What`s an IEP?

Question

I`m homeschooled, I was just curious ..What`s an IEP? Is it one of those things for kids whom are failing public school? Where they treat you like you're in the first grade and constantly talk about you behind your back? If so, I think it`s silly because I make straight As and if I can do it, I don`t see why anyone else can`t. Doing bad in school is simply laziness.

Answer 1

Individual Education Plan - This plan is not necessarily for students who are failing school but is used to assist students who have been evaluated and found to have learning difficulties. Plans are tailored to the individual needs of each student and adjusted throughout the year. Students without learning problems find it difficult to understand why someone can't learn, I would ask you to try a quick experiment, then think about your question. Take an index card and hold it to your forehead, use a pencil and lightly print your first and last name on this card BACKWARD, while not looking. Now, think about someone who learns this way every day and for every subject and you can see how difficult it must be.

Wild Bill

Answer 2

An IEP is an Individualized Education Program. They are designed for students who have special needs. You do not have to be failing school to have one. As for talking about these students, the teachers really shouldn't be doing that. The teachers should also be teaching things that are age appropriate, not treating the students like they are in first grade. Kids with IEPs are disabled. This means that they need extra help to get good grades. Some students may be blind, or they may have autism, mental retardation, or learning disabilities. These students aren't lazy. They don't learn the same way that you do nor do they learn the same way that the teacher teaches. That means they have to work 2 to 3 times as hard as you do in order to learn the information that the teacher is teaching.

Answer 3

Rashel,

First of all, IEP's are not for all kids failing school. IDEA is a federal law creating IEPs for people with disabilities to ensure that they receive an education equal to that received by other children. Before this law was created, schools were allowed to kick out anyone who did not learn to their standards, and thousands of children were stuck at home due to being in wheelchairs, and the schools not having ramps, due to being blind and teachers not interpreting, to being deaf and not being able to hear instructions. Children with mental illnesses were warehoused in homes, abused and neglected because no one could teach them. Children were kicked out for having disorders like dyslexia, discalcula, speech and other mild communication disorders. So not only did they have the original handicap, but they were secondarily handicapped by lack of education.

Secondly, I'm really disgusted by your assumptions, ignorance is no excuse for being rude and assuming. Neither is homeschooling, as I have seven homeschoolers who would not post something so inflammatory (and would research for themselves). My two oldest children had IEPs while in school, and I can assure you that they were much harder working than anyone else in that school. They not only had to overcome their disabilities, but they had to overcome all the ignorance and prejudices that people held, very similar to the ones you've spouted about laziness.

And to base ones disability on playing an hour of video games, that's very presumptuous.

Answer 4

If you were socialized and around other people you would have some idea of the people out in the world!  There are many learning disabilities today and it isn't from laziness.  You are a crass, ignorant individual who needs to have an education in appropriate behavior!

Answer 5

If you went to a public school and you weren't home schooled, then you wouldn't be so ignorant! Many students with IEPs have above average intelligence. They just have behavioral problems, motor skill problems, or speech problems. Every child who is failing isn't just given an IEP. There is a child study team that determines if a child really has a learning disability. As a teacher, one of my students with a learning disability is an honor student and the top student in his homeroom. There are children with IEPs on my team who are performing much better academically than students without IEPs.

Answer 6

An IEP (Individualized Learning Plan, or Program......depends on the state)  is a legal document for the purpose of identifying the best ways in which to serve a student who has special learning needs.  These include, but are not limited to, the blind, the mentally challenged, autistic students, & the learning disabled.  Many learning disabled students are doing poorly at, for example, math, but may excel in areas such as reading & written expression.  For example, they may know that the word "bad" is an adjective, not an adverb.  Hence, an LD student who is strong in the area of written expression might say, "He is doing badly in school."

Answer 7

An IEP is for disabled kids who require a modified environment to learn(blind, physically, hearing impaired, emotionally, mentally handicapped). And a learning disability is not the result of poor parenting, that's a very ignorant thing to say. A learning disability is the result of the way someones brain processes information, and can be seen through an MRI. They can learn, they just need to be taught in a different way. Although I agree, a LD is no reason to fail school. I have several Cds and am on the honour roll. The point of an IEP for LD isn't to make work easier, it is to give people who learn different the same opportunity to learn as everyone else. An IEP usually has remediation classes and extra help on it, I know for me, that meant I could only take one elective, rather than 2 like everyone else, so that I could go for extra tutoring. It may also allow for accomodations like having text in extra large print or on coloured paper. Or accomodations such as receiving copies of the teachers notes, rather than copying them by hand, books on tape, ectOr accomodations like being allowed to sit at the front of the class, all of the time, rat her  than being moved around like everyone else. But, usually, people with LD are still required to do the very same work as everyone else. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret: People with LD want noting more than to be normal, we try SO HARD! When I come home, and I usually do about 4 hours of homework (when it takes everyone else 2) and study for 3! Sometimes when kids with LD try so hard, for so many years, they give up. That isn't laziness... it's low self esteem. And I'll tell you another thing; You are homeschooled. therefore your parents automatically teach to your learning style (and not one that has to work for 35 kids) and everything is individualized to YOU. That is way more than an a normal IEP offers. But, when a child has no FUNDAMENTEL DIFERENCE with his or her peers, then you are right it may be laziness. But there are so many reasons someone may be failing school and/or need an IEP. SO please, next time before you judge all based on one or a few people or stories, do some research! Gice people the benefit of the doubt.

Answer 8

Here is a good site that will answer your question

http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.a...

In short, it is and Individualized Education Plan, written by a team, describing a Special Education students program for that particular year.

Answer 9

First of all, how about you take a few lessons in compassion?

How many children could focus better in a small group setting without distractions, with attentive adults who make time for them and are invested in their education, and get to move at their own pace.  My point is, a lot of kids can make straight A's in your situation.  But would you make straight A's in their situation?  

I evaluate children for special needs all the time, and my job is not as simple as you make it.  Before we even agree to evaluate a child, time is spent talking to the parent about study habits, life at home, and the parent's own view of education. An entire team of people will give suggestions to parents and teachers for how to improve the child's learning.

If it's true they are capable, but not working up to snuff, then we don't give IEPs.  We also don't give IEP's for kids with learning problems if they've missed a lot of school (which is usually a parent issue) or there are environmental factors.  

For the record, there are 13 eligibility categories for special education- including Traumatic Brain Injury.

Answer 10

One in 5 people has a learning disability. It has nothing to do with whether they play video games or not instead of doing homework. My 4 year old has an IEP for a verbal learning disorder and he doesn't even have homework.  It has nothing to do with laziness and I don't know why you're even assuming it does.