Suzanne Fitzgerald's Guidelines for Writing Meaningful IEP Goals in Special Education" (Part 1)

Welcome to another episode of The FAST 15 podcast, where we deliver transformative tips and motivation for special educators in just 15 minutes. Sponsored by Specially Designed Education Services, publishers of The Functional Academics Program, this episode features Suzanne Fitzgerald, President and CEO of Specially Designed Education Services and author of the Functional Academics Program.

Key Points:

• Suzanne brings 30 years of diverse experience in special education to the conversation.
• The discussion is split into two parts, focusing on writing meaningful IEP goals in this episode and progressing to the benefits and challenges of progress monitoring in the next.

Guest Introduction:

• Suzanne's journey began as a peer tutor, evolving into a camp counselor for children with disabilities, eventually leading to roles in recreational, residential, and vocational settings.
• Her decision to teach was confirmed during a year as a paraeducator in the Seattle School District. She later earned her teaching certification and master's in special education from the University of Washington.

Four Pillars of Meaningful Goals:

1. Social Connections: Suzanne emphasizes the need to prepare students for active social lives beyond school.
2. Service Opportunities: Advocating for purpose, Suzanne questions the impact of a lifetime where everything is done for a person. She stresses the importance of preparing students for jobs or customized volunteer opportunities.
3. Independence: Suzanne reflects on the significance of independence and autonomy in students' lives, irrespective of ability level.
4. Collaboration: Drawing from her experiences, Suzanne underscores the importance of a support network and collaboration, especially for families with fewer resources.

Goal-Setting Process:

• Suzanne's process involves developing a lesson or activity related to critical aspects of life and formulating a goal based on that. She follows personal teaching guidelines, ensuring goals are functional, meaningful, age-appropriate, and designed to improve students' quality of life.
• The guidelines include asking critical questions such as "Why am I doing this?" and ensuring goals are SMART.

Family Involvement:

• Suzanne collaborates with families to ensure goals align with their perspectives and are reinforced across

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Today for the FAST 15, we're excited to welcome the President and CEO of specially designed education services here to talk about writing meaningful goals with progress monitoring Suzanne Fitzgerald's, author of the Functional Academics Program and a former special education teacher. We had so much to discuss that we decided to break this into two episodes. Today, we'll talk about how and why we should write meaningful IEP goals, and in part two, which will air next week, we will discuss why we should take data to support our IEP goals, including the benefits and the challenges of progress monitoring. So let's enjoy this FAST 15, diving into our conversation with Suzanne. Welcome, suzanne.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here today.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Really happy to have you here, and so I wanted to just talk about your 30 years of experience in special education. Throughout those 30 years, working with children and adults with disabilities in a variety of settings, you have a unique perspective that you bring to special education. Can you tell us a little bit about this?

Speaker 2: 1:10

Absolutely. I actually started out as a peer tutor in my high school special education classroom and at that time, one of my brother's best friend's mom was the director of Seattle Parks and Recreation Specialized Programs. She heard about what I was doing as a peer tutor and asked if I would be interested in becoming a camp counselor over the summer. I jumped at the opportunity and started what would be my actually my first summer of nine as a camp counselor for children with disabilities. At that time, this was the only camp around that was known for accepting any child, regardless of their disability. This meant that we had campers from literally all across the state who had come to us for camp. We had four weeks of day camp and four weeks of overnight camp, so it was a wonderful respite for parents and, in some cases, really the only respite that they got Right. Yeah, at that time I was the youngest camp counselor and the only one who was still in high school, so I was worried. I was way in over my head. However, that opportunity ended up being the most challenging, rewarding and defining experience I have probably ever had. Okay, wow. So hopefully it made me realize that I wanted to work as an advocate for people with disabilities and their families for a living, so I started researching what jobs and degrees are out there for this kind of work. I ended up finding a program at Western Washington University that offered a bachelor's degree in human services. This degree would allow me to work with people with disabilities in a variety of different settings.

Speaker 2: 2:45

While I was getting my degree, I continued to work for Seattle Parks during the summer. During the school year, I worked with adults with disabilities in residential and vocational settings. This continued after I graduated from college, but evolved into working more and more with adults. All of these experiences allowed me to see what was happening as children leave the school system and what wasn't happening, and I worked with so many different people in so many different capacities that I was spread very thin.

