A Teacher’s role within the IEP Process- A guide for New Teachers

Students with special needs look like any other students in our classrooms! You cannot tell a student
has special needs just by looking at them. What qualifies these students as having special needs is that
they may need different or more supports than
others in the classroom based on
doctor/specialist assessments. Some examples of
special needs could include students with
hearing and vision challenges, students with a
chronic illness (diabetes, cancer etc…), students
with autism, and students with intensive behaviour challenges among other needs. Students with these
needs have been identified as being low incidence according to the BC ministry of education. You can find
more information about these and other categories here.

For most of our students with special needs, IEP’s are created to help students achieve specific academic
and social goals while in school.

An important question you may be asking yourself is, “How do our students end up with an IEP? What
does the process look like? What is my role as the teacher?”

For a student to receive an IEP, the classroom teacher’s observations and evidence pieces are
incredibly important. In many cases, the teacher is the catalyst for IEP creation for students. If a
teacher believes that their student may benefit from additional assistance from an educational assistant
or other supports while at school, the teacher needs to initiate conversations with both the parents as
well as the school’s SBT (school based team). From here, a team of professionals will collaborate to best
support the student, and an IEP may be created as a result.

When a teacher notices that a student may be challenged or adversely, not challenged
with curriculum (gifted), they should begin documenting what they are observing; noting
the date, the learning intentions, and the student’s actual performance with the task. It is
recommended that the teacher gather work samples and other evidence pieces to take to
the initial SBT meeting, as this will help all of the collaborating professionals have a better
understanding of the students potential need(s) and current abilities.

Before the student is brought forth to SBT, it is important that the teacher communicate with the
parents. Teachers need to let parents know that their child will be discussed at their school support
meeting in the spirit of finding additional supports for their child while at school. When, and if an IEP is
recommended by the LST (Learning support teacher) and other SBT members, the parent should be
encouraged to continue to stay involved.

In your role as classroom teacher, it is important that you maintain positive,

respectful and caring communication with parents regarding their child!
Respectful relationships lead to successful collaboration!
After the initial meeting with the SBT, often the teacher will
implement suggested adaptations and strategies to help
support the student for a specific amount of time. If the
student sees success with these, an IEP is usually not created;
the teacher would continue with these successful strategies
and document in the student’s file. If the strategies were not
successful, the teacher takes back any evidence for this (work
samples, documentation of different strategies tried etc.) and
the SBT creates the next steps. Sometimes new strategies are
suggested, and the classroom teacher tries again, and other
times, suggestion for further testing from other professionals
(pediatrician, psychologist etc.) may be recommended to the parent for further examination. The order
of events is different for each student and their specific circumstances. Other assessments may be
executed by qualified teaching and school district staff to obtain a better understanding of the student’s
abilities and needs. The results of these evaluations would be shared with the teacher and parent and
are used in the creation of the student IEP goals.

What is an IEP?

IEP’s (Individual learning plans) are created for students with special needs to
outline specific and attainable goals for students to strive towards at school. Part
of the teacher’s role in the designing and creation of the students IEP is to bring
forth strategies that would benefit their learner in seeing academic/social success.

Some of the following strategies are included in IEP’s as well as used and supported in classrooms to help
students become successful in their educational journey:

-use of larger text print for those with visual challenges - physical proximity of student to teacher/front

- additional nutrition breaks and brain breaks - tasks broken down into smaller steps

- use of different visual aids to accompany instruction -oral instructions, not just printed

- use of kinesthetic learning (hands on) opportunities - small group work/one on one with support staff

-experiential learning opportunities - specific, timely praise for a job well done

- adapted and/or modified assessments (shorter in length, more time given, etc.)

Students with special needs should learn alongside their peers. Although students may have different
educational goals (via adaptations or modifications depending on individual learning plans), students will
still thrive within the same classroom environment as their peers. It is your responsibility as the
classroom teacher to create and maintain an inclusive classroom environment! Inclusion assumes that
children with special needs are part of the regular stream and should be treated as such. (Western
University, 2019). Students with special needs should be viewed in the ways in which they are the same
as other people rather than in the ways in which they are different.

In our classrooms we focus on what students can do, not what they cannot!

Teachers, support staff and parents all have very important roles to support our students with special
needs! The student is most successful when these three roles work together as a…

It is the classroom teacher’s responsibility to ensure that the student’s IEP is being followed as
designed, and it is the support staff’s (EA, TA) role to follow the recommendations on the IEP and
guidance of the teacher.

IEP’s are usually revisited in the spring with the Classroom teacher, LST and other SBT members. Goals
are revisited and re evaluated based on student performance and success.

Parents are the experts on their children and should be included in all dialogue when it comes to creating
and modifying the learning plan for the students. Parents can further support the work being done at
school by following some of the same strategies identified in the students IEP also in the home. As the
classroom teacher, it is your responsibility to communicate these suggestions! Consistency is helpful for
most students!
When classroom teachers, other learning professionals, and parents/family of
our students with special needs all work together, we help set our students up
for success!

Resources:

“Teaching student with learning and behavioural differences”,

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-
12/teach/teaching-tools/inclusive/learning-behavioural-differences.pdf, BC
Ministry of Education.

“Understanding inclusive education”,

https://www.inclusiveeducationresearch.ca/about/inclusion.html, Western
University.

“ Inclusive education and it’s benefits”, https://nbacl.nb.ca/module-pages/inclusive-education-and-its-

benefits/, New Brunswick association for community living.