Please could you answer a question about IEP's for me?

[Chocol8]

My DS's IEP currently only includes two targets regarding the presentation of his school/homework (both of which he does well, but hates).

I am shocked that there are no social and behavioural needs targets mentioned. I thought that the very nature of an IEP for a child with autistic traits should focus on the implications of his particular special needs.

When i asked her, the SENCO strongly disagreed and said that the IEP was written by the English teacher. Other children in the school have only 2 targets and these are English focussed also.

Surely they should address social, emotional and communication difficulties and not just be subject based?

Am i wrong?

PS He starts a new school on Tuesday as the lack of care and understanding are staggeringly bad. I want to include the item about his IEP in a letter to the school/LEA to explain why i felt it necessary to remove him.

Thank you Starlight! I took along several years worth of his old IEP's to show her how it should be done.

I said that this should be done with me as a parent and agreed by her, myself and my ds. The school seem to make up their own rules about things to suit them and this is a clear example of how crap they are.

I wanted clarification about his as I will be copying the letter to the LEA.

Thank you.

Thank you Starlight, you have confirmed what i knew but i just wanted to check out this particular point. I have the SN policy but it is not helpful and there is no parity with the other policies.

I was chair of governors for a while at his primary school, but this school have never mentioned the governors or even becoming one since ds has been there, which i find strange. Just relieved to have got him out of there.

chocol8...your DS isn't at my DC's primary by any chance??!! Doesn't matter how many times I tell the SenCo that I should be involved in setting my DS2's targets, I get sent home a finished IEP, that's now only one page instead of the 2 it used to be, AND there's nowhere for me to add my comments, or even to sign to say I've received it. As I have experience of a previous primary where things were done differently properly, I KNOW that's not how it's meant to be done....I've even put in written complaints to the LA before, and heard nothing/ got nowhere with it.

The document you need to refer to is called the code of practice and is available to download from teachernet.

IEPs should reflect meeting the needs of SEN children, with 2 or 3 'smart' targets. If the child has input from an outside agency - ie, SALT, psych, etc, then their advice should be reflected in the iep.

If needs are behavioural, behavioural aspects should be targeted. Sometime where there are behavioural needs which are impacting on educational needs, it's worth putting in a learning target.

Where there are learning needs only they tend to focus on literacy in ieps as county panels often only recognise literacy difficulties, despite there being numeracy difficulties too with many children. This does not mean that numeracy is just being 'left' though (I hope!).