Speaker 2: 3:15

I really wanted to find a job that would allow me to make more of a difference. I wanted to get in on another level. I decided I wanted to teach. However, before I went back to school to get my teaching certification, I wanted to make absolutely certain that this is what I wanted to do, so I became a paraeducator for a year in the Seattle School District. That experience confirmed my decision, so I applied to the University of Washington, where I received my teaching certification and my master's in special ed, which has led me to where I am today. Okay, and then I've been lucky enough to spend all of my career serving the disability community, half in recreational, residential and vocational settings and half in education.

Speaker 1: 4:00

What a rich experience that you've had over many years and fun to hear how all those different events led to the next thing. And what is it about your past experiences that really led to you being firm in how you approach writing meaningful goals and good progress monitoring? Can you tell us a little bit about that and why that has come about?

Speaker 2: 4:25

Great question. So getting to work with so many individuals in adult settings and having hours upon hours of conversations with family members and service providers really highlighted what was critical for young adults with disabilities when they exit the school system. These experiences are really what drives the why we need meaningful IEP goals. I'll get to the how we write them next, but first, why I want every IEP goal that I write to be functional and meaningful for the individual child is to ensure that I'm doing my part to help my students live a life that includes social connections, service opportunities.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Yeah, it's so important.

Speaker 2: 5:10

Service opportunities, independence and collaboration OK, yeah, let me break that down a little bit. That sounds good. Connections so much of a person with a disability's social life is dependent on the relationships they have while in school. What happens when they graduate and go their separate ways? Yeah, how do I increase my students' ability to make connections so they have an active social life after school?

Speaker 1: 5:35

Yeah, that's huge. Those are critical questions that I know parents ask. The parents that I'm working with just always wonder what does that connection look like after high school?

Speaker 2: 5:45

Yeah, Keep going. So. Service opportunities, whether work related or volunteer, everyone needs a purpose. This is especially true for people with the most complex disabilities. Right, what happens when absolutely everything is done to and for a person their entire life? What if they are never given the chance to experience what it's like to do something for another person? How can I, as a teacher, ensure that my students are contributing members of their community after graduation? How do I prepare my students for a job? Or how can I customize employment or volunteer opportunities for my students with more unique needs, giving back to their communities that they're in, exactly, and having the opportunity to serve and have a purpose and do it on their own Exactly, or as much as possible.

Speaker 2: 6:35

It can look different for every child. Independence, so I think about that. The actual meaning of independence is the state of wanting or being able to do things for yourself and make your own decisions, without help or influence from other people. Okay, yeah, what would life be like without independence? So, constantly I thinking about how am I making sure that my students, regardless of ability level, are being encouraged to be as independent as possible in every way possible?

Speaker 1: 7:05

Okay, yeah, and I think having the autonomy to do those things and everybody wants to make their own decisions, exactly their own agency yes, absolutely Love that. What else?

Speaker 2: 7:17

And then, finally, collaboration. Okay, so the people that I worked with, who attended our recreational outings, or who lived in an apartment and received support from me, or who I coached at a job, all had one major thing in common A huge network of support and families who had resources and knew how to advocate for their young adult. Okay, what happens with adults with disabilities whose families don't have the capacity to advocate or weren't provided the same opportunities or given the same resources as those who I worked with? How do I, again, as a teacher, build relationships with families so we can work together to support their child? How can I help educate families about resources that are available once their child graduates? That's huge, yeah. And how do I help my families manage the here and now but also prepare them for the changes that are coming down the road and having it?

Speaker 1: 8:15

just you having a vision for those things. Yes, yes. And answering those questions Just a really powerful component to your teaching experience.

Speaker 2: 8:24

Yes, it's there's, it's so holistic, yeah, and to make sure I'm maximizing my students education so that they can live a fulfilled life. That's always the foundation of why we need functional and meaningful goals. Really, armed with these experiences and questions, I felt I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the why. Okay, I should write meaningful IEP goals. So next, when I first started teaching was figuring out how do I do that Exactly?

Speaker 2: 8:51

Yeah, when I think about my journey as a teacher would start by coming up with a lesson or an activity related to one of these critical aspects of life, and then from there I would write a goal based from that activity. So it'd be a goal that increases my students' ability to make connections, or a goal that teaches my students valuable vocational skills, a goal that enhances or teaches independence. Then I would make sure that goal passed my personal teaching guidelines. So those teachers out there who have been in one of my trainings or if you've sat through one of my demos, you've heard me talk about the guidelines that the Functional Academics Program was based on. Those are the guidelines that I used as a teacher in my own classroom, not just for my IEP goals, but really I tried to live by those guidelines for everything I was doing in my classroom, gotcha.

