Transcript Document
IEP Game Patent Pending #9014 © 2005 Brenda Rogers
What is the IEP Game?
• Training system • Middle Level Language • Self-Advocacy Tool – designed to bridge gaps between professional special educators, the family and the legal system • Based on five essential elements of Independent Education Plans: –
Deficits
– – –
Evidence Experts Needs
–
Rights
•
Deficits
– A range of types listed as headlines on each card. Underneath the deficit type headline, different impacts caused by the deficit are listed •
Evidence
–Evidence is observable events and documentary material that tend to prove or disprove a fact. Cards list types of evidence.
•
Experts
–An expert is someone recognized as a reliable source of knowledge about the student. This is a ranking category.
•
Needs
–The needs category represents what the student needs as a result of deficits. Needs can also be thought of as solutions to problems.
•
Rights
–Summarize the law regarding topics covered by Deficit and Needs cards.
Essential Elements of the IEP
• Fixed number of easily understandable categories applicable to differing circumstances • IEP Game Cards are loosely coupled • IEP Game system incorporates parents into IEP meetings as objective participants rather than subjective family members • IEP Game provides school specialists with a jargon free middle ground vocabulary accessible across disciplines
How We Play:
• Small Group Participants • IEP Game Facilitator • Sample Case • IEP Game Cards • Reference Guide • Fill-In Form • Create Parent Concerns Letter
The Research Basis of the IEP Game
IEP Format Contradictions
• Equal Participants and Separate Sectors – Public Institution (School) • Professionals and Experts – Private Institution (Family) • Subjective Relationships • IEP Meeting – Equal
status
decision makers on a committee • Cultural Contradictions – Professional Status – Family as a Sacred Domain
Cultural Contradiction: Professional Status & Family as a Sacred Domain
• School is a public institution – School is a secondary group – School is constructed on rules and procedures • Family is a private institution – Family is a primary group – Family is constructed on relationships, emotional ties, and loyalties • Schools and Families are not equal in status or power
Families and schools
• Have similar concerns for different reasons –
Administrators
performance want adequate yearly –
Teachers
want students to learn –
Parents
want children to have a future –
Parents
want hope –
Parents
want relief at home • Speak different languages – Rules versus Relationships • •
Schools:
Specialist jargon
Family:
Common Sense and Personal Duty
Parent Participation
in IEP meetings
Research Shows Parents:
• Are “Passive Participants” • Do not understand what IEP team members are talking about • Feel: – like they are not experts – Confused by the whole process – Intimidated by professionals – Frustrated because their child is failing and “no one listens” – Angry when they find out….
– Mistrust
In Addition: Social Psychological Barriers to Parent Participation
• Group Conformity • Conformity to Authority • Group Think
Conformity
is the act of maintaining a certain degree of similarity (in clothing, manners, etc.) to those in your general social circles or to those in authority. Usually, conformity implies a tendency to submit to others in thought and behavior other than simply clothing choice.
Group Conformity: The Desire to be Liked vs. The Desire to be Right
• How likely are you to agree with what you know to be wrong to stay in the good graces of the group?
Research Says Very Likely!
Conformity
• How likely are you to conform to authority, even if you disagree?
Research Says Very Likely!
Committee Structure?
• Are teachers and other school specialists in the same boat as parents? Yes. •Janis Research: •Group Think and Objectivity
Conflict in Special Education
• Most conflicts caused by “…provision of ancillary services such as physical, speech, or occupational therapy” created conflicts in special education ( Marian C. Fish. (1990) Family School Conflict: Implications fro the Family. Reading, Writing, and Learning Disabilities, 6: 71-79. ) • Another study cites threats to resources and values as creating conflict. Issues that lead to due process hearings include placement disagreements, services, identification, eligibility, appropriateness, procedural issues, and related services. (Lake, J. and B. Billingsley (2000). "An Analysis of Factors that Contribute to Parent-School Conflict in Special Education." Remedial and Special Education 21(2): 240-251.)
Improving Parent Participation
•
Leveling the language field
– Five easy categories – Interactive training using these categories – Using the categories at home with a real case •
Side stepping social psychology
– Putting the attention on manipulating categories – Providing a method for easily documenting parent concerns at home before the meeting •
Measures of accountability
– Documentation as a record of parent concerns •
Make law a process not a weapon
– Using Deficits, Evidence and Needs with Rights makes the law a process through documentation and case building using a rational-legal method
From Subjective Family Members to Parent Experts
• If professional knowledge is validated by research based assessment tools, then a research based method for incorporating parent concerns into IEP meetings would boost the credibility of parent participation. • Creating an accessible method for parents to write their own reports transforms parent knowledge from subjective anecdotal to objective-rational and provides the vehicle for appropriately positioning family members within the institutional rule based system.
Let’s Play