While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) allowed IEP teams to use “alternative means of meeting participation, such as video conferences and conference calls” (34 CFR §300.328) prior to COVID-19, the current context means that virtual meetings are a necessity for many IEP teams. Please join Dr. Tessie Bailey (PROGRESS Center Director), Emily Surapaneni (Process Coordinator for Columbia Public Schools in Columbia, MO), and Dr.

By collaborating with her colleagues and carefully planning, Julie Saxe, a special educator from Yarmouth, Maine is able to facilitate her students’ participation in the first-grade spring concert. This is an event that some students might choose to avoid if they did not have the scaffolding in place to feel successful. Listen to Julie Saxe describe how she helps to provide “…the memories and positive experiences that school should be.”

What impact has school closure and disruption to instruction had on student learning? What data can be used to help plan instruction that will meet all student’s needs and support decision-making for system-wide changes? Educators, district leaders and State Education Agencies (SEAs) are asking these question as they prepare to re-open schools after closure due to COVID-19.

PROGRESS Center Director Dr. Tessie Rose Bailey was recently featured in an Education Week article, Virtual IEP Meetings: A 6-Step Guide for Parents and Teachers. In the article she discusses the recently released series of tools developed in collaboration with five other OSEP TA Centers including the Center for Parent Information & Resources, National Center for Systemic Improvement, CADRE, Family Network on Disabilities, and WI FACETS.

This sample Virtual IEP agenda template and English and Spanish infographics are designed to support teams in conducting efficient IEP meetings. Although the resources are designed for a 60-minute meeting, teams can modify the word version to meet the team’s needs, meeting schedule, and teaming structure. The resources include suggested agenda items and times, sample meeting roles (e.g., timekeeper, facilitator), and possible meeting norms. To help facilitate revisions, a word version of the agenda is provided below.

This resource was developed through a collaboration between multiple OSEP funded centers in response to requests from state and local educational agencies and parents about how to hold and participate in virtual individualized education program (IEP) meetings. The resource includes technology tips, tips for hosting virtual meetings, and tips for participating in virtual IEP meetings. Additional infographics are available for participating in virtual meetings in English and Spanish.

In this webinar, Drs. Tessie Rose Bailey and Zach Weingarten from the National Center on Intensive Intervention and the PROGRESS Center, as well as Thom Jones from the Wyoming Department of Education and Justine Essex from Freedom Elementary School in Cheyenne, Wyoming shared how to set ambitious goals for students by selecting a valid, reliable progress monitoring measure, establishing baseline performance, choosing a strategy, and writing a measurable goal.

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This webinar challenges current thinking about how to set appropriately ambitious and measurable behavioral goals in light of the 2017 Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District decision by the United States Supreme Court. Dr. Teri A. Marx from the National Center on Intensive Intervention and the PROGRESS Center, as well as Dr. Faith G. Miller from the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, share how to set ambitious behavioral goals for students by using a valid, reliable progress monitoring measure, and how to write measurable and realistic goals focused on the replacement behavior.