Navigating the IEP Process: Accommodations

In this episode, the first in my IEP Basic Series, we’ll look at accommodations (and modifications) on an IEP.

 This is the first in the series due to the critical nature of accommodations to learning for students with disabilities, and also the complex nature of actually having them work in a classroom.

 There are many times a student would have little chance to survive in a general education setting, much less succeed without effective accommodations.

 Accommodations provide the scaffolding and the safety net for students with disabilities to experience the benefits of an included education.

 For a related episode, listen to, “Universal Design for Learning: Creating Classrooms for ALL Children”. 

Thanks to  soundimage.org for the free access to the AI generated music used in this podcast (https://soundimage.org/) 

Transcript

Welcome to the first installment of Navigating the IEP.

I selected accommodations and modifications as the first topic for this Series to emphasize the importance of accommodations and modifications.  For this program we’ll be looking at accommodations only, modifications will be covered in a future episode.  But I’ll describe the difference between two. 

Accommodations are those provisions that allow a student to access the general education curriculum in its entirety, with no fundamental changes to what is taught.  The way the curriculum is taught and assessed may be different, but the student is responsible for learning the same amount of information and displaying mastery of the same curriculum as their typical peers.

Accommodations should be selected to allow a student with disabilities to access the general education curriculum to the same degree as their typical peers, generally in a general education classroom.

 A modification changes the curriculum so the student is not required to learn the same amount of information and is not responsible for mastering the same skills required of their typical peers.  

 Modifications are generally used for those students with moderate to severe disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities.

Now that we’ve clarified the difference between the two, let’s take a look at some typical accommodations found on IEPs that help students succeed in a general education environment:

Additional time to complete assignments

Preferential seating (e.g., proximity to the teacher or to avoid noise)

Technology like speech to text and text to speech devices and apps

 Taking tests in a quiet area or room to avoid distractions

Visual charts to remind a student of academic steps or behavior plans

More time to respond to teacher questions

Reminders of how and when transitions occur

Chunking (breaking down into smaller tasks) long-term assignments

Note-taking assistance or technology for note taking

Notes in advance of topics to be covered in class

A quiet place to decompress when feeling stressed

Frequent breaks as needed for stress reduction

A check-in time at the beginning of the day and a check-out at the end of the day to help with organization

 These are just examples, there is not a specific list of what is and what is not allowed as an accommodation. They can be unique as the student’s needs as long as it adheres to the standard that requires mastery of the general education curriculum.

Accommodations are widely misunderstood in general education settings, and in my career general education teachers have personally challenged me on many occasions about the appropriateness of certain accommodations.  

There is a widespread belief in general education that many accommodations give an unfair advantage to students with disabilities.  

The counter argument about accommodations is that many of the complaints center around skills that are ancillary to the subject matter, the accommodation and the skill being assessed are different. 

Objections to accommodations are mainly found in secondary schools, particularly high school.  As grades and subject area competence have real consequences at that level, teachers are more concerned about the integrity of their assessments and whether those assessments reflect true mastery of their curriculum.    

For example, high school history teachers often complain that a student with an accommodation for taking an objective test is getting an unfair advantage over typical students who must write an essay.  

I respond that the point of testing is to assess mastery of history and not to assess writing skills.  This accommodation would not be appropriate in an English class if essay writing was being taught but would be in a history class. 

As a qualifier for the above example, I would suggest that if there were nuanced information that an essay would tease out over an objective test, the teacher could ask the student orally to explain the information.  You can see from this that there are a number of ways to elicit knowledge and mastery.

Another example can be found in math classes.  In a trigonometry class, for instance, teachers often object to a relatively common accommodation that allows a student to have a list of formulas available during tests.  

This accommodation is used for students with short-term memory weaknesses, common in students with ADHD, for example.  These are the students who study for a test at night and then forget the material by the next day.  Often they know how to use the formulas, they just can’t remember what they are.  The formulas are provided, but the student must know which formula to apply to each question and how to use them.   

One more example would be providing pre-teaching or notes in advance when a topic is being introduced.  A student is allowed to see teacher notes or pre-taught skills so that they are not receiving new information “cold.” 

Students with language processing deficits may take longer to sort out and integrate new information.  This accommodation is not an unfair advantage as the student is still required to learn the information, they are just provided a head start due to a neurological difference.

