My Child Has An IEP, But Still Cannot Read. What Should I Do?

First, we consider why the child is struggling with reading, whether he has a reading disability like dyslexia that requires a certain program to remediate it, whether he has a vision disorder that is impeding reading, and/or whether he has a memory or language issue that is impeding reading, etc. Some students have a combination of issues that makes remediation more complicated, while others may only have one issue which allows for a more straightforward remediation process.

To determine what the student is struggling with, we like to go back and look at the initial assessment and IEP evaluation that resulted in the IEP. We look to see if the child was evaluated for a reading disability. We look for testing on things like reading fluency, comprehension, pseudo-word reading, phonics, vision processing, memory, attention etc. Some initial evaluations may not include all the information we need to determine why a child is not reading as expected and, in this situation, we create a list identifying missing or desired areas of testing that we plan to request from the district.

Second, we look at any additional evaluations, including triennial evaluations, to see what type of any progress has been made in the areas of concern we found in the initial evaluation. We also look at progress reports as well as any reports the parents received over the years as to the student’s reading levels from the general education teacher and the reading teacher. We gather all the data the parent can find and start to chart or organize the student’s reading progress over the years since the first IEP.

Third, we look at the IEP goals to see what sort of reading goals the student has been presented with, whether the student has met the goals over the years, whether the goals were repeated from year to year, whether they were appropriately ambitious, and whether the was a goal for each component of reading. Oftentimes, the reading goals may only be comprehension goals but the student has difficulty with phonological processing (putting sounds together) or reading fluency (speed) so the goals were seemingly inappropriate and were not specific enough to the child’s needs to ensure progress. In such cases, we start to understand why the student is not making progress in reading and identify goals for the missing areas or components of reading.

For instance, we had a fourth grade student who had been on an IEP since first grade. The parents were told the student had been making great progress and even exceeded his IEP goals during conferences or in progress reporting. We, however, discovered that the student’s current reading level was the same reading level he had 12 months earlier. It was shocking to the parent that he could meet his reading goal, or that she was told as much, but in reality he did not advance in reading over the course of the IEP. We looked at the reading goals and saw that they were all grade-level comprehension goals, but later, upon questioning at the IEP meeting, we learned the teachers were judging the progress on the goals based on the student’s comprehension at his current reading level (and not grade level). So, the student was not actually meeting his reading goals.

With the knowledge that the student was at the same reading level from a year earlier and about the student’s phonological processing and fluency difficulties from the district's prior testing, the team agreed to create goals that were very specific to this student’s areas of weaknesses in reading. It is important to let the IEP team understand the parent’s belief, as expressed in a friendly manner, that the failure to have goals in each component of reading was likely the reason the student did not make appropriate reading progress.

Moreover, given the lack of any reading progress over a year, there was ample basis to request a different reading program from the IEP team, one that was Orton-Gillingham-based, and one that would be provided to the student on a one-to-one basis, starting with step 1 of the program and continuing with it in a step by step fashion, for a minimum number minutes a week as supported by the research supporting the program's use. The parent would also want to ensure the new program would be offered by a properly trained teacher in that program and that the program would be administered in accordance (in terms of minutes per week and sessions per week) with the research that determined the program would work. In addition, the parent would want to know when the program requires mastery checks and to request copies of all such mastery assessments to ensure the program is being administered properly, in the explicit and systematic way it was designed. To be sure, if the research indicates a program works only if provided 2 times a week at 50 minutes per session and, if the school offers less than that, the program as offered would no longer be supported by research. The parent might ask the school to explain its basis for modifying the program and changing it away from the research-based method.

The key here is the parent has to become an expert in figuring out what area(s) of reading is difficult for the child (research, research and research) and then how to remediate the problem. Not only must the parent research the programs that are appropriate but also how the program must be implemented by going to that program's website or emailing them and finding out how the program must be given to remediate a reading disability.