Individualized Education Program Interview Themes: Albenesius 1

Individualized Education Program Interview Themes

Teague Albenesius

Gallaudet University
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Individualized Education Program Interview Themes

This paper will consist of a reflection of three interviews I conducted with a parent, a

student, and a teacher who have experienced the Individualized Education Program (IEP)

meeting process. I will identify connections between the interviews and themes that have been

consistent throughout. I will also discuss the implications of these interviews on my future

teaching and how I will interact with my students and their families.

Background Information

My interview with a parent who has experienced the IEP process is a mother who I will

call Jacqueline in this paper. Jacqueline has a son who is fifteen years old with Down Syndrome.

He is in eighth grade for the second time and is currently very involved in his school program

and in afterschool extracurriculars. Jacqueline is very involved with her sons education.

My interview with a student involves a current student at Gallaudet University who I will

call Annabel for the remainder of this paper. She is deaf and communicates best through

lipreading and through amplification. Annabel has had an IEP since she was in kindergarten.

My interview with a teacher is my current cooperating teacher for my practicum

experience at Maryland School for the Deaf. She is currently teaching 3rd through 5th grade and

has been teaching for the last ten years. I will refer to her as Kaitlyn for the remainder of this

paper.

Communication

The first theme that I noted throughout my interviews was the importance of

communication between parents, teachers, and administration. Annabel stated that the best

teacher she had in school was her first-grade teacher. This teacher regularly emailed her mother

and kept her mother informed about her behavior, improvement, and all relevant classroom
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happenings. Similarly, the communication allowed for her mother to be incredibly involved in

her daughters education and her daughters IEP. Annabel had consulted her mother about the

questions before the interview and her mother even noted that the teacher worked collaboratively

with the speech teacher on goals to be sure that Annabel reached her goals. Later in the

interview, Annabel gave me the advice that I should communicate with my students about their

needs in the classroom and keep those in mind when I plan for the students in my classroom.

Kaitlyn emphasized communicating with parents often about their children. This communication

could be about the students needs, strengths, behavior, or anything that could support the

parents at home with their children or the teacher at school. She also stressed the importance of

communicating with the IEP team before the meeting so that conflicts and issues can be resolved

before the meeting. Kaitlyn said that the communication should also continue after the IEP

meeting to be sure that all teachers who work with the student are aware of the students goals so

that they can support the student meeting those goals and the student receives the supports they

need in other classrooms as well.

Based on this information, I should always try to make communication a priority with my

students, their parents, and other staff. Strong and friendly communication with parents can make

them feel at ease and build relationships that set the student up for success (Theoharis &

Fitzpatick, 2011). Parent involvement and strong communication can also lead to higher

expectations for students and better student outcomes overall (Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Javitz,

& Valdes, 2012).

Teacher Qualifications

Both Jacqueline and Annabel mentioned how teacher qualification affected their services

and placements. Jacqueline explained that her child needs speech services, but that her school
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does not provide the services with a qualified teacher so she chose to not waste her childs time.

Annabel said that her teachers did not know how to work with her, elaborating that many of her

teachers would exaggerate words or turn their backs to her while they were talking. Some

teachers would not facilitate discussion within the classroom, which would lead Annabel to miss

out on a lot of classroom discussion. She also mentioned how her first classroom placement had

her best and most qualified teachers who spoke clearly and always made sure that Annabel could

see their lips.

Both Annabel and Jacqueline outlined how a lack of knowledge lead to poor interactions

with the student. The most valuable thing that a teacher can do is be informed about the needs of

the student and how to best support them. As a teacher, I will do what the teachers of Annabel

did not; I will follow a students IEP supports and accommodations, but more importantly I will

also ask my students how I can best support them in the classroom because they can provide

great insight about what their own need are. While Jacqueline claimed the importance of support

staff being qualified, I as a teacher can advocate for my student if another faculty is not qualified

because No Child Left Behind requires that teachers be highly qualified. While my degree of a

Masters in Deaf Education and Elementary Education will make sure that I am highly qualified

by definition, I should also strive to be involved in professional development opportunities

relating to supporting my students with disabilities. For example, deBettencourt states that many

preservice teachers only grasp the provisions of IDEA and cannot apply the concepts of Section

504, so a resourceful first step as a teacher would be to seek out more information in areas that

other preservice teachers and new teachers tend to struggle with (deBettencourt, 2002).

Appropriate Placements and Accommodations

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Appropriate placements and accommodations were also stressed in all the interviews.

Annabel reflected on her educational experience and believes that a placement within a signing

environment would have benefited her long-term. Jacqueline believes that her son needs a

middle ground between fast-paced academic coursework and classes that focus on life-skills.

Jacqueline also thinks that her childs strengths are not considered when placing her child. She

believes that within the current school, however, that her child is placed as appropriately as the

school will allow because he does have elective courses like art and PE that have a peer

mentoring system established with general education peers. She thinks that the IEP system fails

her child because appropriate placements are not to the standard that she thinks is appropriate.

Kaitlyn mentioned to me that as a teacher it will be important to be aware of resources for

accommodations and testing when I become a teacher.

