Hi, my name is Allyson Robinson, and I am the speech pathologist at Oklahoma Able Tech. This video is going to give you guidelines and resources for documenting assistive technology, or AT, in the IEP. The video will also provide you a system of checks and balances for your school to determine how well it is documenting AT in the IEP. At this point in the Able Tech video series over the quality indicators for assistive technology, or QIAT, you may already be familiar with what the QIAT is, as we
ll as how to consider and assess whether or not a student requires assistive technology to receive a free and appropriate public education. Please view Able Tech’s YouTube channel for additional videos that may help your teams in these areas. Documenting AT in the IEP is the third quality indicator for the QIAT that schools may focus on to determine if their students are receiving quality AT services. The goals of this video are to help schools understand how and where to document AT in the IEP
as well as determine how well their district is already doing this. Here are some points to keep in mind. The IEP drives the implementation of AT and is the vehicle for guiding the AT assessment team, getting them on the same page regarding decisions about AT devices and services. The IEP should describe the AT equipment and services that the student needs to achieve general education goals and objectives. The first quality indicator we’ll discuss is that the school has guidelines for documentin
g students’ AT needs, devices, and services in the IEP and is provided guidance for effectively documenting as a part of special education, related services, and/or supplementary aids and services. Promising practice would be for schools to have guidelines for documenting AT in the IEP and for all members of the team to be aware of them. Schools may want to ask some questions like: Whether or not the district already has guidelines? If so, how and when are they disseminated? Is there a contact p
erson that can provide support and guidance for schools in addressing the guidelines and their implementation? Do IEP teams know of the guidelines and are they implemented consistently? The second quality indicator is that all services the IEP team determines are needed to support the selection, acquisition, and use of AT devices are written into the IEP. Promising practice would be for required AT devices and services to be documented, and that the documentation consistently includes sufficient
information to support effective implementation. As mentioned previously, there are a few different places where this information may be added: special education, supplementary aids and services, and related services. It is up to the team to decide where to include the AT information into the IEP as each area is equally powerful. There is no right or wrong place to document AT needs. Documentation should make sense to the individuals who must implement the IEP. When AT is included, as special e
ducation on the IEP the team will incorporate it into the annual goals and/or short-term objectives. How AT will contribute to achieving the goals and objectives must be clearly stated. An example may be, Dillon will use a word processing program (software, application, or standalone device) with a spell checker, to complete language arts assignments in the classroom making a C or better on 80% of assignments. That would be on the IEP goals page. AT can be a supplementary aid or service to facil
itate a student’s participation in a general education class or other appropriate education setting. Students with disabilities have the right to an education in the least restrictive environment. Supplementary aids include a variety of assistive devices that compensate for disability and allow the student to perform the required tasks. Remember, AT is necessary as a supplementary aid and service if its use, along with other necessary aids, supports the student sufficiently to succeed in the cur
rent educational placement and in the absence of the aid requires the student’s removal to a more restrictive setting. An example of documenting AT in the IEP as a supplementary aid or service might be, Maggie will make oral presentations and participate in class discussions using an appropriately programmed speech generating device, that would be on the IEP services page. Under IDEA a student must be receiving special education to receive related services, however, under section 504 of the reha
bilitation act of 1973 the student may receive auxiliary services without qualifying for special education. Some examples of auxiliary aids and services include: note taking devices, digital or audio texts, braille calculators, printers, or typewriters, specialized gym equipment, assistive listening devices, voice synthesizers, and interpreters. AT can be documented as a related service as well. IDEA requires that special education and related services be made available to all children and youth
with disabilities. School districts may provide students with disabilities AT devices and services in conjunction with other related services. School districts must provide related services to a student with a disability at no cost to the parent. For information on funding AT in Oklahoma please visit the Able Tech website. For students to be successful with AT devices they need to receive training on the use of the equipment. For example, training to use a computer, an augmentative communicatio
n device, or a large print viewer can occur as a related service, which supports the students educational program. Training on AT devices may be written into the IEP as a related service. An example of documenting AT in the IEP as a related service would be, as part of his speech therapy program, mark will receive instruction and learn to effectively use a speech-generating device during social conversation in the general education classroom environment, this would be on the IEP services page. D
ocumentation should be included with sufficient information for team members to implement the decisions. Important to note, districts should review state and local guidelines for testing. In some states when AT is used for testing on a regular basis throughout the school year and then documented in the IEP, students have been able to use the AT during state testing. This is especially important when the AT, even low tech, enables the student the same access to the testing materials as his or her
peers have. With documentation in the IEP unique accommodations for testing have been made. The third quality indicator focuses on the IEP illustrating a clear relationship between the student’s needs, use of AT devices and services, and the student meeting his or her goals and objectives in the general education curriculum. Promising practice is for AT to be linked to IEP goals and objectives and consistently linked to the general education curriculum. Questions that team members may ask to de
termine how well this is being done include: Would a person reading the IEP be able to determine what AT devices and services were considered and the basis of the decisions that were made? Does the AT discussed in consideration relate to the student’s identified educational needs? Is AT needed to remove barriers to participation in the general education curriculum? Is AT needed to complete educationally relevant tasks? The fourth quality indicator for documenting AT in the IEP focuses on the doc
umentation being written in clear language that describes how AT contributes to the achievement of measurable and observable outcomes. Promising practice is for the IEP to consistently describe observable, measurable, outcomes to be achieved throughout AT use. Questions to consider include: Did the team describe the expected changes in achievement? Have objective ways to measure changes in student achievement related to a goal been clearly described? Have meaningful criteria for success been det
ermined? Does everyone understand the criteria? Important to note, it is trickier to measure through observations, so teams may consider measuring changes in speed, accuracy, spontaneity, duration, and latency to determine increases or decreases in efficiency. The 5th quality indicator is that AT is included in the IEP in a manner that provides a clear and complete description of the devices and services to be provided and is used to address student needs and achieve expected results. Promising
practice is for devices and services to be documented and consistently adequate to support AT use. Being clear and complete with describing AT devices and services will save miscommunications for team members as well as others reading the information like new teams that have received the student as a transfer and transition teams as well. An important question that is often asked is whether or not specific technology should be listed in the IEP or if only features of AT should be included in the
IEP? Describing features only may be valuable when a substitute for a device is needed, when the original technology is broken, not available, etc. Teams may choose to put in the specific name of a device following a description of the device in the following way: keeping with our earlier example of Mark learning to use his speech generating device we could add, Mark has been successfully using an Accent 1000 communication device to accomplish this. After documenting AT in the IEP, teams may ne
ed to ask the following question: would a person reading this IEP be able to determine what AT devices and services were considered and the basis of the decision making processes that were used? Overall, teams should know how to document according to their school or districts guidelines. Incorporated AT devices and services should be individual to the student and linked to educational goals. Documentation should be clear to everyone on the team, and results should be measurable and observable. I
f you would like additional information regarding documenting AT in the IEP you may check out the Part B Oklahoma AT Technical Assistance document, resources page on the QIAT website, and the AT Internet Modules: Module on Documenting AT in the IEP, to name a few resources. We hope that you have found the information in this video to be understandable and applicable, if you need help at any point in the assessment process feel free to contact Oklahoma Able Tech for guidance and support, we look
forward to helping you whenever you need us.
Comments
Excellent
This was excellent. thank you