By Sheila Wolfe IEP Services
THE ABCs OF IEPs
The Difference Between Progress and Meaningful Progress It is important for parents to understand the difference between “progress” and “meaningful progress” when it comes to reports from their child’s school. The Supreme Court has ruled that schools must provide programs calculated to provide “meaningful progress” to students with disabilities. In this article, we will discuss how a parent determines if their child is truly making meaningful progress through the services and supports provided in the IEP.
For an IEP to deliver meaningful progress, it should be written with the intention of closing the gap between a student with a disability and their non-disabled peers. However, each student is unique, and some students will not have the ability, regardless of intervention, to be at “grade level” with their peers. Still, the IEP must deliver services that close that educational gap to whatever extent is possible for each student. The idea of closing the gap can be seen in the graphics below borrowed from “MindChicago” at https/mindchicago.com/ blog/2016/3/18/t0uck235qoqg2nb8et7dhbo4hstuc6
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Chart One
Helping families receive a meaningful education for their children in public schools
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Sheila A. Wolfe Special Education Consultant
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16 Special Needs Living • November 2021
Chart Two
In the first chart, we can see that Dylan has made “progress” in his reading skills during the third grade. However, Dylan’s trajectory (the slope of the line of his progress) is the same as that of his peers. In a progress report under the first scenario, a parent may be told that Dylan made significant progress in reading for