I think the greatest takeaway I can get from this portion is to consider the student when

determine the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). The Least Restrictive Environment is a term

that seems to be debated among various groups because of the word restrictive. In reference to

Deaf students, the LRE would the environment with the most language, opportunities for direct

instruction, and resources (Holmes, 2016). However, the federal government encourages that a

student should be placed in general education courses if possible (Rozalski, Stewart, & Miller,

2010). These conflicting disagreements tend to cause disagreements about where Deaf students

should be placed, and that is something that I will need to consider as a future teacher for the

Deaf. I will be working at a school for the Deaf, meaning that I will have resources, mentors, and

support around me to best accommodate my students. However, I will need to actively take

advantage of these resources so that I can implement them in my classroom and best support my

students.
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Lack of Self-Determination and Transitioning

Another theme that was consistent in both the parent and student interview was the lack

of self-advocacy, self-determination, and transitioning for both students. Annabel says that she

lacked self-advocacy skills and still has not learned how to advocate for herself. In high school,

she does not remember any efforts made to transition her to an occupation or college which

caused her to struggle in college. I also found it fascinating that her areas for improvement are

things that she cannot change, like her hearing level and listening skills. Looking back, Annabel

wishes that she developed more of these skills and other skills related to self-care, like how to

replace batteries for her hearing aid. Jacqueline explained that there is a person who is designated

to oversee her sons transition, but she has done very little in her opinion. She wishes that her son

received more instruction for self-advocacy, considering he does not know that he has a

disability.

As a future teacher, I need to be sure that my students are advocated for and receive

information about advocating for themselves. Students who are taught more self-determination

skills are more likely to take an active role in their IEP meeting and put their knowledge to work

(Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Javitz, & Valdes, 2012) (Van Laarhoven-Myers, Van Laarhoven,

Smith, Johnson, and Olson, 2016). As a teacher, I can work with the parents to be sure that

students understand their disability when the time is appropriate and that the students can learn to

advocate for themselves and learn self-care.

Disability Varies

The last theme I noticed between the parent and student interview is that both Jacqueline

and Annabel voiced that the son and Annabel respectively do not represent all people with that

specific disability. Jacqueline mentioned that she knows what supports are best for her son and
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that she can make recommendations based on him, but those recommendations would not work

for all students with Down Syndrome. Annabel shared this sentiment, stating that her success in

an oral program would not work with all students who have her hearing level.

Jacqueline mentioned that there are no cookie-cutter accommodations and Kaitlyn

mirrored this response by saying that when she considers modifications for her students in her

lesson plans, she figures out what her students need based on observation and not just what the

textbook states about the students disability. Kaitlyn further elaborated that differentiated

instruction is incredibly important for a classroom with disability because each student will have

different needs and I will need to match our students based on those needs.

I can apply this to my future teaching by not placing my students based solely on their

disabilities. Students are individuals, meaning that a placement for one student will not work

automatically for another student with the same disability. As a teacher, it is crucial that I

communicate with the students and parents about appropriate accommodations and consider my

students as individuals and not stereotype them by their disabilities.

Overall Implications

This paper and these interviews have taught me that there are many things to consider as

a teacher. As a teacher, I will work to communicate with parents and staff, strive for personal

development and qualifications, strive for appropriate accommodations and placements for my

students, advocate for my students own advocacy skills and development, and consider my

students as individuals and seek out their needs and how I can accommodate them within my

classroom.
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References

deBettencourt, L. U. (2002). Understanding the difference between IDEA and section 504.

TEACHING Exceptional Children, 34(3), 16-23. Retrieved from

https://gallaudet.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1959182-dt-content-rid-

4218267_2/courses/Fall2017-EDU735-HY01/IDEA504.pdf

Holmes, T. (2016). Deaf education: Current issues & trends and technology, part I and part II

[Powerpoint]. Retrieved from

https://gallaudet.blackboard.com/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course

_id=_138209_1&content_id=_1835701_1&mode=reset.

Rozalski, M., Stewart, A., & Miller, J. (2010). How to determine the least restrictive

environment for students with disabilities, Exceptionality, 18(3), 151-163.

Theoharis, R., & Fitzpatick, M. (2011). Maxs family experience: Web-resources for

working with special education students and their families. Critical Questions in

Education.2(1). Retrieved from

https://academyedstudies.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/theoharisfitzpatrickfinal.pdf

Van Laarhoven-Myers, T.E., Van Laarhoven, T.R., Smith, T.J., Johnson, H., and Olson, J.

(2016). Promoting Self-Determination and transition planning using technology: Student

and parent perspectives. Career Development and Transition for Exceptional

Individuals. 39(2). Retrieved from https://gallaudet.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-

1962236-dt-content-rid-4224513_2/courses/Fall2017-EDU735-HY01/transition1.pdf.

Wagner, M., Newman, L., Cameto, R., Javitz, H., & Valdes, K. (2012). A national picture of

parent and youth participation in IEP and transition planning meetings. Journal of
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Disability Policy Studies. 23(3). Retrieved from

https://gallaudet.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1960673-dt-content-rid-

4222159_2/courses/Fall2017-EDU735-HY01/Transitioniep.pdf