Sorry, I just saw something in chat but it looks like Mari answered. Let's talk quickly about IFSPs. We talked about elements of an IEP. Here are our elements of an IFSP. Another present level. Outcomes for child and family. And services for the child and family.So some different terminology here and that means there's going to be a little bit of a different way that we're going to structure this. I have a picture of a bee with her arms up in the air going, well, what's the difference? What's the difference? The biggest difference is that instead of tying present levels to a general ed curriculum,we're going to tie them to developmental milestones and families' routines. Developmental milestones and families' routines. You know, as people who work, mostly in Part B, that's really hard for us to get our brains to think about. We're not writing IEP goals. We're writing a family service plan. So the major difference between an IFSPand the IEP, is the IFSP focuses on the child and family and the services that the family needs to help them enhance the development of their child. The IEP focuses on the educational needs of the child. So that's why we talk about present level of development. So the IFSP has to include a statement of the infant or toddler with a disability,what their present level of physical development. That's going to include hearing, vision, health status, cognitive development, communication development, social-emotional development, and adaptive development based on the information from the child's evaluation and assessments. That's right from the law. That's in your handout so youcan review that list. What are we doing? Oh, we're great. Also, the present level of development has to include family information. So at the concurrence of the family the IFSP must include a statement of the family's resources, priorities, and concerns related to enhancing the development of a child as identified through the assessmentwith the family. Because, again, remember, this is an individualized family service plan. I'm going to emphasize family a lot for the next couple of slides. What does this all mean? What's needed? We need to know what the family needs and priorities are. What is working and what is challenging for the family. How the child's developmentskills and disability influence learning and participation in their home and in their immediate community. Those are the things that we need to have in that present level of development statement. So we're going to add a word to our data, can, need, impact. Family. What's the data, what can they do, what's the need, and what's the impacton development. Okay. Questions about these present levels of development? Okay. If one comes in, let me know because we're going to move on to outcomes. So, again, we've got our law book back. Okay. So here's the law book -- wait, hold on. I got myself all turned around here. Okay. So for results or outcomes, the IFSP must includea statement of measurable results or measurable outcomes expected to be achieved for the child. That could include pre-literacy and language skills as developmentally appropriate for the child and family and the criteria, procedures, and timelines used to determine the degree to which progress towards achieving these outcomes is and whethermodifications or revisions of the expected results or outcomes are necessary. Do we need to make adjustments to what we're working on. Oh, Mari, I like that. Instead of need, I usually say next steps in development. That's a great way. More accurate and less negative. I like that. Thank you, Mari, that's great vocabulary. I'm goingto make that change.>>Kaycee: We have a quick question. How often are IFSPs required?>>Kate: Six months. Six-month review, right? Mari is going to correct me if I'm wrong on that. Yep. So at least every six months. Now, some kiddos you're going to need to meet more because they could be flying through progress. Some kids you may need to meet more because they're not progressing. But at least every six months they have tobe reviewed. So high-quality outcomes are based on family priorities. So, again, we're focusing on what it is that the family needs or the family wants or the next steps of development -- thank you, Mari -- for that child. High-quality outcomes are also based on real life. Realistically, what are these families doing? What are routines thatare already a part of their lives? If a family -- I don't know. I'm just kind of picking this out of the air. If a family doesn't have access to a park, well, we're not going to write an outcome for a playground play. That is not realistic. That is not part of their life. At the same token, if a child is going to the park every day, I betwe could come up with a great VI outcome that has to do with scanning an environment. Base it on real life. What is this family already doing? How are they spending their time? Discipline free. This means that we're not going to have a goal that is only vision, right? These are collaborative outcomes. We're working with our partners thatare serving this child. Jargon-free. It has to be understandable. This is for a family. We need to have them be positive and we need them to be active. In your handout there's some great definitions and great information that helps fill out or -- again, flesh out this information. We could spend the whole hour just talking about this part.Please spend some time in there to really focus on, you know, what these criteria are, what they mean, and how we write them. Let me say a really important note. Use your team. You should be using your team at any time you're writing present levels or goals. But especially in that IFSP because, remember, those outcomes should be disciplinefree. They should be part of this whole team and based on what that family needs. So finally I just want to share with you this formula. It's much more loose than our IEP formula. But step one: Determine the functional areas. Are we thinking about looking and grasping? Are we thinking about eating finger foods independently? Where didI get these from? Well, I got this from the information from the families. They're concerned that this child, this young child isn't looking and grasping at the same time. They're concerned that they're not able to feed themselves so we're going to identify this as a priority. Step two: What routines does this affect? Well, not lookingand grasping and not being able to eat finger foods independently, that's going to affect eating and snacktime. Step three: The child will participate in what are the routines in question. Ellie will independently eat during snack time. Step four: By what? What is it that we want the child to be doing? We're going to address some specificbehaviors. Ellie will eat independently during snack time by looking at and reaching for small pieces of food. Now, this is a great outcome because you'll notice we didn't use jargon. We're not saying 80% accuracy. We're not saying only vision. This is a goal that almost every person on that IFSP team can be helping to support and address.Okay. So just three things to think about -- again, this is in your handout. What are the ways in which a family and team will work towards achieving this outcome? Who will help and what will they do? And how will the team know that they've made progress or how will they know if revisions are needed for these outcomes? Or for the services.So included in your handout are some examples of those outcomes. Take a look and you'll see again that these are written very differently than IEP goals are written and I would like to say much more collaboratively but I really hope that we're writing our IEP goals collaboratively as well. But spend some time in here. Please feel free to reachout and ask questions, especially on this IFSP part. I know that for a lot of us this isn't our background. This isn't where we spent a lot of our schooling time or maybe even a lot of our teaching time. Thank you so much. I have a picture up here of just some cute kiddos and they're just so fun. Different ages. But just thanks for spendingthe time, especially on Halloween. So fun. I know this was a lot of information to go through very, very quickly. Please reach out if there's something that was confusing, something that you want more information on. Happy to chat with you. Happy -- if you want to send me a goal and go what do you want? I'm happy to help support you inthat way. Thank you for everything that you all do.