Challenging, Ambitious, and Measurable IEP Goals

The Creation of Challenging and Ambitious Goals

Your child’s goals are in fact the core of their educational plan for the next year. It is essential that the goals are appropriate, necessary, and right for their needs. It is very difficult to make a plan for the entire year without preparation or understanding of what goals are necessary for your child to advance. Therefore, as with every good plan, you need preparation.


Each IEP developed for a child with a disability must include a statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals designed to: 1) meet the child’s needs that result from the child’s disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum; and 2) meet each of the child’s other educational needs that result from the child’s disability. 34 CFR 300.320(a)(2)(ii).

The Creation of Challenging Goals

The IEP is a written document that is created after your child’s IEP team sits down and discusses your child’s needs and the areas in which they need special attention. This discussion should start with where your child is currently performing using accurate and complete present levels of performance. 

In the creation of appropriately ambitious and attainable IEP goals in respect to the direction of the Endrew F. decision, our goal is to be written in light of the child’s circumstances. 

In order to set appropriate goals, your IEP teams must:

  • Be accurate about your child’s present levels of academic and functional performance. How far have they come, and how quickly? Could they move further with more challenging goals? Additional services? 

  • Set evidence-based annual goals that include both academic and functional outcomes and are based on scientifically tested modalities. This is where your educational evaluator or the school psychologist can be clear as to where your child should be and how far they can go from here within a one-year time period. 

  • Be focused on progress. 

  • Be knowledgeable about your child’s unique needs.

  • Be configured to help close the gap between the student’s current skill levels and the expected academic and/or functional performance levels. 

  • Address your child’s areas of weakness—across areas. 

The Focus on Progress

Each IEP goal should have corresponding items of instruction or special education services identified. Having goals without related programming indicates a problem, and the courts have held that it may deny FAPE. In Burlington Sch. Dist., while the student’s IEP did contain goals and objectives in study skill and social and emotional needs, it was found to not offer FAPE because it did not include specific related services to address the student’s need for social and emotional development across environments including his home and community environment. 20 IDELR 1303 (SEA VT 1994).

Your child’s goals are like the stars we are navigating by out in this sea of special education programming. You need to ask questions at the IEP meeting to ensure progress will be tracked on these goals. 

  • Who will be doing the tracking? 

  • What variety of data is going to be used to get the information?

  • How is it going to be tracked? 

  • Where and in what settings?

  • When? 

Be Smart.

 

Smart Goal Worksheet for IEP Meetings

SPECIFIC: Is this goal written clearly enough that I understand it?  Is it specifically targeted to my child’s precise deficiency in this area or subject?   Is the present level accurate?   What is the data being utilized? 

MEASURABLE: Is this goal written in a way that it can be measured effectively?  How will it be measured?  Who will measure it?  How often will it be measured? What sources will be used to measure it? Is it clear enough that I can measure it? 

ACCURATE: Is this based on accurate levels of present levels of performance? Is it based on an accurate instructional level?

REALISTIC AND RESULTS-ORIENTED: Is this goal realistic to my child’s needs? Will it provide results that help my child become more functionally or academically independent? 

TIME: Is this a goal that reflects where I expect my child to be a full year from now in this subject or area?