Keep in mind is that accommodations may change from class to class at the secondary level.  You can see from the math example above that having formulas provided for classes other than math would make no sense.  Accommodations on IEP forms are usually broken down into academic and non-academic areas and are subject specific.

As I mentioned previously, the effective use of accommodations is more prevalent in elementary schools than in secondary settings.  It can be a real struggle to get them implemented there, due to a number of factors:

More than one teacher, up 6.

Teachers are more subject area conscious.  This is when teachers are specialists in their content area.  They often feel they are the experts that should know when and how accommodations can be used.

Less knowledge and experience with special education.  In elementary years general ed teachers attend more IEP meetings as there is usually one teacher for a student.  They also get more students who are in special education, again due to the scattered nature of secondary classes.

Large numbers of students over multiple periods in upper grades

Less chance to get to know students for the same reason

School culture changes from elementary to secondary, becomes more academic focused and students are supposed to be more personally responsible

Outright refusal by some teachers to go along, get unions involved.

 What to do:

Elementary level:

Keep up regular contact with the teacher, ask about the accommodations, how are they being implemented?  What does it look like?

Make sure the teacher knows how to implement the accommodations.  Ask for training for the teacher if needed from the special education case manager.

If the problem becomes serious, call an IEP meeting, one has to be convened within 30 calendar days of your written request.

If still not solved, ask that a special education administrator from the district get involved.  They are often experts in implementing IEPs. 

 Secondary level

Write an email to the administrator in charge of special education at the school and copy each of your student’s teachers.  Point out the importance of the accommodations and that as part of the IEP, it is required they be implemented.  Offer to talk to each or all of the teachers individually.

You will almost inevitably have issues with teachers either ignoring the accommodations or don’t have the skills to be able to implement them correctly.  If there seems to be a wide gap between what is being done and the IEP, speak to the special education administrator and get a mutual understanding of each accommodation.  The administrator is in the best position to talk to the teachers about how and what to do.

Get your child involved.  Make sure they know what their accommodations are and work with them on how to advocate for themselves.  In many of the podcasts on this program I advocate for a child to be involved in their IEP process as much as possible, as soon as possible in their academic careers.

If you have issues continuing to come up, then the formal IEP meeting process is best to follow as noted in the elementary section.

I recommend that, in most cases, accommodations be limited to only those that  have a significant impact on the student’s ability to learn.  I too often see “accommodation inflation” where IEP teams load lots of items, many times, 10 or 12 on the IEP.

This creates confusion when implemented and leads lot of teachers to simply ignore all of the accommodations on the IEP.  In addition, I often hear general education teachers say they believe they need to implement every accommodation on the IEP without exception.  They complain that it is virtually impossible to do.  Many times the intention of the IEP team was to add a lot of things that could help the student without the expectation they all will be used equally.

While each student’s needs are different, generally, most students need two to five high impact accommodations.

Here are a couple of examples of learning issues and suggestions for high impact accommodations:

A dyslexic student who has issues decoding grade level text and with written expression.  Two accommodations that would make a big difference would be a reading pen (a device that orally relays written text) and speech to text applications.  

The reading pen allows a student to pass the device over what they want to read.  They can both see and hear the text at the same time.  Research suggests that doing this can help with reading skills acquisition.  The other benefit is that the student can keep up with grade level material without having to decode it.  

The speech to text piece allows a student to speak and have the words transcribed as they are spoken.  It becomes a bit more complex, but used correctly, a capable student can produce grade level written work.

Implementing accommodations like these is more complex than it may seem.  Speech to text is subject to a student’s ability to speak clearly, their voice needs to be modulated and so on.  In other words, training and support are needed so the student, and likely their parents, will need both.

Let’s look at one at one more example.  A student has an accommodation that calls for the teacher to shorten assignments. 

This is easy for basic math, for example.  If there are four concepts being covered on a homework assignment, and there are five problems for each concept area, two or three of the problems in each area can be taken out, easy.

But what about a high school essay assignment about how the French Revolution ties is connected to the American one?    The student could create a non-language-based project that proved mastery of the material but did not require the time or effort needed to write it.  This can still meet mastery requirements but be more in line with how much time typical students take to write the essay. There are links to resources in the show notes that can provide more specific information. 

You can see that this is not an easy area of an IEP.  As a parent, you will have a good sense of what your child can tolerate without accommodations.  Your input at an IEP meeting in this area is exceptionally important because you live it every day.