Once the strengths and needs of a student are determined, through formal and informal assessment, strategies can be developed to support the individual’s needs. Documenting the modifications, accommodations and support strategies is important for ensuring understanding and facilitating successful placements, transitions, emotional regulation and academic success.
- Individual Education Plan (IEP)
- Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC)
- Transition Plan
- Safety Plan (coming soon)
- Behaviour Plan (coming soon)
Individual Education Plan (IEP)
Every board is required to have an IEP guide that outlines the content and process for developing IEPs. Please check with your board for specific information contained in this guide. The IEP is a living, breathing document that changes as the student develops and changes. It is meant to be tweaked throughout the course of the year. It is a road map for the student’s program while at the school. IEPs can be developed for exceptional and non exceptional students.
Robert More explains one example of a custom IEP for a student with FASD
www.giveusmorespecialneeds.blogspot.ca/2017/12/good-iep-explanation.html
Special Education in Ontario, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Policy and Resource Guide (2017), Part E (The Individual Education Plan).
www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/policy/os/onschools_2017e.pdf
Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC)
Regulation 181/98 of the Education Act requires that all school boards set up Identification, Placement and Review Committees (IPRC). An IPRC is composed of at least three persons, one of whom must be a principal or supervisory officer of the board. The IPRC will:
- decide on whether or not the student should be identified as exceptional;
- identify the areas of the student’s exceptionality, according to the categories and definitions of exceptionalities provided by the Ministry of Education;
- decide on an appropriate placement for the student; and
- review the identification and placement at least once in each school year.
For more information about the IPRC process visit www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/hilites.html
Transition Plan
FASD is a lifelong condition that creates a series of changing support needs across the lifespan. Success at one stage does not guarantee success in the next. A positive experience in one environment may not occur in another. Parents and caregivers of people with FASD often express frustration when supports are removed due to “success” in a particular setting. Support requirements may change as a person with FASD ages, but the need for supports remains constant.
People with FASD tend to have problems with transitions. For young children, moving from one activity to another, one physical environment to another, and/or the care of one person to the care of another can cause the secondary behaviours associated with FASD. Adolescents in a school setting where the timetable requires multiple changes in a day may react in ways contrary to the rules of the school. Adults may not have the skills to navigate the changing requirements of education, judicial, social and medical systems. People with FASD can be very successful if they have “Executive Assistants” to help them understand the set of expectations in a new environment.
Formal Transition Plans are necessary when students change from:
- Preschool to school,
- grade to grade,
- panel to panel (primary/junior to intermediate/to senior),
- from one classroom to another,
- integration to specialized setting and vice versa,
- school to post-secondary life.
Informal Transition Plans are necessary:
- when someone new will be in the classroom (lunchroom supervisors, supply teachers, guest speakers, visitors),
- prior to recess, lunch and other unsupervised leisure time,
- for field trips,
- for behavioural “exit plans”.
If you were to have a student with FASD come to you, what would you appreciate knowing about that person and their previous situation? An informative “Transition Plan” is the key.
An effective Transition Plan contains information that makes for a support-driven and “comforting” change into the new expectations.
Sample Education Transition Plan
Student: Angela Perkins
| Current Placement | Meadowview Middle School 48 Pleasant Drive, Elmtown, ON L7P 4R7 (123) 456-2468
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| Goals (In current placement)
-See attached progress report card |
–With assistance and appropriate accommodations Angela will:
-See attached progress report card and IEP. |
| Person(s) responsible for goal attainment |
|
| New Placement | Elmtown Secondary School, 159 Greenleaf Road, Elmtown, ON L7P 4R5 (123) 456-1357
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| Recommended Supports in new school |
|
| Long Range Goals
(To be determined at the Transition Meeting) |
|