Increasing Student Participation in IEP Meetings: Establishing the Self-Directed IEP as an Evidenced-Based Practice

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of the Self-Directed IEP to teach individualized education program (IEP) meeting skills. One hundred and thirty secondary students were randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Observations of 130 meetings and 764 IEP team members were performed using 10-s momentary time sampling to determine the percentage of intervals team members talked and the percentage of time they discussed transition. Special education teachers completed a pre/post ChoiceMaker self-determination student skill and opportunity assessment, and meeting participants answered postmeeting surveys. The Self-Directed IEP had a strong effect on increasing the percentage of time students talked, started, and led the meetings. This was verified by survey results. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating the effectiveness of the Self-Directed IEP.

Self-Determination and Choice

“…Students learn 11 steps for leading their own planning meeting, including stating the purpose of the meeting, introducing meeting attendees, reviewing their past goals and progress, stating new transition goals, summarizing goals, and closing the meeting by thanking attendees. Martin et al ( 2006 ) conducted a randomized trial control group study of the SDIEP and determined that students who received instruction using the SDIEP, including students with learning disabilities and students with emotional and behavioral disorder, (a) attended more IEP meetings; (b) increased their active participation in the meetings; (c) showed more leadership behaviors in the meetings; (d) expressed their interests, skills, and support needs across educational domains; (e) and remembered their IEP goals after the meeting at greater rates than did students in the control group, who received no such instruction. Seong, Wehmeyer, Palmer, and Little ( 2015 ) conducted a randomized-trial placebo control group study of the SDIEP, fi nding that instruction using the process resulted in enhanced self-determination and transition knowledge.…”

The Effect of Transition Planning Participation and Goal-Setting on College Enrollment Among Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Research suggests that students are increasingly attending IEP and transition planning meetings (Test et al, 2004), but they participate relatively little without direct instruction regarding the purposes and procedures of those meetings (Griffin, Taylor, Urbano, & Hodapp, 2014;Martin et al, 2006;Mason, McGahee-Kovac, Johnson, & Stillerman, 2002;Wehmeyer, Palmer, Soukup, Garner, & Lawrence, 2007). Nonetheless, reviews of research on transitionrelated best practices are united in asserting that student involvement is an important element of effective transition plans and programs (Greene, 2003;Hendricks & Wehman, 2009;Kohler, 1993;Landmark, Ju, & Zhang, 2010).…”

An exploration from a life course perspective of the transition from school for autistic young people ​​​​​​​

“…Through talking with a range of people, including parents and caregivers, teachers, health professionals and young autistic people, as well as through my own observations, I found that autistic young people were rarely included in their transition planning at school. This is consistent with research by Martin et al (2006), which found that 76% of students were not prepared to discuss transition goals for their IEP meetings and 59% had not been involved in setting goals related to the transition from school.…”

“…Technology, for example using PowerPoint or computer-generated speech, has been found to be one way to enable autistic young people to engage in post-school transition meetings (Lee et al, 2011;Van Laarhoven-Myers, Van Laarhoven, Smith, Johnson & Olson, 2016). More direct teaching has also been proposed for autistic young people to learn about how to participate in transition meetings, for example teaching students leadership skills using Self-Directed IEP lessons (Martin et al, 2006). Consistent with other research, I suggest that involving autistic young people in transition planning can increase their motivation to transition into meaningful adult roles (Bohanon, Castillo & Afton, 2015;Woods, Sylvester & Martin, 2010).…”