Top Tips for Writing IEP Success

If you’re tasked with writing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), it’s important to understand the student’s needs and how they will impact their learning. 

I’ve learned some tips and tricks over the years to speed up IEP writing while making it sound professional. 🎓

Check out my top 6 strategies to help you succeed in your next IEP writing task. 

Before You Start Writing IEP Documents

Before you start writing your IEP, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the student and their needs.

If you’re not already familiar with the student, you can do this by conducting assessments to find out more about them. 📝

A quick 15-30 minute student 🧐 observation can also be really useful for a teacher to learn more about a student.

Once you have a good understanding of the student and their needs, you’ll be in a better position to write an effective IEP. 

So, before you start putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), it’s important that you take some time to understand the student’s needs. 

I like to consider this list of questions:

• What accommodations are they currently receiving? 
• What types of services have been most successful in the past? 
• What goals do you hope to achieve with this IEP? 

Use a Writing IEP Template

When writing an IEP from scratch, the combination of sections, questions, and boxes to fill in can be daunting. 🫣

Make yourself a template to use as your IEP help guide or snag the one I use to write every single IEP that crosses my desk.

Using a template for writing IEPs Easily for Students in Inclusion AND Severe/Moderate Students in a Self-Contained Setting.

This will save you so much ⏰ time and simplify the process by using scripted phrases for your IEPs.

Use a writing IEP pack with key phrases, alternative writing, and a goal bank.

A writing IEP template will provide you with an organized and easy to read cheat sheet to copy and paste into your IEPs. 💻

To speed up the writing process even more, create a clickable table of contents. 

I find this is really helpful for me to get to the spot within an IEP that I am 🔭 looking for and especially during an IEP meeting when I need to insert something quickly.

Proofreading in IEPs Matters

Grammar is an essential part of any written piece, but it’s also one of the easiest things to overlook. 

When writing your IEP, be sure to 📚 proofread your work before submitting it. 

You can also use spell check and grammar check tools to ensure your spelling and grammar are both correct. 

Also, remember that 🎉 awesome template we talked about making?

While it is amazing, if you aren’t careful you can get yourself in a sticky situation.

I can’t tell you how many IEP meetings that I’ve sat in where the 🚫 wrong student’s name was typed into a document.

Careful proofreading should catch those embarrassing mistakes.

To prevent this wrong name insertion, I will often use the 🔍 “Find” or “Find and Replace” option on my computer.

This lets me look for any student’s name and replace it with the correct student’s name.

But how can I prevent this in the first place you might be wondering?

Great question, my friend! 🙏

In my Writing IEP template guide, I always put the word STUDENT in all caps where the actual student’s name should go.

Then, when I review the document I change out STUDENT for the current student’s name.

If I happen to miss one (cringe), then at least it’s accurate instead of a different person’s name.

Focus on Each Goal Individually

If you’re struggling with a particular goal within the IEP, try using a goal bank broken down into smaller sections. 

This will make it easier to focus on each individual goal and give you more ideas of what types of goals could be included in the IEP. 

You can find goal banks online, on TPT, or ask your school’s special education department for help finding one. 

I also save goals from previous IEPs that were well written. 💻

Also, remember that you can always take your state’s standard and turn it into a goal.

For instance, in my home state of Indiana the Reading: Nonfiction standard is defined as,

“There are three key areas found in the Reading: Nonfiction section for grades K-5: Key Ideas and Textual Support, Structural Elements and Organization, and Synthesis and Connection of Ideas. By demonstrating the skills listed in each section, students should be able to meet the Learning Outcome for Reading: Nonfiction.”

3.RN.2.2 Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

To make 3.RB.2.2 a goal for writing IEPs, I would state: When STUDENT is given a nonfiction text, HE/SHE will determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea with 80% accuracy.

I can use Accelerated Reader scores to document this goal along with in class work and teacher created assessments. ✅

Use Specific and Measurable Language 

When writing goals for an IEP, it’s important to use specific and measurable language. 

This will help ensure that the goals are clear and attainable. 

For example, rather than simply stating that the student will “improve their reading skills,” Try something like “the student will read at a third-grade level by the end of the school year.” 📚

Add real data points and present evidence of these scores at the IEP meeting.

Do your best to collect data from in class work that the general education teacher is presenting.

This method will make it easier on you and show the performance of the student in relation to their peers.

Always keep a portfolio, paper or digital, of all the students’ data. 🗂

This is necessary for goal documentation and in case there is ever litigation in regards to your student.

Keep Writing IEP Simple 

When it comes to writing IEPs, less is more. ❤️

No one wants to read pages and pages of legalese.

They just want to know what services and accommodations the student will be receiving. 

I once sat in on a three hour conference run by a school psychologist I didn’t know well.

She had a 35 page evaluation on the student.

The typical school pysch reports on a student in my school district are about 12-15.

To start the meeting, she told the family that there was a lot of information in the report that we didn’t need to go over so we’d be skipping a lot of pages.

I tried to hide my confusion (if you’ve ever seen my facial expressions, you’d know that is quite challenging for me). 😬

Why is the information in the documentation if it’s not important???

Keep your sentences short and sweet, and get straight to the point. 

Make sure that all of the information included is relevant and not fluff.

Your readers will thank you!

Writing IEP Documents in Record Time

Writing an Individualized Education Program doesn’t have to be daunting.

Getting the wording right can be tricky, though. 🤔

Use these tips to help you prepare to write your next IEP! 

If you keep these suggestions in mind, you’ll be well on your way to success.

If you’re responsible for writing a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP), you know how important it is to get the wording just right. 

After all, an IEP is a legally binding document that spells out the specific educational services and accommodations that a student with disabilities is entitled to receive. 

By following these simple writing IEP tips, you’ll be on your way to writing a 🏆 winning IEP in no time!