Speaker 1: 9:48

And I think, like when you looked at every student or every situation where you want to take the student to or see them progress toward whatever that goal is.

Speaker 2: 9:57

just having that filter in your mind all the time, that mental checklist or a physical checklist, I love that, and one of the first and most simple questions that I would ask myself is why am I doing this? Good question, but then if I can't answer that, there's a problem. But often I can say why I'm doing it, but then I need to go further, because it's not just about me, okay, and I love that about you.

Speaker 1: 10:21

That's how you come across to me. All the time is, it's not about me and what I'm doing. It's about other people and in this instance, when you're talking about your students, it's about them. What's meaningful to their life, what is going to be functional for them? 100%.

Speaker 2: 10:37

But besides the obvious, when talking about IEP goals, asking myself is this a smart goal? Is the goal specific, measurable, attainable results oriented and time bound? I would ask myself the following Is this goal functional and meaningful for the individual child? What's functional for one kid may look totally different for another. Is this something that the student will encounter on a regular basis so they can practice it and generalize it beyond just the classroom and school walls? What's the point if you can't Exactly? Is this skill age appropriate? As Barb being a secondary teacher, it can be so difficult at times for us to find content that reaches our students at their ability level, that isn't childish or babyish. But there is stuff out there and it's so important that we are focusing on age appropriate content with our secondary level students.

Speaker 1: 11:27

They deserve that, as that gap widens from skill level to age appropriate content. Finding that is really important. It has a lot to do with their self-awareness, just how they see themselves. They're not kids anymore, Exactly yes. So as they're becoming young adults have things that are matching or mirroring where they're at developmentally or with age appropriate connections.

Speaker 2: 11:54

Yes, and you said the word connections. That's what's going to help them relate to their peers and make those important connections, both socially and vocationally, and everything else. The next guideline is how will this goal increase my students' quality of life? And is there a way for me to evaluate and adjust my programming to make sure my student is making progress toward their goal? And then, after I go through my little checklist of guidelines, if the goal meets all of that criteria, then the most important question I ask myself, or make sure to confirm, is does the family agree that this is something we should spend our time on at school, something that we can all get behind? So we're reinforcing it as much as possible and in every environment, because when we all work together, that's when we really start to see progress. So powerful? Yeah, absolutely so, and if so, then I feel pretty good and pretty confident that I have written a meaningful IEP goal.

Speaker 1: 12:57

So good to hear you say all of that process that you go through and I have to tell you that you are really in 30 years of teaching. You're the only teacher friend that I have that has been able to articulate in that way your filter, your guidelines that you go through when you're writing goals. I think it's such a great message for any special education teacher listening just to encourage you that yes, it is possible to follow that kind of guideline to know that you're writing meaningful, functional goals for your students.

Speaker 2: 13:30

Maybe sounds a little bit much or a little overwhelming, but once you get trained or in the routine of kind of going through what is my purpose and what, why? What is it that my students need and how do I support them? And are we all on the same page, all of this stuff becomes just natural and it becomes so much easier to go through that checklist quickly. So it's not something that you have to sit there and spend hours upon hours pondering. It's a pretty quick process. Just look at your checkpoints. Does it meet those criteria? If so, great. This is something we should focus our time and energy on. Wonderful, love it.

Speaker 1: 14:06

And I hope you loved hearing from Suzanne today on our Fast 15. That's it for now, but real quick. Suzanne reminds us that IEP goals should be functional and relevant to the individual child, focusing on social connections, service opportunities, independence and collaboration. Our hope is that you are encouraged and that the goals that you write, following this format, will help your students live a fulfilled life and transition successfully into adulthood. Don't forget to subscribe to the Fast 15 and check back into your podcast platform for part two of Writing Meaningful Goals, where we will pick up the conversation and here Suzanne discuss the critically important aspect of writing goals progress monitoring.

Speaker 3: 14:53

A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors. Specially designed education services. Publishers of the Functional Academics Program, please take a moment to learn more about the only true, comprehensive Functional Academics Program that enables students with moderate to severe disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth both academically and personally, while creating accountability with data-driven, evidence-based results. Visit wwwsdesworkscom to learn more.